writing advice | Cathy C. Hall Writes

file0001845637670 First day of February and I haven’t changed my calendar yet. (Or put away all the holiday stuff. Or returned my overdue library books…)

It looks like my word for 2016 is not going to be CHALLENGE. It’s going to be another C-word: CATCH-UP. And so I’ll start with the Muffin post I shared over the weekend (and forgot to mention until just now.)

I’ve probably written about the subject of finding your own style (and voice) numerous times; I suspect that means I have slip-ups and fall into that old trap of comparing myself to others, falling short, and then trying to write all fancy-schmancy. You can see what I mean in “Stepping Out in Your Own (Writing) Style.”

Fortunately, I always find my way back to me (and my own personal style). I suppose that’s why I used the Popeye quote (“I am what I am.”) instead of getting all fancy-schmancy and quoting Shakespeare.

But I could’ve quoted Polonius from Hamlet, if I’d wanted. I mean, I know the fancy-schmancy quotes, even if I don’t go around spouting them:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Yeah, Mister Man would probably roll his eyes if I threw that quote around. But I bet he’d drop off my library books, if I asked real nice.

Have you ever noticed that the writing process includes a ton of road metaphors?

While writing my last post for The Muffin, I literally came up with a dozen phrases I could’ve used. It was a good reminder for me, that writing is a journey. Sometimes, yes, it can be a short little trip from idea to words on a page to publication. But more often, it takes time to produce, to polish, to sell.

Lots of time. Lots of words. And in this world of hurry-up and multi-tasking, time is something of a premium. Still, if you want premium publication, I think you have to be prepared to put in the time, and to give yourself time. It can take a while, The Publication Path, First to Last Draft, as my friend and author, Heather Montgomery shared at a recent writer’s workshop.

Maybe this holiday season, you can give yourself the gift of time: time to think, time to write, and time to appreciate the journey. Because as the song goes, “the road is long, with many a winding turn, that leads us to who knows where. Who knows where?”

But when you get there, oh, boy. It’s worth it. (Just ask any writer.)