Shut Up and Write — I Don’t Care If You Write

Oi. That’s controversial.

The “shut up and write” part was inspired by a meetup group by the same name.

The “I don’t care if you do” has been running around in my head for a while. What do I mean by it? I care if you care, but in the end it’s just me and the blank page. The same for you. I can’t make anyone write. Well, I wouldn’t want to make anyone write. I hope you wouldn’t either.

Where am I going with this? In the end you must bring yourself to the blank page, or screen, out of love. pure and simple. because you love to write. The road to book publication is long and chancy. Granted the road to blog publication is easy, though getting readership can be a long and chancy affair.

Do you love to write? Or do you want only to have written?

To get to the pleasure of writing sometimes you must first ride (or write) through the pain. The pain of the truth. The pain of facing yourself. The pain of facing that fact that you (or I) have been so caught up in what other people might think that we’ve been paralyzed and haven’t finished her novel, though not for the lack of many partial edits and rewrites. (Ahem, Beth.)

So, as we slide into 2009, let us writers join together and commit to write for ourselves. Okay, I’ll speak for myself. I promise to write for myself, and take myself through that painful place of not knowing what I’m doing, but sitting with my novel anyway. And to continue to write multiple drafts until I decide I done. And to finish the $%^&^&* blessed thing.

What will you commit to in your writing? True, I don’t care if you do or don’t. But if you do care, I mean really, really care, I can help you, coach, consult with you, even share resources with you, and definitiely I can laugh with you and cry too.

I offer a challenge to anyone reads this post to contact me and tell me how much they care about their own writing. Because in the end the thing all i really really care about is that you and I actualize our true purpose. There is no tomorrow, only today, and the baggage from the past that we can recast and recast again as we come to new understanding about ourselves.

So, dear readers, writers, potential clients and students, and current clients and students, know that when I say “I Don’t Care If You Write” I’m coming from a place of courage and love. If you don’t like it, I don’t care, but I will listen to you — if your write or otherwise contact me. And thank you for writing.

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Beth Barany coaches, teaches and consults on writing, creativity, book creation, marketing and publishing. She offers educational products and services to individuals and organizations. She is the creator of the Writer’s Adventure Guide system. And she writes novels about women who kick ass and face hard choices on how to save the world and themselves.