We all know: a writer’s life is full of its own unique temptations.
So when it came time for me to write my post for Temptation Week, I thought about the many ways we are tempted in a single writing day (and night) and I couldn’t pick just one. Instead, I opted for a list of some of the many.
Ladies and gentlemen…
You know you’re a writer if you’re tempted to…
…send out a hundred e-queries in a single day because you can’t wait to get responses.
…check your FB, Twitter, Goodreads sites “just for a sec” while you are in the midst of a crucial scene. To, you know, cleanse the palate.
…refresh your email every five seconds (and then check your settings to make sure somehow it didn’t get changed from the automatic 1-minute-refresh setting you had chosen weeks earlier.)
…worry that your work isn’t actually as good as everyone says and, like everyone’s favorite clothing-optional Emperor, be hours away from a global reveal.
…send off your query before your manuscript is really ready because you are so excited (and rightly so!) to finally be at this stage, even though you know it could stand a good deal more polishing before you submit.
…check your sales numbers on Amazon and B&N every fifteen minutes (even though they make it clear they update them hourly).
…along those same lines, google your book title. (Even though you have set up alerts on every search engine on the planet. You know, in case the superbrain of the internet fails to catch one. Hey, it could happen.)
…not think you can call yourself a writer until you’re published, even though all you want to do is live, eat and write (not necessarily in that order) and you think up stories and how to shape them almost as often as you draw breath.
…compare your work and/or your progress with every other writer on the planet and not be content until you have clicked and scrolled and googled yourself into a state of total self-doubt and self-pity.
And finally, the number one temptation of all, my friends …the Mack Daddy…the most popular and quite possibly the very worst temptation (no, chocolate, for once I am NOT looking at you)…
You are tempted to give up.
Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, no.
Surf the web, finish the ice cream, check your numbers. If you can resist only one temptation, promise me you will make it this last one. If writing gives you pleasure, and if getting published is your goal, then do not give in to temptation and do not give up.
Which temptation of yours have I left off this list?
LOVE the humor of this post, and then the very poignant and hopeful ending. Just what I needed to hear today, Erika. Thank you. I had to laugh at the email checking, the ‘pop in on Twitter during a pivotal scene so you can cleanse your palate’ comments. People other than me DO that??? Ha. Guilty. Which is why I have to use the Writing Studio on Wheels if I am serious about writing. When I’m out there, I don’t allow myself to even turn ON the Internet!
Thank you, my dear! I think that is one of the things I envy most about your WSOW–that it seems the perfect way to resist these frustrating temptations–so much of it is about opportunity–and when that is lacking, we can TRULY focus on the writing. But then, I’ve seen your views from those windows–talk about irresistible temptations!! 😉
Yes, yes, yes to all of this. I’m totally a writer.
It’s official! Aren’t you glad to know?! 😉
Son of a gun. Guess I AM a writer. *grin*
Boy, do you have us pegged!
We Debs know each other well! 😉
OMG! I was going to put chocolate even before I read your post! too funny!! love me some chocolate.
On a related note,I went to present this weekend and they gave speakers a little gift. It was chocolate from this place: http://www.fineandraw.com/
oh wow. You definitely need some of this!!!
Oh, Missy–it’s SOOOO not fair to leave a tempting link on a comment for a post about temptation! I cry foul! 😉
Now excuse me while I go check it out…Yum!!
Well, I thought we talked about this, Erika. I really thought I could trust you. But now you’ve gone and written an entire blog about my personal neurosis and honestly, I want my friendship bracelet back. How are writers supposed to get any respect if people like you go around telling the TRUTH about us — our desperate need for love, food, shelter, a pat on the head. You make us sound like a bunch of pound puppies. All I have to say about this post is, well, RUFF.
Seriously, I loved this! Thanks for confessing and letting us all off the hook!! Now…what did she say about a link for fancy chocolate…?
XOXO
Ha! There might, there just MIGHT, be a writer out there who doesn’t fit this mold, darlin’, but then, they say Bigfoot is real too… 😉
Hey, if it gets me off the hook and keeps me in chocolate, I’m in!
You left off one of my favorites: be distracted by anything and everything that goes by the window…. birds, kids, dogs, neighbors, trash trucks…. writing has definitely turned me into the busy-bodiest of neighbors. EEEKKK!
And this, my dear, is why I have my back to the view of our bird feeder! It’s my “reward” to turn and check it out every once in a while–because otherwise I would NEVER be able to keep my eyes on my screen! 😉
This is such a great list! It makes me feel so much less crazy… Reading this I was like “Check, check, check…” At least this means I am a writer!