When I started this blog, for *ahem* a second time, I made a pact with myself to stick at it.  The plan was to make one post a day for the whole of February.  As you can see from the calendar this hasn’t happened.

Many professional writers offer advice on the importance of persistence and I can see why it could be important for the feckless personality (meaning myself here!) that would want to be a writer.  Unfortunately, sometimes nature steps into things and she will not be denied.  On the night of the 14th my previous ill health made a brief reappearance and while it wasn’t anything serious, it was enough to cause some concern and a sleepless night.  This meant that yesterdays post did not appear as I spent most of the day recovering from the events of the previous night.

As I may not have control over when I post, what I will do instead, is post another two today, as well as this one.  Thus honoring persistence even if I cannot honor my planned scheduling.

A good thing about writing articles for the web is that Wordpress has the ability to schedule blog post releases.  I guess I should write more articles in advance.  Lesson learned.

Dave Felton

Tags: Advice, Blog, blood clot, Dave Felton, Pneumonia, Professional writer, Pulmonary Embolism, Wordpress, Writer, Writing articles for the web

This post could just as easily be called “Writing – the importance of sticking at it”.  It is true that Ray Bradbury is a major writer in SF, but this wasn’t always the case as he modestly acknowledges in this video.  In fact he points out that his early writing life was full of rejection slips, which sort of sounds familiar!

After watching this video two things really struck me:

1. The importance of sticking at writing, even if you might suck.  The point here being that you are, or should be, writing for your own personal pleasure.
2. The fact that eventually he wrote a truly beautiful story from “inside”.

Since I started following the advice to write daily, regardless of circumstance, the whole task has indeed got a lot easier.  I am not sure that the standard of my writing has improved much yet, but the volume of words produced means that you worry less over your “darlings”.  As you worry less about acquiring some sort of mythical writing perfection I have found that writing becomes a lot more enjoyable and this in turn means you write more and so on.

If you don’t write, you aren’t a writer.

Of course none of this advice will be new to anyone that has read my earlier book review of Dorothea Brande’s book “On Becoming a Writer”.

Best wishes as ever.

Dave Felton.

Tags: Advice, Book Review, Writer, Writing