It’s Sweating with Sven time again!

I’m dealing with revisions on one book right now and soon to be headed into CEs and Galleys on others. But at the same time I’m about to jump into a first draft – writing something new – something fresh and shiny and gloriously fun. Something I need to write within the next 45 days, more or less. So this challenge has perfect timing for me, because when it’s done, I move right into two new proposals that are due right before and right after the holidays.

So here’s what I’ve been thinking about the past few days as I was deciding what to write up for today’s post. There’s very little you can control in this business – very little. The only thing you’ve got is your writing – and really, by that, I mean the first draft. After that, it becomes a combination of you and your editor and possibly your agent working together to mold the draft into something the world will see. You have some control over that process, but by then it’s more like a collaboration of sorts. And yes, I’ve seen revisions turn a book into something awesome – I agree with people who’ve said that that’s the real writing – the real digging in deep. That’s when you mine the gold and throw out the stuff that seemed so wonderful in the first draft.

But there’s always magic in that first draft. Always.

So yes, really, when it comes down to it, all you’ve really got control over is your first draft. So you need to love it – have fun with it – don’t hold anything at all back. That’s the raw clay you’re going to use later on, when other hands get involved to help you shape it. They will have good ideas, but that kind of advice will only be helpful if you’ve got good material to begin with.

So what can hold you back from digging into that first draft – what manifests itself in so many different ways, like procrastination and excuses? It’s called Resistance, and I’ve talked about it before in reference to Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art. It’s fantastic, and I’ve actually given it a reread this past weekend in order to get me past my fear of jumping back into that magical first draft.

These passages stuck with me, so I’ll share them with you and together, today, we’ll make that leap and make sure resistance doesn’t win.

Rule of Thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.

The more resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art / project / enterprise is to you – and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.

Details on the challenge are below, along with a link to Sven’s website and the sponsors for the challenge – along with the original five, we’ve added five more to help keep us all rolling along.

New Challenge details below:

Continue reading →

Don’t forget to go check in at Sven’s to post your progress – that’s where I’ll pick the winner from for this week’s prize, which will include backlist copies of my books as well as Alison Kent and others. I just have to pull them off the shelves.

We officially end on Wednesday, and all the sponsors will be around to share their final thoughts with you and cheer you on at the finish line. Well, we’re all so close to the ending of the very first Sweating With Sven’athon, and I hope you’re all at the point of reaching your own personal goals you’ve set for yourself at the start of this journey.

Yes, I know – we’re all supposed to end up with 70k. Those are the Sven rules. But you all know how much I detest rules, so for everyone who doesn’t think they’re going to make the goal, just ask yourself if you gotten more done over these days than you had before? Were you writing more often – did you make your writing a priority? If the answer is yes, then you’ve succeeded, no matter the word count. Remember, it might never get easier, but you get better every day.

So I’d like to get back to the business at hand, which is the writing. Sometimes, between the blogs and the check-ins, it’s easy to lose the magic, to forget why we put ourselves through things like this – why we want to do this much writing during this time period or any time period. Why we want this as our career. Why we put aside other things in order to make room in our lives for putting words down on paper as though our very lives depended on it.

Sometimes, it’s simply about the way you feel when you’re writing.

Sometimes, most times, as I’ve said before – the hardest part is opening the document and actually starting. I don’t know if we procrastinate sometimes because we know how all encompassing the actual writing can get, how hard it can pull you in and not let go until it’s drained everything from you in a wonderful way, most of the times. Because even when it’s hard, it’s good.

So, I want you to finish the sentence, When I write (or some variation thereof) – I’ve given you two of my favorites for inspiration and then I’ve made up my own. So put it in quote form with your name at the end, so when you’re a famous author (or more famous than you are now) someone can just google you and be inspired by your words.

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
-Gloria Steinem

“When I write, I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
~Kurt Vonnegut

“When I’m writing I’m someplace else – I’m in that wonderful, magical place where I’m not aware of anything around me outside of what’s going on the page and sometimes, I come out of that zone and I find that I’ve been smiling to myself for quite a while – and that’s how I know I’ve been doing some real writing – because when I’m writing, really in the thick of it, I can’t hide my happiness.”
-Stephanie Tyler

Steph T.

Sven has his own website now! Today’s inspy post is over at Alison’s blog, but then you need to go to Sven’s place and post your progress and the URL for your blog / site if you’ve got one. And then you’ll get listed on the sidebar over there as participating in the challenge.

We’re also batting around ideas for the next challenge…I have a feeling it’ll take place over the holidays somehow, with time built in for holidays. I always get some of my best writing done around that time of year…maybe it’s because everyone is SO busy, they tend to leave you alone.

Here’s something to think on for today – from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, in which he discusses resistance and how it’s a form of fear – more fear of success than the fear of failure that will stop us from reaching our creative goals:

Resistance is internal

Resistance seems to come from outside ourselves. We locate it in spouses, jobs, bosses, kids. “Peripheral opponents,” as Pat Riley used to say when he coached the Los Angeles Lakers.

Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.

…Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work…It will asume any form if that’s what it takes to deceive you.

…Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.

Steph T.