Blogger KRISTI HOLL is the author of 42 books, including
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Writers First Aid

Who Needs Discipline Anyway?

June 26, 2012

Writers don’t need discipline, do they? Not according to one well known author.

In one of my favorite writing books (Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True by Elizabeth Berg), there’s a chapter on writing myths that the author says you should ignore.

I was reading the list and nodding and “Amen!”-ing my agreement all the way up to Myth #8. It said to ignore the warning that “you have to be disciplined to be a writer.” Really!

No Discipline? Shocking!

I recoiled. Such blasphemy! How could she claim that writers didn’t need self-discipline? “Everyone” knew you needed to discipline yourself to write every day, to study markets, to read in your field. How could she say that? It went against my deeply ingrained beliefs.

And yet…as I read on, her words resonated with me much more than I would have believed possible. If you don’t need to be disciplined, what do you need? She wrote:

“What you have to be is in love. With writing. Not with ideas about what to write; not with daydreams about what you’re going to do when you’re sucessful. You have to be in love with writing itself, with the solitary and satisfying act of sitting down and watching something you hold in your head and your heart quietly transform itself into words on a page.”

Major Paradigm Shift

Hmm…You don’t have to be disciplined–but instead, you have to be in love with the act of writing. For some reason, that rings true for me.

Of my 42 published books, I can only think of three that I had to “make myself” sit down and write. (They were a work-for-hire assignment on a subject that I had no interest in.) But I loved writing the others.

Yes, I ran into occasional rough spots. Yes, sometimes I felt physically or emotionally shot, so writing wasn’t as much fun on those days. But I didn’t have to discipline myself to write.

In each case, I had a story I was burning to tell, and I couldn’t wait for private, uninterrupted time when I could immerse myself in my fictional world–where I could make life turn out like I wanted, like it should be.

Fueled from Within

In the early years, the inner passion for writing fueled me–not discipline imposed from the outside. If I recall correctly, the need for discipline didn’t occur until I was juggling a full-time day job along with raising a family PLUS writing.

I think Ms. Berg is onto something here. Maybe on the days we can’t make ourselves write, we should check our passion quota about our current project.

Passion for writing versus self-discipline–I think I need to investigate this further! Is it one or the other–or both? And if we’ve fallen out of love with our writing, how can we get that back?

How about You?

What does “being in love with your writing” look like for you? Can you describe one of its attributes? If so, please leave a comment!

[LATER: You may want to read the comments below as well. Readers have added some important insights to this post.]

Post tags: discipline, self-discipline

Posted in: discipline,self-discipline,Uncategorized | | Comments (18)

18 Comments »

What a great post. I am a fairly disciplined writer (meeting deadlines, etc.) but being in love reminds me of how I steal time from the other responsibilities to work on my pet projects. They invariably progress slower, but every moment spent is delicious. She’s spot on!

Comment by Vijaya — June 26, 2012 @ 6:22 am
Yes, that “stealing time to be alone” feeling is like being in love, isn’t it? And how fast the time goes when working on a project we’re in love with. “Flow” happens more often then. (Of course, like being in love, things don’t always go smoothly! One still hits rough spots, but they are worth working through.)

Comment by Kristi Holl — June 26, 2012 @ 7:10 am
This is a good post! Thanks! I agree with Vijaya. I think you need to be disciplined for the deadlines, but the rest is all passion and the “love” of writing. The word “discipline” doesn’t always sit well with me, because I’m not so good at staying consistently disciplined. I think that if I check my “passion quota” when the writing gets slow, that would help me refocus and get to work. Thanks again for a great post!

Comment by MaDonna — June 26, 2012 @ 7:45 am
MaDonna, I think you’re right on with “check your passion quota” when things start to drag. That is my new “alert” too!

Comment by Kristi Holl — June 26, 2012 @ 8:17 am
WOW! Did I ever need this! I have been trying for over 4 years to get back into my writing after a horrible scathing critique of my work by someone I trusted.(I am not a novice. I graduated from several Advanced novel courses, including LR Novel course with Mary R. as my instructor.) My decline into procrastination and self doubt crept upon me without my realizing it. I have tried time and time again to ‘discipline’ myself back into writing. It was always a struggle. After all I had to discipline myself to go to my day job. (Oh what fun! NOT) and the thought of ‘making myself get to my desk and forcing words that wouldn’t come onto the screen’ just was more than I could take.The work suffered and ideas were few. But when I would just sit in my chair with the thought of you don’t have to write, just sit here in this comfy chair and listen to the silence…the ideas and my characters began to speak to me and once again my love of writing slowly emerged. The words began to flow and my characters began to talk to one another! And my writing time flew by!
I have a mantra I keep on my desk that helps me…Progress Not Perfection. It doesn’t have to be perfect on the first round. It helps to remind me that I love to write, and that passion is something I will not allow anyone to steal from me again.
Now, where did I leave my quill?

Comment by Linda — June 26, 2012 @ 8:53 am
Linda, this is embarrassing to admit, but something similar happened to me eight years ago. I already had 35 books published too! But I got a scathing critique by an editor at a conference (in front of a roomful of people, no less, one of those group things), and I left feeling my career was washed up and I was too old. (The editor was twelve.) It took me several years to finish a project after that. I started three novels that I dropped after finishing a rough draft, afraid to submit them. I am reworking them now. We are too tender-hearted sometimes, but you’re not alone!

Comment by Kristi Holl — June 26, 2012 @ 9:07 am
This is food for thought. I appreciate your honesty and that of Vijaya. It’s really hard to figure out the “best” approach to writing sometimes. I haven’t been in love with any projects for awhile. Maybe that’s why the writing has been so hard. I was looking for “love” in all the wrong places or maybe that should be wrong subjects.

