Erin M. KinchLATELY, I’VE BEEN FIGHTING THE EXCUSE MONSTER— that insidious little voice inside my head that whispers excuses for not writing. I’m too tired. I’m too busy. I have no ideas. The list goes on and on.

 

Now, there is a difference between a reason and an excuse. Sometimes, you really do have writer’s block or you just worked a ton of overtime and are brain-fried. But, other times, you’re just giving into the excuse monster.

 

I guess it’s the same for any aspect of your life. You have to put time into something to get something out of it or to get to the next level. If I don’t spend time writing stories and honing my craft, I’m won’t have stories to submit or ever improve in my craft. Both of those mean that this writing thing is never going to be any more than a hobby for me.

 

Writing as a hobby isn’t a bad thing. Tons of people do it. But I want something more. And if I want that something more, then I have to banish the excuse monster and his whispers about laundry, returning phone calls, and surfing the Internet, and get writing.

 

Of course, even still, the odds are against me. There are way more aspiring authors/novelists out there than those that get published every year. But, to quote one of my favorite movies, “Your odds go up when you file an application.”

 

What about you guys? Career or hobby? What do you think? And what do you think will help you achieve your goal?

 

 

Erin M. Kinch lives and writes in Fort Worth, Texas. Visit her blog, Living the Fictional Dream at www.erinmkinch.com for links to her published stories and more of her musings on writing. A version of this post was originally posted on her blog on 7/10/08.