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| fancy dessert on a white plate* |
Eat Dessert First
by Randy Ingermanson
There's an old saying that goes something like this: "The world could end at any minute. Eat dessert first!"
As writers, we all have a lot on our plate. Most of us have a day job or a business. School. Family. Friends. Daily chores. Plus all sorts of Important Stuff That Must Be Done Immediately. All too often, writing gets done last. Or not at all. How smart is that?
Writing fiction is what we live for.
It's what drives us. It's the one thing we control in a mad world. I recently realized that all the other important stuff in my life was crowding out the thing I enjoy most. And I decided I've had enough of that. So I made a commitment to myself that writing happens first in my day.
First.
When I get out of bed in the morning, I go straight to my office and spend a set amount of time writing. Right away. No excuses. No delays. No rabbit trails. I don't check email. I don't look at the headlines. I don't plan my day. I write fiction until the alarm on my phone tells me that my writing time is up.
A lot of times when the alarm goes off I keep working for another 10 or 20 or 30 minutes. For the first time in a long time, I'm having fun again.
Writing fiction is the dessert in your life. Eat dessert first.
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This article is reprinted
by permission of the author.
Award-winning novelist
Randy Ingermanson, "the Snowflake Guy," publishes the free monthly Advanced
Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 32,000 readers. If you want to learn the
craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors,
AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.
Download your free
Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish
a Novel.
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This article first appeared in the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine in February, 2013.
* Photo credit: Opera Cake by piyato
