“I feel like I don’t have grounding in my work as a writer,” one of my writing coach clients said.
I hear a variation on that theme fairly often. An excuse about why little to no writing has gotten done that week usually follows.
I understand the problem. Most of the time we’re working solo on projects that haven’t sold yet. Even when writing a book that we know we may wind up self-publishing some day, the fact that we aren’t getting paid for the time we’re putting in somehow diminishes its importance. Suddenly scheduling the plumber—and even watching him work—takes precedence over the job of writing.
I needed to find a way to make the writing feel more like a job than just a few expendable hours.
“When are you going to reach out to people in your field about the ideas you’re wrestling with in the book?” I asked.
I’d suggested this to my client before. The answer had always been that she wasn’t ready. This time, however, she realized that she was never going to feel ready. So she came up with a strategy to trick herself. She would tell the big thinkers in the field that in addition to writing a book, she is building a website (truth), starting a blog (truth), and that she wants to interview the people she most admires for blog posts (truth).
Who could say no after that kind of build up?
So she’s drawing up a list of prospective targets as we speak. By next week she’ll start making calls. Once she starts brainstorming with others in her field and then writing as fast as she can to capture the resulting ideas, the only problem will be making sure she doesn’t ignore the more mundane aspects of her life. Because let’s face it. The plumber might be boring, but he is essential.
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