Writers, Don't Place Limits on Yourself

 

Writer A hits a rough spot in the novel he is attempting to write. He sighs, sits back, and tells himself to quit trying to write this book. You know you can't finish it. You know you can't make the words sing. He gives up.

Writer B has a problem in the middle of the novel he's working on. I know I can figure this out, he tells himself. What's the best way to do it, he wonders. He knows that walking away from the work in progress for a few days, or even weeks, might help him find an answer. Or he'll go for a walk, sit in some quiet place and think about the difficult spot he hit while writing. Sometimes that silence opens his mind enough to find a solution. 

The difference between these two writers is that Writer A gives up pretty easily. Writer B doesn't limit himself. He is willing to work on the problem in one way or another. 

I once worked for a man whose favorite saying was "Success comes in cans, not can'ts". I got tired of hearing that phrase multiple times, and so did the other women who worked in his dress shop. Even so, as the decades have gone on, I've thought of his adage many times, especially in my writing life. 

If you think you can do something, you'll probably be able to accomplish it. If you fear you cannot, you probably will not have much success. 

Our poster today says, 'There are no limits to what you can accomplish. except the limits you place on your own thinking.' I have said multiple times on this blog that _______ is up to you. You are the one in charge. You are the one who decides what you can or cannot do. You are the one who does or does not put limits on your thoughts about your writing life. 

We all know that quitting, or giving up, is by far the easiest road to follow. It's much more difficult to take the road that puts no limits on your thinking about what you can accomplish. That road is longer with more than a few bumps, but it will take you better places in your writing world.

If you give up, will you always wonder what you might have accomplished in your writing world if you'd approached it differently? Would you rather be the one who wonders, or the one who kept working until he found some success? With the second choice comes hard work. No one ever said writing was easy. It isn't. 

Yep, 'success comes in cans, not can'ts".