Walter Mosley is Talking to Me

I was at the pool today with my boys. I think the temperature hit 97 today! It was hot. I took my O magazine and was pleasantly surprised with the Walter Mosley article titled 'This Year You Write Your Novel.' I swear he was talking to me.

He says you have to write every single day. It has to become second nature like brushing your teeth and breathing. He didn't say that but you know..

He explains that doing this every single day connects you to your unconscious mind

He also explains how you must allow yourself to write whatever and not censor yourself. Your characters say things you would never say and you just have to go there.

"If you want to write believable fiction, you will have to cross over the line of your self-restraint and revel in the words and ideas that you would never express in your everyday life."

He then goes into personal confession and the subsequent guilt that arises from it as being another source of restraint for the writer.

He's got me on this one. My biggest fear, and it has come to light twice already, is writing something very true to me but hurting someone in the process. This is a big one for me cause the way these two people reacted and it was only on a blog was big and I'm thinking what will they do when it is published in a book? I find myself censoring myself and treading lightly even though it is fiction because I think so and so will think I'm talking about them.

To this Walter says, "And even if someone, at some time, gets upset with your words - so what? Live your life, sing your song. Anyone who loves you will want you to have that. Don't let any feeling keep you from writing. Don't let the world slow you down."

And then Walter really gets on the bull horn and speaks to me when he says

"Procrastination is an author's worst enemy, but there are others: the writer who suddenly has chores that have have gone undone for months but now seem urgent; the diarist who develops a keen wish to write about her experiences today instead of writing her book; the Good Samaritan who realizes that there's a world out there that needs saving; the jack-of-all-trades who, when he begins one project, imagines ten others that are equally or even more important."

And I LOVE his solution to all this

"Forget all that. Don't write in the journal unless you're writing a chapter of your book. Save the world at 8:30 instead of 7:00. Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls."

Can you say blogging? I always turn to blogging when I'm procrastinating. I like to tell myself that it IS writing.

I must get this book. This Year Your Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley.

It simply speaks to me.