Some tips, maybe.

So I've been building out my social media empire, and included in that is my Google+, which some people do actually use. Imagine that!

Anyway, today I encountered a list of tips to get writing going, i.e., get motivated, and I figured it was worth including here, regardless of how trite they may seem in the long run. Never hurts to reflect on some tips and how I might incorporate them, yeah?

Location is a big suggestion, not just because (based on some comments) it sounds like it has a significant effect, but also because I've not idea how I'd really incorporate it. My life doesn't give me a lot of location-changing options. I work and I go home, and I struggle to find/make time for even my chores, nevermind going out to write. Hm.

That being said, it could include just being at work, maybe? It is familiar, yeah, but it's also different from home. I can also change locations when at work--go down to the little "cafe" downstairs and write on my phone or some such.

There's also the Panera down the street. I could go on weekends for an hour or two and do as much as I can. Def a location change.

There's also time; this blogger suggests making time whenever possible, even just 10 minutes at a time, to squeeze in some writing. That's perhaps doable for me. If I actually took my hour lunches, I could spend 10 minutes eating, 20 minutes journaling, and 30 minutes writing. That'd be something.

What's also interesting about these tips is how against habit they are. I've heard other writers heartily endorse "writing like it's your job;" setting a specific place, span of time, and time of day to instill a writerly mindset. "This is writing time," kind of thing.

I'm not exactly surprised to hear a differing point of view, but it is a bit confusing. What do I do? Make habits or break them? Hm. I suppose different things work for different writers, which I guess also isn't too surprising.

Confidence.

I was reading Ray Bradbury's introduction to that collection of 100 of his stories, and he said something very interesting about storywriting: "Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down."

This bold approach is so different from how I currently approach storywriting. I'm so tentative, it feels; so self-conscious. I don't have confidence that I know how or will be able to build my own wings, and that's definitely held me back--both in the past and in present ventures. And not just with storywriting, or even poetrywriting; but in life as well. But that's perhaps an observation best reserved for my other blog...

I do want to be a writer; the urge and, if I can be so brazen, the talent are there. I just lack confidence in my abilities, and I'm not entirely sure--other than by brute force and success--how I'll find it.

But I need to if I'm going to live that dream of being a writer, a real writer, and not shy away from it forever, never finding fulfilment in that not insignificant domain of my existence.

I also need, of course, to make more time for my writing (and my blogging...). But, then, time management has never come easily to me. I'd like to, and have even perhaps begun to, believe I'm making progress there. It's coming slowly, maybe, so it's hard to see at times. But I have made time for "Ponder," or whatever I'm calling it, if haltingly and in large leaps.

Although Bradbury seems to dismiss scheduling writing time, that seems to be what most writers suggest and is certainly worth trying. But when? Hm hm.