Waking up

As I wake up in the morning I’m thinking about the day ahead. I have never liked getting up early in the morning. I have learned to get up over the years, but in truth I have always been a night owl.

I was thinking about inspiration this morning as I woke up. There is a school of thought that artist are just supposed to be relaxed and never force working but let the inspiration come to you and only when that happens, and you may need all day and drinks and watching TV and not be bothered with rent or other bills. All of this is supposed to make you a better artist, a purist.

That’s a great utopia to dream of, but a working artist will tell you the opposite. You have to find inspiration and hunt it down. You have to be able to get work done in order to be paid; you will have to treat it as a small business.

For me, Thursdays seem to be good for my writing. That does not mean that if I have a free minute I can take up a pen and paper or work on my laptop and I will have something to write about. So I keep going back to work, since am not going to get inspired doing nothing. You still have to prove to editors and others that you can crank out the work. There is no two ways about it. While day dreaming is part of it, it can’t be all of it.

I have many projects that I want to finish and to do that I have to work at it. I don’t want to be the person that just talks about my writing, but does my writing. The other day I stopped and thought about how long I have been working on things. My manuscript was finished, the first draft in 2003. Now I am sending it out to editors and magazines. You have to think that other writers find things to send in, or staff workers they can’t just sit and look at the walls.

Anything that is worth doing takes effort. That’s why it’s called work, and after it’s done and you get to see the good results from it, it is worth the effort. That is the true wake up call. You have to work it’s not always fun, but necessary. I know I am not a quitter and I feel like I am really awake.