Like You Mean It

I got a kick in the pants... figuratively speaking... the other day.  After my first Writer's Conference, I was perusing all the "author" blogs and places of interest around the 'net since apparently it is a requirement to know people and be able to recognize them by name.  I signed up for a few free newsletters - what's another few pieces of junk mail a week to clog my In Box, right?  I added a few interesting blogs to my reading list, blah blah blah.  And then I got a little nugget of value out of the whole exercise.  I got a "free book" that had 70 solutions to common writing mistakes.  It is fascinating how much you think you know and then you find out that the stuff you didn't know that you didn't know is actually more than you knew.  (Ha, did I lose you on that one?!)  I'm not done reading all the pointers and tips but I'm taking one to heart that hit me hard like an open-palmed slap to the face by an angry lover when I read it:

"It isn't enough to say you want to be a writer, you have to live like you are a writer."

I am not entirely sure why this particular phrase hit me so hard - perhaps because lately I've been less than satisfied with my "day" job and have been dreaming of being a writer who was successful enough I didn't need to have another job anymore.  I realized it is like what I always say - you aren't going to win the lottery if you aren't playing the lottery.  The same is true about my writing.  I am not going to get an agent or a fat book deal or hell, even a finished manuscript, if I'm not actually writing on a regular basis.  So, this is me... turning over a new leaf.  From now on I'm an author because I write on a regular basis, period.  I may not be a published author yet but if I write every day and keep polishing my craft I will be soon!  And that pesky first draft that stalled after NaNoWriMo?  Thanks to my new ebook, I've got tools to get me past the hump of the middle and sailing through to the end.  From here on out, it will be like NaNoWriMo every day of the year!