Excuses, excuses

Whether you call them distractions, reasons or excuses there are so many things I can come up that ‘stop’ me from writing including:

• I’m too busy – there is always other things to be done and when you’ve finished doing them you’re too tired to do anything else
• I’m doing things for other people – it could be sewing son’s jeans, taking the dog for a walk, ringing a friend in need
• I have to work – being self employed time is precious and needs to be filled with things I get paid for
• I need to switch off and relax – I can waste hours watching TV, going online, tweeting or reading the newspaper.

Stephanie Butland who ran the writing workshop last week came up with a great point that, whatever the excuse, we really are making choices. If I do something else instead of writing, I am choosing to do that and not write. It’s a great way of looking at it – I always have a choice. So the next time those excuses crop up, I will instead think I am actually either choosing to write or choosing to do something else instead. It’s up to me.

Of course it’s not just me, or writers, or people not writing who do this! Excuses are made by everyone the world over, in all kind of situations, they can be obvious, elaborate, amusing. These are some of my favourites:

•  My Aunty Nan, then in her seventies, used to tell my young son that she couldn’t dance, run or ride his scooter because she had ‘a bone in her leg’. It took a good while for him to figure that one out.

• Delays on trains are a classic of course, one I heard recently was that the train couldn’t start until the driver had found a ‘button’ – not sure if he’d lost one off his jacket or was working out what to press on the dashboard.

• Sport is another area where excuses seem to crop up all the time, particularly in football – instead of saying we weren’t good enough to win the blame is on the balls being too bouncy or the wrong kind of grass on the pitch.

• Politicians of all colours have for decades been very adept at carefully crafting excuses. Some of the best from MPs involved in the recent expenses scandal include: 
• Bill Wiggin "I think people need to realise we are but human"  
• Ben Chapman "It is clear that I was mislead by the fees office into the arrangement in question"
• Jack Straw “I was incredibly busy during that period - that is not an excuse, it is just an explanation.”

So... what’s your excuse?

It’s alright to write

I have written things for other people for years – starting off in journalism, then moving into PR. When someone pays you to write for them, whether copy for press releases, marketing materials, web content, newsletters or whatever, they are valuing and validating your professional skills and expertise.

I still write and enjoy writing for other people. It’s what I ‘do’, it’s what I get paid for it, it’s my job.

But when it comes to writing for myself, telling people I’m writing just for me or calling myself a writer – it’s a different matter.   Yesterday I went to my first ever writing workshop with a mix of excitement and trepidation. 

Organised by New Writing North it was run by Stephanie Butland – who is a Writer. Stephanie has a very popular blog www.bahtocancer.co.uk and a book of the same name published.  Stephanie is also a de Bono trainer, a very lovely lady and she bakes brilliant cakes.  The group was a friendly mix of interesting people and the workshop was, for me, really useful, inspiring, and in no way intimidating!  It got me thinking about and articulating all sorts of issues to do with writing (and some to do with not writing).

Thinking more about my misconceptions about why I can’t/don’t/ shouldn’t call myself a writer, it's because, for me, Writers:

• write like they breathe– all the time, the words just flow, they can’t help it, it’s natural and easy for them to do 
• are published – they have books with their name on sitting on shelves, agents and publishers impatient to get the next one out and avid readers hanging on every word 
• who blog are read by hundreds of people, receive scores of positive comments and are just about to get that book deal based on their blog, or are blogging about their soon to be published novel 
• all live in Sheds (luxury ones with carpets and log burners), speak in Shakespearian sonnets and wear velveteen waistcoats with ruffle sleeved shirts.

Okay – maybe not quite that last one - but I do tend to imagine that Writers are a particular clique that I don’t belong to, enjoying a party I haven’t been invited to.

With Stephanie and my fellow workshopees we explored issues like this and a whole load more such as sharing your work with others, finding time and giving yourself permission to write. Points that gave me real food for thought included:

• the observation that someone who likes cycling will comfortably call themselves a ‘cyclist’ without needing to win the Tour de France and quite happily spend a lot of time (and money) doing their thing just because they love to do.
• If you’re uncomfortable saying you’re a writer (which can get a usual response of ‘so what book have you have published’) and you blog, call yourself a blogger. Blogging is now well established and widely recognised as a writing form, (hey, you can even win awards!)
• Don't just sit waiting for it to happen, set yourself a goal, targets, a plan, know how many words you want to do in a day/ week/ month, put time in your diary to make it happen.
• Choose to get on with it – don’t just talk about it, give yourself limiting beliefs or excuses why you can’t/ shouldn’t/ wouldn’t – because of course the one thing you must do if you’re a writer, of any sort, is write!  And it is, actually, alright to write.

So, here I am… writing. Not sure if that makes me a Writer – but it feels right!

And, thanks also to Stephanie for pointing out this advice from Kingsley Amis,

'The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one’s pants to the seat of one’s chair’.