Why Writers Advance?

Many of us have been stuck for a very long time. We want to write. We think about writing. We talk about writing with our writer friends. But actually putting pen to paper or seat to computer chair seems too difficult. All the old fears come up, so rather than write, we busy ourselves alphabetizing the fears by name. Fear of Rejection goes behind Fear of Failure but in front of Fear of Success. We are so neat and tidy, so organized.

Let's not pull back any more. Let's advance. We're writers. Our voices in print are important. We don't have to write the next best seller for our words to be effective. Maybe someone is waiting to hear from us.

So today, if you don't have a pressing deadline for an editor, I invite you to write with me. I need to send out a sympathy card, a thinking-of-you card, a how-about-that-grandbaby note. I need to come up with maybe three or four sentences per card. For me, that's hard. Maybe you've been thinking about sending out a thank-you note or about writing your congressman or that letter to the editor.

If you are in the middle of a novel, go ahead. Write. But if you are a writer who is not writing, I challenge you to twelve sentences, more or less. Your written words are important.