A whole lot of sweat.

I just read a great article in the Writer's Digest Jan 2010 issue that struck a resounding large bell inside my thick skull. This article is called Inspiration vs. Perspiration. To paraphrase it, "Perspiration leads to inspiration, even though that seems counter intuitive." Okay so that was a direct quote. But it makes a very good point. As writers so often (At least this goes for me) we seem to think that a novel, short story, thesis, essay or poem will just spring into our minds in it's entirety while we write feverishly for a week straight and from there it will go directly into a publishing house because it is so profound and pure.

Yet this is far from the case in most instances. Yes, we may start with inspiration, an idea, phrase, sentence or character. But from there, the perspiration begins. This has definitely been a huge hurdle for me as I worry about the next book, novel, idea and character, forgetting that a great deal of my previous work only started with inspiration and finished with a great deal of perspiration, cursing, rewriting and time.

No matter what it is you are working on at this moment, I would encourage you to take 10 minutes to read this article. It might just give you the boost you've been looking for, it certainly has done that for me.

On a side note, my first set of revisions for my editor are done and I have sent off the ms to her tonight. Fingers crossed everybody! :)