by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
If the brilliance of prose can be judged on the effect it has, then a number of sentences I’ve written lately are of Pulitzer quality. They certainly made a significant impact on me.
Here are three of them from the past few months:
- “Relax, Jim. You can play that game on your phone for a few more minutes before you start writing.”
- “Hey Jim, just watch that highlight reel of the Seahawks one more time. They’re killing it this season and you need to be able to talk intelligently to friends about the team.”
- “You don’t have to write right now. Start tomorrow morning. You’ll be fresh and the words will flow much easier. Besides the sun is out and your dirt bike is screaming your name!”
I’m guessing more than a few of you have written prose even more compelling. Prose that has inspired you to put off your writing once again.
Does it help to know you’re not alone? It helps me. To confess I procrastinate and know others are saying, “Me too,” helps me feel better. A little. But that feeling quickly fades and I’m left with regret.
Slaying Procrastination
To get a strangle hold around the throat of procrastination I think we have to go deeper and ask why we put off our writing. What’s the core reason those excuses resonate with such truth that we often embrace them and put off getting to—what for many of us—is our deepest purpose?
For me it’s fear.
- Fear it won’t be good enough.
- Fear it won’t be as good as last time.
- Fear that the bottom of the well has turned to dust.
Acknowledging that fear is real, and has real power is the first step.
The second?
Realize the truth that action combats fear. Confidence (positive emotion toward our writing) usually comes after action, not before. In other words, start. Even if we don’t feel like it, we must begin.
Step three. Do it again the next day, and the next, and the next.
Stop reading this. Start writing. Who knows? We might write a few words that change a life.
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything?
Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy.
Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt.
As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal.
But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light.
Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy Hall of Fame, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves sending readers on mind-bending journeys they’ll remember months after they finish his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audio book narrator, and owner with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in eastern Washington.