
Anton Chekhov wrote: “My country house is full of people, they never leave me alone; if only they would go away I could be a good writer.”
I bet you have your own “if only …” sentence that tells why you haven’t reached your writing goals.
Mine change from time to time. “If only I was more knowledgeable about this topic, I would feel confident enough to finish this novel” (my present “if only”). “If only I wasn’t so easily distracted” … “If only I felt more motivated” …
I’ll tell you one thing that does help me break through my “if only” dilemma, and that’s working on something I’m really excited about.
Many prolific writers generate innumerable ideas, and my guess is they’re mostly great ones. Ideas for poems, short stories, plays, screenplays, novels. You have to generate a lot of ideas to get to a few truly great ones. Continue Reading…