Every artist has one or several other artists whose work has been an influence on their own. I’m no different in that respect. One of my favorite writers and the one that is most influential in my writing is Stephen King. My statement here is going to be obvious, but he is one of the most popular writers today, because he writes great stories. He is classifies as a horror novelist, but one only has to read just one of his stories to see although his stories usually take a turn toward the dark side, the stories are also run the gamut of the human experience. It is unusual to think of someone laughing while reading a horror novel, but King often interjects moments that make one chuckle or even guffaw. He seamlessly intertwines so many different myths and genres in his stories and make it seem effortless. I would go so far as to say I’m jealous of that ability. With the completion of his Dark Tower series what we saw was the emergence of a compendium of sorts. The Dark Tower draws from many of his other stories and they become a part, weather slightly or majorly in a larger story. The story then becomes a crux, or a backbone, for his work. The story on it’s own draws from and uses so many different sources and genres that it refuses to be classified and stands as a remarkable seven volume epic journey that makes a must read for anyone interested in fiction on any level.

I could sing his accolades all day, but he is very popular and his work is very well known. If a person has not read one of his stories, more than likely they have seen one on television or in the movies, and they might not have even known it. Most people are probably at least familiar with his name. The reason why I look up to him as an inspiration for my writing is his work ethic. Even though he is as popular as he is, and pulls down insane money for a writer he stays hungry and keeps churning out piece after piece. Not all of his writing is fantastic and amazing, but it usually at least good. The way he works though is absolutely commendable. It’s that type of ethic that I want to bring to my own work, to keep working, to keep churning out one good story after another.

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to read his book on writing, which is conveniently titled “On Writing”. I think one of the most important things I took away from that reading, is that if one wants to be a writer, one must write, and one must also read. One must be as passionate for reading as one is for writing. To get a strong grasp of the craft both of those tasks must be completed regularly. In King’s own words, “if you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time to write”. I believe that to be true, and I also found that to be an incredible relief. I love to read, and when I started writing I felt guilty for doing anything but writing. I felt like, well now that I want to write, it’s time for me to stop spending all this time reading and get down to some serious writing. Now it’s like I’ve been given permission to do something that I love, because ultimately it’s going to make me better at doing something else that I love.

My last entry I wrote about staying on task and meeting daily goals. Since Stephen King is the inspiration for my work ethic, and the two entries are closely related, I thought I would share a picture of Stephen King that I found that I think about whenever my mind wanders to something other than doing my work. Maybe this will help any reader of this blog to stay on track with their work as well. Long live the King! Enjoy!

The Task Master

First off, I would like to apologize to the followers of my blog. It has been a little while since my last entry. I have been unusually busy lately with trying to purchase a home in this terrible economy, and have preparing for a visit from my Mother. With that said, the topic of this entry is all about keeping on task.

One of the most important things to think about when taking part in any creative venture is making time to do the work. Anything worthwhile is going to take time to create, and one needs to set the time aside to do it. There are thousands of excuses not to do the work, trust me I know them all, but if one is serious about the work than a schedule should be set up and strictly adhered to. A professor of mine once said “everything in life exists to keep you from doing your work”. He was talking about painting, but that can be applied to any kind of creative task. It’s good to think about it that way. It keeps things in perspective. There are things one absolutely has to do, but one needs to figure out how important one’s work is and make sure there is time to do it.

When I was laid off from my job, I thought it would be incredibly easy to work on my writing. I found out that’s not the case, for me it’s actually much harder. When I was working my time was more structured There were certain things I had to do at certain times, and it was easy to throw in a schedule to fit in that time frame. Now that I’m not working I’ve taken over the all the household chores. There’s always something to do around the house so sometimes I just have to sort out my time better. It’s tough though with the unstructured nature of my day. I, probably like most people get, get distracted easily. Everything demands my attention, and sometimes I feel like I have to take care of everything before I can concentrate on the task at hand. That never works because there is always something that will exist to keep one from doing the work one needs to do. What I do is set daily goals for myself. I set a certain number of words to write every single day. Sometimes it’s easy to do, and sometimes it’s a struggle to achieve it, it depends on the day. What the goal does is help me keep working toward the purpose of finishing my project instead of it lingering on the shelf for way longer than it should, or maybe never getting completed at all. By setting goals I was able to achieve something I never thought possible, and that is finish a manuscript for a novel, and now working on a second one as well. Setting these daily goals can work wonders when completing lengthy works. Give it a try.

A comment to the people out there who say they have to wait for inspiration before they can work. That’s all bullshit. Sure there is a certain amount of inspiration when it comes to creative work, but the bulk of any creative venture is a lot of hard work. I think the greatest inspiration comes when one forces oneself to keep working, even when one doesn’t feel like it. Pushing oneself past creative plateaus is a great way to come up with new ideas and to push the farther than one might have originally thought possible. If one always waits for the muse to strike, or for the feeling of wanting to work to come, then there is a good possibility that the work will never get finished. Now I’m going to take some of my own advice and work on my manuscript some more. Until next time, thanks for reading.