Erin Lodes

“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy and that hard.” – Neil Gaiman

I could almost just leave it there, with the words of one of my all-time favorite authors. But the whole point of being a writer is to figure out how to say what you think in your own words, so I’ll keep going.

I’m sure all of you have heard the “butt in chair” phrase that gets thrown around in the writer community so often. You write by getting in front of your computer or your notebook or whatever and you write. It sounds simple. And it is. But it also isn’t.

The biggest decision I made that helped me finish my novel — other than becoming a client of John’s — is that I got serious about my writing routine. I got serious about carving out time to write, about protecting that time, about showing up to do the work.

I never would have called myself a morning person but making the decision to set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. (and, when I was crunching a deadline, 4:30 a.m.) was the best choice I’ve ever made. After working a full day at my day job I could always make excuses that resulted in me not writing. There were chores to be done, I had to spend time with my Stephen and my puppy, there was that really good show we were watching on Netflix. I was tired. I could always do the work tomorrow.

Except tomorrow I would have the same excuses.

So I started getting up early. And when I got up early, the only thing I would do is write. This was my writing time. And it didn’t matter how late I’d stayed up the night before. When that alarm went off, I would ask myself if I really wanted to stay in bed — which was warm and comfortable — or if I wanted to see my book on a shelf someday. And the latter always won.

I started working on my novel on my lunch break at work too. And on the weekends. And in the evenings. But those writing times were flexible. Sometimes I didn’t hold to them. But I always showed up to my 5:00 a.m. writing time. Always.

I learned it’s about making your writing a priority. It’s about making sacrifices. Sacrifice your TV time to your novel. Sacrifice your house-cleaning time to your novel. Sacrifice your sleep, sacrifice your time scrolling through delightful cat memes and infuriating political news, sacrifice your leisure time. Sacrifice it all at the altar of your novel, at the altar of this story that you have in your head that you want to get out into the world.

Because, let me tell you, Netflix will still be there. You’re not going to regret not watching that new show you heard about. You’re not going to regret letting the house get a little messier than you like or not spending quite so much time cuddling on the couch with your loved ones. You’re not going to regret not sleeping in. You’re certainly not going to regret spending less time on social media.

I’ve found that the more I work on my novel, the more I want to work on my novel. Something in motion wants to stay in motion. I’ve started throwing myself down this hill of being a professional, published writer, and I might get some bumps and bruises along the way but I’m certainly not going to stop rolling.

I am going to finish.

How I Finished My Novel is going to be an ongoing blog series detailing how I finish this freaking thing. I know, I know, you could probably tell that from the title… I’m being helped along on this journey by John Adamus, who is amazing and you’ll hear a lot about him in this blog series.

If you haven’t already, check out Part One and start from the beginning.