Take Time, Make Time and Just Write

By Frits Ahlefeldt (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

See the image to the right? That is a simple version of what my head feels like most of the time. Minus the room for a little person to stand in. And it's not all notes and documents either, but you get the point. My head is filled with thoughts, thoughts, thoughts.

Some of those thoughts are small sparks that could shape into a whole idea if I manage to write them down, work on them, stretch and flex them or give them time to simmer on the back burner. Some just want to get out, out, out. And some of them don't want to leave even if I beg them to.

A while ago I realised that I'm a writer. I mean, sure I've always written little stories as a child, so-called song lyrics as a teenager, essays at university and articles for my job, but even though the truth was staring me in the face all my life, I never once stood still, took a deep breath, and said: I really am a writer. Until recently. When I made myself sit down behind my laptop and type whatever I felt like. When I saw NaNoWriMo as a fun challenge and tested my ability to not only start, but actually finish a story. When I actually did.

I guess what I want to say to everyone in the big Out There who wants to write, who dreams of being a writer, who gets stuck mid-way through a paragraph and is about to give up - don't give up. The only thing that matters right now is that you start. Take time, make time and just write. About anything. About everything. Start something, and if there is no ending just yet, start something else. Or undertake something like NaNo and take it seriously. Clear your schedule for a month and discover what it's like to write and write and do nothing but write so help you your word processor. I can guarantee you that it will teach you how to get things done. Your way. Not by copying a friend's routine or by following an author's schedule, but by creating your own.

P.S. You can be a writer. You probably already are. It's the getting published and getting that promotion to become an Author that's the tricky bit.