Comment by Bonnie Hinman — June 26, 2012 @ 9:39 am
Good one, Bonnie! Looking for love in all the wrong places doesn’t work for writing either, does it? (Of course, the writing we do to keep food on the table sometimes just has to be done, whether you love it or not.)

Comment by Kristi Holl — June 26, 2012 @ 9:45 am
It is a wonderful way to think about it. I’d say you need both love and discipline, though. Passion about a project is what keeps you wanting to write it. The discipline comes in for the less pleasant but also necessary tasks, like market research, querying, etc. I also believe even a lot of people who enjoy what they do have trouble getting started and may dawdle online or around the house. A little discipline to sit down and focus can help a writer find the passion.

Comment by Chris Eboch — June 26, 2012 @ 9:47 am
Chris, I’m glad you said that. I was thinking about it yesterday as I worked on something I really do LOVE, but how hard it was to stay at the task. I was up and down all day, distracting myself with other unnecessary tasks. And discipline definitely comes into it for the business side of things for most writers. I’ve never heard a writer say how eager they were to sit down and write their query letter! Your last line says it so well: A LITTLE DISCIPLINE TO SIT DOWN AND FOCUS CAN HELP A WRITER FIND THE PASSION. Sometimes the discipline is necessary to get to the passion. Excellent!

Comment by Kristi Holl — June 27, 2012 @ 5:27 am
Love that Chris — about the passion finding you. It reminds me of William Faulkner who said something to the effect that he is inspired every morning at 9.

Comment by Vijaya — June 27, 2012 @ 6:49 pm
Hey Kristi: Good post. I’ve often said “I love writing,” but I don’t really think I’ve put it into context in my own mind until I read this post. I really do love writing, and I know this because I’ve sacrificed time from my other loves to do it…wife, children, siblings etc. And those other loves recognize and respect the love I have for the craft. This may sound strange, but when you get that “scathing critique” on your work, it’s like what you produced somehow doesn’t love you back, and that can really challenge the love you have for what you do. I’ve been participating in a workshop for the last month and it’s clear to me now that 9 people can love what I love, and one person can hate it. I think my skin is getting thicker because of it.

Comment by Doug Shearer — June 28, 2012 @ 8:27 am
Hi Kristi!

I bought your book, Writers First Aide, through ICL a few years ago. It is fantastic. I have incorporated many of your ideas about making myself sit in the chair.

I am also intrigued by the concept of loving writing. It makes sense. However, I’m concerned I don’t love it enough. I sit down to write and all these negative messages go through my head and I’m overwhelmed i.e. “this is a stupid story, no one is going to like this”.

Sometimes I have a great experience writing, but often, as is the case in practicing voice, it’s difficult and not fun. I’m starting my fifth year of voice, also.

I am in my third course at ICL, (four years of writing lessons) my second time taking the adv. book writing. It has helped me immeasureably and I would be completely lost without it. I plan on taking the course maybe five more times. It’s cheaper than getting an MFA.

I also relate to your position about critique groups. I just read your article in the ICL newsletter. I’ve been in two. The first one I quit after one time and the second one I went six times. The people in them were so nit picky that I left feeling discouraged and confused. One had two books published and thought he knew it all. He was very black and white and the other was a novice. Neither of them were experts and I didn’t trust their opinions. I feel better about my decision not to get in a group after hearing your experiences. It’s just not for me.

Thanks for all the time you spend trying to help people like me who are struggling.

Sincerely,
Catherine

Comment by Catherine Oliphant — June 28, 2012 @ 10:46 am
Great discussion Kristi and others…boils down to this, it seems:
To write, be in love with it.
To publish, be disciplined.
To publish what you write, like discipline, love writing.
As in: If I’m gonna love my wife, I’m gonna have to like yard work. I can’t have one and neglect the other.

Comment by Damon Dean — July 3, 2012 @ 10:07 am
Catherine, thanks for your post! Full of good stuff, you kindred soul!

And Damon, yours was a hoot–and a very apt summary! Enjoy the yard work tomorrow!

Comment by Kristi Holl — July 3, 2012 @ 6:09 pm
Ideally, being “In Love” with my writing to me means only this-

“Being honest about what I need to work on.” WITHOUT being too hard on myself for mistakes I make/have made. You can be a more impartial judge of your writing without being mercilessly militant about it.

I can the “teacher” I never had growing up. Someone who saw the best in me, not just the problems I need to work on, but also the things I was doing already doing right, RIGHT NOW. I believe even the most rebellious students in school today are doing at least ONE thing right, even if that’s only not dropping out, as I did, hard as I personally tried to stay the course.

Comment by Taurean Watkins — November 14, 2012 @ 4:19 pm
Oh, Kristi — I so needed this post, today! I just wrote a blog post, the other day, about my frustration with feeling like I have to force myself to stay in my seat and write. I feel called to write, but can’t seem to get myself to get to it! So, I came to your blog, and clicked on “discipline”, only to find this wonderful post about passion!

And, I think you’re SO right! I work with people trying to start their own businesses, and I always tell them that PASSION is the most important thing they need! If they don’t have it, they’ll struggle to succeed, because passion is what gets you through the rough waters of starting a business!

So, thank you, Kristi! As always, you are an inspiration!

~MizB

Comment by MizB — December 18, 2012 @ 7:27 am
Taurean and MizB, I’m glad you found this older post when you needed it. I just re-read it, and I realized that this is what *I* needed to hear too! How easy it is to forget, EVEN WHEN WE KNOW ENOUGH TO TELL OTHERS TO DO THIS. Thanks for sending me back to my own advice today.

Comment by Kristi Holl — December 18, 2012 @ 8:33 am