The Surprising Thing Dog-Sitting Is Teaching Me About Being a Writer

 I'm currently dog- sitting for someone. She's a tiny dog, but she is teaching me a huge lesson about being a writer.

This little dog is ball-obsessed. All day, she just chases a ball. She has no interest in anything else.

Every morning, she wakes me up around 5 a.m. whimpering because she wants me to throw the ball for her. I ignore her for about half an hour, and then I sit up and throw it for her-again and again and again.

I throw the ball while I'm dressing and while I'm making the bed. I kick it out of the kitchen repeatedly while I make breakfast and ignore her cries while I eat breakfast.

The days all begin like this, and it goes on all day. Even when I take her for a walk, all she wants to do is go home and play. Even as I write this, she's putting a ball next to my foot so that I can kick it.

I honestly have no idea how she has so much energy, but I'm not surprised how deeply she sleeps at the end of the day.

And while I'm emotionally and physically exhausted by it all, I'm also impressed with her dedication and focus on her ball-chasing mission.

Her life is all about the ball. She'll do other things if she has to, like go out for a pee, or go for a walk, or eat, or put up with an insufferable visitor who insists on patting her instead of just throwing the damn ball like she's asking them to, but then she goes straight back to the ball when it's all over.

And it got me thinking about being a writer. 

I thought, wouldn't it be great to be just as excited about writing, waking up every day and wanting to do nothing else but write? 

I can imagine how great it would be:

• Writing before I even get out of bed because I just can't wait to start. 
• Spending every day eager to do as much writing as I can. 
• Doing other things as quickly as I can so that I can get back to my writing. 
• Enjoying writing so much that I can't wait to do it, and no time is wasted because when all the things I have to do are done, I go back to my writing. 

In reality, my days are never that simple. Even on days that I keep clear for writing, life always seems to throw up something to ruin my plan.

Or is it that I allow life to throw something up? What if I said no to other things so that I could write more?

I keep watching this tiny dog every day and keep marvelling at her zest for life and playing with a ball. 

To her, it's simple; she wants the ball. Life is all about the ball.

What if my life was more about my writing instead of letting other things get in the way of that?

It's something I'm constantly thinking about as I watch this happy little dog playing all day.

She knows what she wants, and she goes after it without apology.

And I think there's a lesson in that for us all.

The Art of Being a Disciplined Writer

Being a writer sounds easy, but we all know it isn’t. 

It takes hours a day of sitting alone, working with no distractions. This is also coupled with working from home, and people think we're not busy, so they try to distract us when we're working.

That’s why it’s not enough to be a writer. You must be a disciplined writer.

Anyone who achieves at anything does so because they're disciplined.

Buddhists meditate daily, athletes train daily, and surfers surf daily. 

They all have one thing in common.

Discipline.

Artists create, dancers dance, writers write - and all do it regularly and are disciplined.

If you read about any famous person or your favourite writer, you’ll find they all have a routine or a schedule and are self-controlled enough to stick to it.

Some writers didn’t become disciplined until later in life. 

Laura Wildes Ingle (who wrote Little House On The Prairie) didn’t become a disciplined writer until she was 48.

Isaac Asimov wrote his first book when he was 30 and worked on his next 500 books during the remaining 42 years of his life (which is approximately 12 books a year).

But they all had that one thing in common.

Self-discipline.

It’s not enough to say you’re a writer; you need to be motivated enough to have the discipline to sit down and write every day.

But how do you become a disciplined writer?

To begin with, all you have to do is get to your writing chair every day.

You don’t have to write for hours. You just have to sit down.

Starting is the hardest part of anything, which is probably why I’m often reluctant to sit down and write, but once I start, it’s easy to keep going. It seems rude to ignore phone calls and knocks at the door, but when I'm working, that's exactly what I do. I have scheduled times to write, and I try to stick to them no matter what (emergencies accepted, but how often does that happen?).

If you want to write and earn more, make it a habit to sit in your writing chair every day and make a start.

Everything gets easier with time till eventually you’ll look forward to sitting down every day and feel eager to write.

Free eBooks to Help You Write More and Earn  More

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Changes are Coming

 I've been thinking a lot lately about how I work, especially when it comes to this blog and my website, https://ruthiswriting.com.

And I've decided to make a few changes.

I've decided that it would be better if I put shorter posts on this blog.

All my posts are automatically emailed to all my subscribers, and I thought, who wants to get loads of long blog posts emailed to them all the time? Who has the time to read them?

My posts can be read online any time, and I know they're read by many people because my blog gets over 60K visitors a month. I think it's easier for my blog visitors and my subscribers to read more short posts rather than fewer long posts. I know I do. 

Also, I'm going to stop including an image with every blog post because not only is it unnecessary, it's time-consuming. 

My blog is about information, not pretty pictures. My own personal email setup, for security reasons, blocks images and other remote content, so I never see them anyway, and I'm sure most other people do the same, which is another reason not to bother with images.

Another reason for shorter blog posts is because I write articles for my website that are longer than my blog posts, and they're emailed to all my subscribers. 

And in future, for the sake of brevity, I'll email only a paragraph or two of each article, plus a link to it if you want to read more. I've ummed-and-ahhed many times about whether to email the full article or just a link to it, and I've decided sending a short paragraph or two and a link is best. The short intro will be enough for you to decide if you want (or have the time) to go on and read the whole thing.

So these are the changes I'm making to simplify your life and mine.

This way, you'll only receive the information you need without the extra waffle, which will give you more time to write.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com

Be Careful - Don't Catch the FLIT Virus!

I was recently re-listening to a talk given by the great copywriter Gary Bencivenga. In it he talked about how easy it is to catch the FLIT virus and how it can ruin your life.

And sadly, I think we all have it.

The biggest problem is that once you're infected, it's almost impossible to recover.

So what is the FLIT virus?

Focus Lost - Internet Temptation.

 This is the worst computer virus ever because it gets into your head from the computer and leads you to so many places you don't want to go.

It sucks away your time, hour after hour and day after day.

Every time you think you've beaten it, it bites you again and draws you back down.

So how can you beat it?

You already know.

Stop browsing and start writing.

Set up internet-free focus times on your computer if you have to.

If you find yourself continually on your computer but you're not writing, you're infected and need to clean yourself by opening your latest WIP, or getting off your computer immediately, opening up your notebook, and starting to write.

Luckily, it's a virus you can control - if you really want to.

It's time to choose.

And just think...

You can have an ebook written by this time next week, or you can still be browsing online.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/7day.html