Guest Post: RM Lutz

Bonjour de Paris, tout le monde! RM Lutz from The Book Hound has joined us today. Go check out her blog and leave lots of lovely comments, because she is a lovely person with a lovely blog. 

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I’ve never guest-posted before, so this is a new experience for me. So, as per normal for me, my first thought when encountering a new, big, scary (maybe not—but humor me) experience was: don’t mess it up. 

It’s my first thought about a lot of things. First archery tournament? Don’t mess it up. Terrifying presentation? Don’t mess it up. First time making a new recipe? Don’t mess it up. Not, do your best. Not, let’s think how to best do this. 

But, don’t mess it up. 

And with that one phrase, all creative thoughts shut down. The gears stopped turning, the muses fell silent, the well of inspiration dried up, the hamster fell off the wheel—however you want to say it, I didn’t know what to write. I was too scared to find inspiration because I was too afraid of failure to look ahead to what might be accomplished.

Whether it’s because we’ve scared ourselves out of inspiration or because we just don’t feel like inspired authors, a lack of inspiration may seem like the end of the world. 

But it’s not. 

To tell the truth, I don’t feel like an inspired, accomplished writer most days. Quite the opposite—I feel like a second-rate, dried out, uninspired novice who probably has no business writing. 

If I waited for inspiration, I’d never get anything more than a few sentences down on the page. If I waited to feel like I was a qualified writer, I’d never write a post on my blog or open up my WIP document again. 

I’d sit and stew in my easy chair, my coffee growing colder by the minute. And then I’d give up. 

Don’t give up on writing. Don’t wait until inspiration strikes you like a lightning bolt—because odds are, it won’t. Don’t wait until you feel qualified—because odds are, you won’t. That’s okay. Don’t feel qualified? Write until you get better. Practice makes perfect. Don’t feel inspired? Take Jack London’s advice and go chase after inspiration with a club, lightsaber, fountain pen, or whatever your weapon of choice happens to be.

Don’t wait until you feel good enough. Write now. Write in spite of being uninspired. 

One day, you might look back at that book, or article, or scrap of paper. And while it might be flat and riddled with grammar errors and totally bland, it was a step in the right direction. 

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Thank you so much RM for joining me today, and remember to check out her blog!