Betsy Lerner's Blog, page 21

All I Need is a Miracle

Day 18. If you’ve fallen off a few days it’s not a big deal. This isn’t AA where you have to start all over on Day 1 if you “slipped.” If you’re here and you’re trying to write and you’re struggling, you’re in the right place. The beauty is you just need to find 30 minutes. Not a day, not a half day, not a room of your own, not a silent car, all you need is thirty minutes. I have to tell you, I had no idea when I floated this idea what would happen. For me, it’s been completely liberating. Every day, I can find thirty minutes and my project likes the attention.

Please weigh in and let us know how you’re doing.

And She’ll Have Fun Fun Fun

It’s Friday! Day Seventeen of the Thirty day writing challenge! Do you know where your children are? Today I had fun writing. Yes, I actually had fun. Me, Betsy Lerner, Queen of darkness, actually enjoyed the tapping. I shall prepare for a crushing experience tomorrow. But for right now, I’m cracking open a can of diet ginger ale and kicking back for some Netflix marriage. Guys! Guys! I can’t believe we’re at Day 17. Day 17!!!

Do you ever think of an audience when you write?

It’s Getting Hard to Be Someone But it All Works Out

Day 16. So appreciative of all the comments and insights surrounding our work. You know that one of the things I love about writing is that you do it alone and it’s lonely. I’ve never joined a book club or writers group (even though I am aware that this blog has been home to different writers groups over the years and they all make me completely happy). Still, I discovered writing as a child, and all through my teenage years and adult life, its delicious narcissistic promise of self involvement has never let me down. I don’t just go to write, I go to be alone, to steep, to steal myself away. To enjoy the exquisite pleasure of my own company. So yes, this sweet little community is fucking with my head. I did my dirty thirty.

How about you? Do you need help getting up the hill?

And the Traffic Wrote the Words

Day 15. I had a really good day. At least I think I did. That’s the beauty of writing. You really don’t know if you had a good day. You don’t know if what you did was great, garbage, or something in between. You might like it one day and not the next. You can’t tell if you’ve been kicked in the head or in the ass. Enter the snowflake land.

Do you have any way of knowing if you did good work?

Don’t Go Changing to Try and Please Me

DAY 14. If you’re reading this you’re half way there. Congratulations. I’ll come clean: I didn’t write today. I’m not going to make excuses because there are no reasons good enough not to write for just 30 minutes. I was also going to have a yogurt for lunch but somehow found myself demolishing a bagel with tuna fish. The whole idea behind the 30/30 was continuity whether you had a good day or a bad day or a blah day. It was about no excuses and balls to the wall. Sorry to have let you down,

What have you learned in 14 days?

Birds Fly Over the Rainbow Why Then Oh Why Can’t I?

Day 13. Day 13. Day 13. It’s time to do a little dance if you’ve been writing every day. I had a bonafide good day, banged out three pages. Of course, the writing gods could strike me down tomorrow. That’s the beauty of writing. It doesn’t matter if you’re despairing or feeling transcendent, it will kick you in the head. It’s like a guy who takes your number and never calls.

What did you write today?

Uh Oh, Uh Oh, Uh Oh, Uh, No, No

Wrote two more lackluster paragraphs. I may have napped in between them. It’s always special when your own work puts you to sleep. I wish I could say that I’m filled with confidence and positivity. On the contrary this project feels like pure folly today. Just more wanking in the wank yard. You know what I really hate? When writers are interviewed and they gas on about their process. You can tell Terry Gross that your process is the Betsy Lerner Thirty Minute Mental Hospital Method. By the way, it’s DAY 12, bitches!!!

What makes you crazy?

I Can Take All the Madness the World Has to Give

Day 11 was yesterday but yours truly was a Plus 1 at a shmancy dinner for the world’s pre-eminent Romanian writer where many glasses of red wine were imbibed along with a pork chop the size of Texas. Did I do my dirty thirty in the afternoon. The fuck I did. Was it pretty? No. Was it interesting? Not really. It was a meat and potatoes two paragraphs that need to be rewritten but decent in that it forwarded my plotless plot.

Are you still with me?

I’m So Tired of Being Alone

Friday DAY 10. Double digits. I had a good day. Three new paragraphs. I finally got out of the cul-de-sac I’ve been idling in for days. Got the car into first and got my characters in a new situation. The other remarkable thing about writing today for me was that I ate twenty Kit Kats the night before. Somehow, I was able to push through the self loathing and recrimination enough to type for thirty minutes. One small step for mankind.

What’s your weekend writing plan?

Yesterday Don’t Matter If It’s Gone

DAY 9!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have missed a day or two or three, please come back!!! I can’t do it without you. This is the part where a butterfly does something in New England and there’s a tsunami in Japan. It’s where you overeat for three days and expect the scale to go down. It’s about cutting off your hair and becoming Keith Richards, or spending an entire paycheck on a pair of Pradas you can’t even walk in. It’s about exquisite belief, magical thinking, and a small knock at the door. I’m telling you this because I need to hear it myself: keep fucking writing.

Describe your best writing day.