on dedication

This post might as well be part three of an endless series called “how I get it done.”  For further reading on this subject please read what do you do and i willn’t be a prisoner.

i'm really just writing an angry letter to toms toothpaste 

The other night while she was getting ready for bed Jaime turned to me and asked “how do you stay so dedicated to write?”  I was already in bed with the laptop on my thighs and my yellow junior legal notepad on my hip, as has become my nightly ritual.

I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer her because usually I don’t feel particularly dedicated.  Either in my daily life or in my writing life.  I have many high aspirations yet when it comes to making those happen I’m rather lazy.

If she was talking about my blog then I must admit that this is the third blog I’ve started, the first that I’ve managed to keep up with.  I went from one post a week to two or three a week.  Now I’m cranking out five every week.  I write them long hand on a yellow legal pad when I have free time and transcribe them at night.

I manage to stay dedicated to the blog because I have a routine and have more or less committed myself to five posts a week.  I treat writing for it like a job, each night I have an article due and I must deliver or get fired.

Jaime wasn’t just talking about the blog though, she was talking about my dedication to write all sorts of material all the time.  To date I’ve written three complete full length plays.  Many people find that kind of dedication difficult, when they have a bout of writers block or get bored they stop and abandon their work.  Again however I am no poster child for hard work as it has taken me an average of two and a half to three years to complete each of these plays, and only one has been produced.

I suppose if I have any real answer to the question it’s this:

I write because that is what makes me feel good.  I know people who exercise, people who hunt, people who hike, drive fast cars, do drugs, play video games, have sex, etc. etc. etc.  The high that people get from performing these activities is the same one I get when I write.  I almost never feel as complete as I do when I’m writing, and when I don’t have something I’m currently working on I feel a little lost.

I am also dedicated because the only way to get better at something is to work at it all the time.  I write furiously because I desperately wish to make this my living and I have a vested interest in doing it well and often.

For those of you out there who do write or aspire to write I have some words of wisdom that I have imparted to Jaime and a few of my friends.  When you have trouble getting started or begin to suffer from writers block, write through it.  Don’t stop, just write.  It might be shit, it might be painful, in the end you might just throw it all away but if you simply sit down and begin to write yourself out of a situation, you’ll eventually come to an ending.
posted by: brian snider