{"id":1398,"date":"2008-12-16T07:34:02","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T12:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1398"},"modified":"2008-12-16T07:34:02","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T12:34:02","slug":"writing-resolutions-that-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2008\/12\/16\/writing-resolutions-that-stick\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Resolutions That Stick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"We’re approaching New Year’s, and we’re also approaching the 2 year anniversary of GWP! I launched the blog in January 2007, just as my first book (Only Child<\/em>) hit the shelves.\u00c2\u00a0 Since then, I came out with a second one and started a proposal for my third.\u00c2\u00a0 As GWP friends know, this latest book proposal (still in progress!) has been a long journey, and not always so smooth.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been wanting to compile a “lessons learned” post, to share some of the process with GWP readers who are similarly working on book proposals — or aspire to — cause really, friends don’t let friends figure out how to write books alone.<\/p>\n

So speaking of said journey, yesterday I was listening to a talk by Buddhist teacher Tara Brach<\/a> while on a walk in Riverside Park and she said something so true.\u00c2\u00a0 At the time of the talk, Brach herself was working on a book.\u00c2\u00a0 Writing, she was finding, involved a lot of “self.”\u00c2\u00a0 And sometimes, what she needed was for that self to just get out of the way, so she could remember what mattered most, and what mattered first, and what needed to be said.<\/p>\n

One thing I find helpful when “self”, or ego, or the internalized voices of critics (or however you define the obstacles that come from a mind that likes to work overtime, as so many of ours do!) is the “toggle” effect: Some weeks I’ll be going strong in my thinking and writing around the proposal, then I’ll hit a point of self-doubt.\u00c2\u00a0 So I’ll give myself a break for a day, or two days, or three, and then come back to it again.\u00c2\u00a0 When I’m in the book writing stage, I find it far more helpful to show up to the page consistently, every day.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I’m in the conceptualizing phase, sometimes I just need to give it–and me–a mental rest, and just focus on other things (like all my consulting projects, for instance, which pay the rent).\u00c2\u00a0 It may sound obvious, but sometimes it’s the obvious that’s the easiest thing to forget.<\/p>\n

Lots of you I know are writing books while working other jobs (like, say, being a professor! or, addendum, a MOM) that demand your attention.\u00c2\u00a0 What helps you stick with a writing project through its (and your) ups and downs?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d love to hear.<\/p>\n

(And gratitude to Virginia for introducing me to talks by Tara Brach!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re approaching New Year’s, and we’re also approaching the 2 year anniversary of GWP! I launched the blog in January 2007, just as my first book (Only Child) hit the shelves.\u00c2\u00a0 Since then, I came out with a second one and started a proposal for my third.\u00c2\u00a0 As GWP friends know, this latest book proposal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1902,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21941],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}