Permission to Write Crap #MyWANA #amwriting

For the last 19 years I've started every journalism class the same way."Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, (state you name), hereby give myself permission to write crap."There's nothing revolutionary about this writing advice, but it's some of the most freeing.Like Nora Roberts says, you can't fix a blank page.Still, for the last week I've been paralyzed by the blank pages of my current work. 19 years of making students swear to NEVER call me over to look at a blinking cursor, and here I was doing that very thing. Our creative brains are strange. We can psyche ourselves up and out. We can look in the mirror and say, "I'm going to have a rock star day. NYT here I come!" and we can look at blinking cursors and say, "I suck. What have I been thinking? I'm no writer."Whatever we choose, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.If you say you're too busy to write, you'll be too busy to write.If you say you don't have the ideas, you won't have the ideas.Our minds are incredible. The power of belief in yourself is huge. That's not to say every person ever will love the words you write. That's not to say you're going to sign a $1 million contract with a publisher or sell the movie rights to your latest manuscript. BUT if you don't believe in yourself, you're not even going to get words down on the page, and that's where I found myself EVEN though I've made people swear to give themselves permission to write crap because let's face it; sometimes our words ARE crap. But those sucky words hold magic, too. Sometimes magic we don't even realize until we're neck deep in revisions.So join me. Raise your right hand and give yourself permission to write crap. Then post the photo somewhere where others will see it to help remind you that the only one stopping you right now is you.Go write. And don't make excuses. And don't ask for help to fix a blank page because a blank page can't be fixed. #*****I write romance, and I love it. You can check my books out here. I'm always available to answer questions about my self-publishing journey.Currently Reading: On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn. I'm almost to the black moment. I love this book so much it kills me to stop reading, but I've got work to do!Currently listening to: The Hunger Games soundtrackCurrently thankful for: The time I've gotten to spend with my daughter the last week. It's tough to be a 20-something's mom!(I'm trying the # in the title so I don't have to reblog with them to connect with people on twitter. It might work. We'll see.)