The One Hundred Day Creative Challenge: Day 6

The One Hundred Day Creative Challenge: Day 6

Not giving up is one of the brave choices we make. Whether it’s a relationship, a job, a creative pursuit or faith. Tenacity
is a quality that brings to mind doggedness, an adventurous spirit, courage and daring. Living a creative life takes more than talent, it takes hard work and determination.

Often it is tenacity, not talent, that rules the day. Julia Cameron

I wrote about my journey with a novel earlier this year. I still haven’t finished it, but I have made progress. I’m not giving up!

Here’s a part of the story here:

Writers are notorious for writing about the flow of the muse and writers block as the antithesis of each other. I’m having a long-standing battle with my nemesis at the moment—a novel I began in Tuscany in 2010, developed at Oxford in 2013 and worked on at The Art of Writing in Tuscany the last two years. My nemesis isn’t about the muse deserting me and suffering writer’s block, I’m somewhere in the middle. I have plenty to write about but, something is stopping me.

The novel is in my head all the time. I get inspiration and jot ideas down. The characters live in my head, and even as I’m vacuuming, as I’ve just finished doing, they speak to me.

This book is asking to be written and just won’t leave me alone. So why isn’t it done?

It’s been there since 2010 and has had several opportunities to be developed. I’ve written three other books out since I jotted those first notes while seated on a sun lounger, overlooking a spectacular tuscan view from the villa we were staying in. So what’s the problem?

There are several reasons for this and they are roadblocks in my thinking that take me away from completing the book.

Here they are. Time for the adventure of spilling your guts and telling the truth:

1. Sometimes I don’t have the confidence to do things outside my comfort zone. The other books I’ve written have pushed me to the edges of my comfort zone, and maybe just outside, but this book is pushing me to take it further and my comfort zone (read confidence in myself to write a great book) and I don’t like it.

2. It’s easy to write random ideas, but to actually push through and produce the 80 000 to 100 000 words I need to get this book finished is hovering over me like a cloud and it’s easier to vacuum the floors or write another, ‘easier’ book or article and push this one to the side.

3. My nemesis knows me too well and loves teasing me. Roadblock after roadblock is thrown into my path: go on Facebook, check your emails, work on that interview, clean the house, travel to Antarctica … You get the picture. The roadblocks are valid and are things I need to do. However, this darn book is sitting here on my desk, day after day, like a neglected puppy waiting to be taken out for a walk.