KICKN’ IT . . . The writing habit

The writing habit, the addiction — the overwhelming desire to put words on paper . . . Do we kick it? The habit? That part of us that cries out to be heard. I think not! Some of us have it too badly. A professional editor or publisher must step in to intervene, at the very least a good critique partner or group can help talk us off the ledge from time to time.

It starts innocently enough. A thought, an essay, a poem and before you know it — Bam! You’re hooked. A blog, a novel, you are writing and you can’t stop. You have stopped interacting with coworkers, friends and family and started making excuses to stay at home to write. Your personal relationships have begun to suffer for the sake of the craft.

You read everything you can get your hands on about writing and when you do talk to other people . . . that is all you talk about — writing or what you want to write. Even the movies you watch are about some lonely quirky writer or killer writer. Yeah you’re hooked all right, you got it bad. And, you don’t even care! (Sigh)

So, now that we have identified the culprit — the writing bug (a self-inflicted monkey on our back as it were) how does one go about managing such a condition? Write. Write with free abandonment. Write until you fall over. Write until you get it right. Write until it feels good. Just write. Let the words flow and dance and then wrestle them onto the page if necessary. Do it every day, write something, anything and refuse to give up. Write it right — one beautiful word at a time.

Keep on doing the write thing children,

Guyanne