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Don't Derail Your Writing Life Before It Starts

By Jennifer Carsen

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Published: 07Nov2009
Word count: 524
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Every week, I get a lot of questions from lawyers eager to begin writing. Some want to become full-time writers, while others just want to complete the novel or screenplay that's been kicking around their heads forever.

Most are highly committed to making a change in their lives, but oftentimes they fizzle out soon after (anyone who's ever tried and failed to stick to a diet will understand what I'm talking about here).

How to prevent this? The hurdles are nearly always mental. These are often the most difficult types of obstacles to overcome - the ones we set up for ourselves in our own heads. Here are a few of the most common, and some suggestions for overcoming them.

1. "I don't have enough time." Lawyers without a doubt are among the busiest people around. But somehow we always find the time for what's most important to us - and you discover what's most important to you by looking at what you actually spend your time doing, not what you say you'd like to be doing. Realizing this can be unsettling, to say the least.

If you want a shock sometime, for one day keep track of how you spend your time (not just your billable time, but all of your awake time). If you're like most of us, you will probably be horrified at how much time is wasted on the web, reading magazines you don't really want to read, watching indisputably awful television, and so on. Even if you're an efficient person who uses time well, there's nearly always some room for improvement. Plus, establishing writing as a non-negotiable part of your life takes less time than you'd think, once you get rolling with it - 30 minutes a day is great; an hour, if you can spare it, is even better.

2. "I'm not good at this." Of course you're not - you don't do it enough yet! Mastery of any new skill requires time, effort, and repetition. You're not going to be a great writer right out of the gate - nobody is. Stephen King once said that "Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." It's uncomfortable to be in the inept, floundering stage of anything new, and the older we get, the more we resist being there. But the only way to move past that stage is to just keep at it, day after day. Once you get some momentum built up, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to keep going. The hard part is just getting started.

3. "This isn't going to lead anywhere." At risk of sounding like your mother, it definitely won't lead anywhere with that kind of attitude. The surest path to defeat is accepting it as a foregone conclusion - you're finished before you start. Think about all the things you've achieved in your life. You probably got them, in large part, by simply believing you could and then moving forward from there. (Truly, if you could master the concept of hearsay for the bar exam, you can definitely do this.)

Jennifer Carsen, J.D. is a "recovering lawyer" and the founder of Big Juicy Life. She specializes in turning lawyers into writers. Check out http://www.bigjuicylifecoaching.com for a copy of the free download, "6 Myths About Leaving the Law for Writing."

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