The Confabulator Cafe

Category: Writer’s Life

  • Ignoring the Obstacles

    This week has been a difficult one for writing. I could share with you a tale of woe, lamenting the various obstacles that have kept me from my writing. But it would only be half true. You see, while there are a number of obstacles to writing, I alone allow them to distract me. I am my biggest obstacle.

    Bengal tigers at the Topeka Zoo
    Forget about the obstacles between you and your goal. They don't matter. Unless they're hungry.

    You know writers. We all have ADHD and are easily distracted by shiny objects. I’m no different.

    The truth is, I’ve been working for several months to simplify my life. I’ve tried to remove myself from every obligation that didn’t help me achieve my goals as a writer.

    I stopped writing film reviews. I ended my web design consulting. I curtailed my Facebook activity. And I’ve tried to cut down on my weekly consumption of television.

    So you’d think I’d have plenty of time for writing, right? Not so.

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  • Being Fear’s Bitch: A Guide to Not Writing

    Stop being a filthy, damned liar.  The only thing keeping you from writing is you.

    You don’t have the time? Make time. You’ve got a busy life? Then schedule it in. Either start being honest about the reason you’re not writing, or start being honest about the fact that you don’t want it enough to make it happen. Because if you did want to see this thing through, you’d start sacrificing to get there.

    The true reason you aren’t writing is because you’re afraid. You think you’re not good enough or smart enough or clever enough. You don’t value your own perspective. You think anything you had worth saying has probably already been written by someone else, and you bet they were a lot more talented than some coffee-shop hack with a laptop.

    You know why you write in restaurants? Because strangers feel less judgmental than family. Those people ordering lunch have no idea what you’re working on. They probably don’t give a good god damn about you anyway, and they sure as hell don’t have a clue about what you secretly hope to achieve. Anonymous is neutral and numbing and safe.

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  • Decisively, A Writer

    “But the cure for most obstacles is, Be decisive.” – George Weinberg

    Life has a tendency to step on its own toes. Our interests and pass-times are more diverse and numerous than ever in human history. Our own worst enemy is sometimes our success.

    Once upon a time, if you were a writer, you probably didn’t have many other hobbies or interests outside of reading and writing. Now, there is the Internet, our phones, the Internet on our phones. Any interest worth having is accessible by simply getting in a car and driving to it.

    There are times when I think we, as artists, were better off when we had nothing to do other than work on our craft. There are some amazing things available in the modern era. Writers can research nearly any topic without leaving their desks. It has never been easier for writers to network with one another, nor to get their work out there for people to see. Submissions are made instantaneously through email and responses come just the same.

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  • Obstacle Course (Week of 23 April 2012)

    In life there are thousands of obstacles that can run a writer’s best laid plans aground: meetings, power outages, illness, you know, the Sudden Things. Then there are the Things that we know about, the Potential Things: families, work, friends, pets, school. All these Things are somehow accounted for and yet we know that they’ll make us miss our writing time if we let them.

    Here at the Cafe, we do our best to cope with those Things. The best laid plans and better mousetraps and all the cliches that go along with the platitudes about the difficulties of life are part of the everyday for writers. This week the Confabulators are going to tell us how they deal with these things, how they overcome the problems that pop up to keep them from writing. These are many and varied and you may be surprised at what we say.

    So here’s your table. We’ll take your order when you’re ready. In the meantime, read up on our ideas of how life gets in the way of creating stories to keep you entertained.