ASPIRING to Stop Aspiring

Are you an aspiring author? No, you're not. If you're a writer at all, then you're a writer. What makes a writer "aspiring" is a person who's planning on writing. A writer needs to write. A few words here, a few words there. It doesn't have to be on your WIP. The next time you eat out and you dine in, have a notebook with you (a pad of paper, though if you must your laptop). Have a pen handy, and just think about anything. If it helps, clear your mind and let randomness fill it. Is their customer near you who loves to hear himself speak, and makes you wish you charged the iPod before you left the house? If so write it down, then add a couple elements to it to make this person a character in a possible story. Use what you have to write.

We are writers; making word-sauce is what we do. No one ever said it had to be Stephen King, and even the King of horror bows to editors, his wife (also one of his editors non-officially) and the onslaught of criticism of his work. And as he says, "a professional is the amateur who didn't give up."

You don't have to write the next great American novel, or sell the screenplay that makes you copious amounts of money. Maybe you're in this for the big bucks, and that's fine, but if that's all writing is for you, then I have nothing for you. But if you write because you're a writer, then the content in which you write can be anything. Only worry about your content and the quality of it when you decide to submit it.

I have WIPS, most writers do. But I also have a story I'm editing that needs to be sent back, and a couple of short stories to finish. We writers have an ongoing pile of stories to write. And new ideas are always popping up. Write them down, and try to remember where you store them (unlike me who tends to forget which notepad, or which computer file has the deets that I'm looking for). Keep back ups of all computer documents, I use Dropbox, I have it on two computers; I save in public space so all I need is my password when I use a different computer. I use jump drives and back up to Google Docs. I have problems with Google Docs glitching up, but it does make for additional storage.

There's a lot that may go into writing, but most of it is about life habits, and mostly small ones at that. I take my book bag with me everywhere I go, and I keep a binder with folders and two notebooks inside with several pens. It's my mobile command desk. Along with a Kindle (with not just books but files I uploaded so I can work on drafts without internet), and when I remember to pack it my laptop.

You can also just keep it easy, have a pocket notepad, and a couple of pens (at least three) on your person. There is no "aspiring" to write. You just do it. Now, you aspire to be published, and aspire to improve on your craft, or aspire to be more like your favorite author; but that's completely different. Look at yourself in the mirror, and say, "Self, you're a writer." Or something like that. It was when I stopped calling myself an aspiring writer that I became a published writer. Aspiring makes it too easy to put things off, and if you say you're something then you have to prove it time and again. Your words on paper or computer is the proof you're a writer. Program your brain to believe. If you feel in your heart of hearts that you're a writer, then prove it. Now prove it again. I'm sorry, I only kind of believe you, prove it again… You are writer, bleed ink on those pages!

Keep on writing, make those lovely batches of word-sauce, and call yourself a writer. Or a Pen-Monkey (Chuck Wendig's label he coined), I like that one personally. Now go snuggle with your muse, play Pattie-Cake, whatever you and your muse do.