Sins of Our Fathers | Author Blog

I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in more than a month and I learned an important lesson about writing.

Not working the writer’s muscle means not fitting into the writer’s clothing.

I’ve been slipping over the last couple of months on my regular walking and exerisie routine. Injury beset me and it has been a slow recovery. But the biggest problem I’ve had to deal with is not the injury, it was the breaking of habit.

Habit is such a strong factor in what we do. Whether we get up every morning and drive the same route to work, or commit the same sin again and again, or take the time each day to spend in God’s Word.

In exercise, habit is a huge factor too, and mine is broke.

If you do a search on how many days it takes to break a habit, you will find a host of sites that say it’s twenty one days. Like this one, 21 Days to A Positive-Attitude Habit.

I tend to think it takes less then that for the good habits but maybe not. It really doesn’t matter. My habit of walking and daily exercise were broken and I got on the scale this Monday morning and found out why my pants were getting tight.

Twelve extra pounds.

So instead of stepping into the shower I dusted off the work out clothing and spent forty five minutes on the torture machine of my exercise bike.

And I was reminded about how this relates to writing. Because like my exercise routines, I’ve gotten out of the habit of daily writing. Though I can not use the excuse of injury. Indeed I could argue that my physical injury should have led to more writing.

That didn’t happen. Nope, I let life crowd in and steal time I normally set aside for writing and then, with a creeping silence, my writing habit ceased.

Which doesn’t lead to pants fitting tight or twelve extra pounds, but it does lead to poor writing, poor editing, and a poor man.

So I now find myself in the position of needing to break two bad habits and replace them with two good habits.

Life is fun that way. It leads to experience, wisdom, and writing fodder.

We do have fun we writing humans.

Do you know what the secret to being a good writer is?

A good publicist? A good software program? How about an education in writing? Oh, maybe it’s a super imagination?

Well all those are great but they are not the secret to becoming a good writer or even better, a master writer.

I’ve listened to writers at conferences and on the web and I’ve talked with other writers one-on-one on this very secret. In the end the concensus from some of the best living writers of our day say that the secret to becoming a master writer is writing.

It’s pretty simple. To become a good writer and then a master writer, one needs to write.

Write with consistence and persistance. Write when you feel like writing and write when you don’t feel like writing. Write during your free moments and by all means be like a Boy Scout and be prepared with a note pad when the ideas for writing burst like bubbles upon your brain.

Writing is a way of life. If you live it you will grow and mature in it.

I’m still waiting on news of my two book submissions to publishing houses. And I will admit that with the waiting I’ve not been as consistent in my writing. That is not a good thing. Writing has become a struggle and fight with other pressing life needs. Discouragement has even played a role in keeping me from the keys and that, given ground will only gain more ground.

But I’m not about to allow that to continue. I’m going to do something to gain back the ground. I’m going to write and I’m going to throw into the mix the value of persistence.

Let the writing begin. And let it start with me…. Okay, that’s just silly. Where else would my writing start.