A Fond Farewell: If It Makes You Happy

We Finally Did Gert Off His Nurts A common piece of advice for writers is "Kill Your Babies." Normally, I would either spend twenty minutes either making jokes, or explaining this, but I think I'll skip it. Whoever gave that advice would have writers abandon the sentences, the turns of phrase that we've written that we are particularly proud of, in the hopes that we will write something better on another session in front of the computer. It is in this spirit that we must say goodbye to Steroid Squirrel. 

Something I've learned about writing recently is that when things get difficult, find something that makes me happy, and let it serve as a boost. There have been countless days I've sat in front of my computer with no idea what I wanted to accomplish that day, and absolutely no passion for whatever it was I was writing. Needless to say, no writing got done, and the internet had one more person wasting time on it. 

Everyone has their own tricks of 'faking it' until the writing comes smoothly, and as long as it works, it works. My favorite trick is having one character punch another in the throat and cackle to myself as the rest of the scene plays out. Unfortunately, not all characters have the stomach for that sort of thing, nor can we have people just running around hurting each other, so I'm going to talk briefly about something else that I do, and hopefully it'll help.

You might have noticed, here at CreativeWritingTime, we seem to have a serious thing for squirrels. This both is, and isn't true. We love us some cuddly vermin, true, but it's about more than just the squirrels. It's about the happiness they bring. 

I do my best writing when I am feeling an emotion strongly enough to move me. It doesn't even have to be a specific emotion, I have written equally well the day after I got engaged as the day after that relationship ended. All said, I prefer to be happy. It is the emotion that drives me. I can't sit at a computer feeling "Meh" and hope to write anything worth reading. I have proven this even today, I sat down to write this blog post, and turned out nothing more than literary defecation. 

Then I turned on some old Wile E. Coyote cartoons.  Looking at that picture just now brings a smile to my face, and a nostalgic tear to my eye. 

So that is my advice for you, dear fledgling writer, find something that makes you happy, whether it be a woman, or a stuffed animal, a talisman, a fun saying, a friend, or a fond memory of your childhood, and love it as intensely as you have room in your heart for. At that point, you won't be able to avoid speaking directly to your readers' hearts. 


But enough about me, I want to hear from you! This is something I do to help me, I'd love to hear what works for you!