Own your screw ups!

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Brian B Baker

This weekend I went to my niece’s wedding, drank too much, got sick, and didn’t get to do all the things I wanted to with my kids on Father’s Day.

I am totally to blame for this.

There’s this thing I tell myself about taking responsibility for my actions.

I hadn’t drank in a few weeks and I took my eye off my goals to drink. I haven’t done that in a long time.

My goals mean a lot to me and that I took my eye off the prize at the end of this writing journey, pisses me off.

I’m angry at myself for drinking too much. I couldn’t write on Sunday because the effects of the alcohol were still in my system. I don’t write well intoxicated. It comes out forced and horrid.

So I’m holding myself to a goal.

No alcohol for the rest of the summer.

I let myself down by drinking too much and in the process screwed up my writing schedule.

Own your screw ups.

Acknowledge every time you’ve messed up and say you’re sorry to those you’ve hurt.

I drank to excess on Saturday and let myself, my wife, and my kids down.

Have a good week.

When people you don’t know support you…

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Brian B Baker

During my bartending event on Wednesday night I had someone I’d only met tell me, “Keep going with that writing and stay focused on it.”

I don’t get that kind of support from family and here was this guy, I’d only met an hour ago, telling me this.

There are people in this world who get it. They understand what you’re trying to do, and why.

Sometimes they are few and far between but they are there.

Now that we’re at The halfway point of the year I can look back and say I’ve done some great things to improve my self and my writing.

The former is supposed to spelled that way.

I have worked on avoiding anger, people who disrupt my work, and those who see what I’m doing as a dream that will never happen.

I work hard on writing, my self, and who I want to be.

This man saw that and I thanked him for it.

Have a great weekend, I’ll be spending it watching my amazing niece get married.

Trying new things.

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Brian B Baker

As a writer it’s always good to try new things.

I started reading the Bill Hodges books by Stephen King recently, though I did them a bit backwards. I read the Outsider first, which isn’t a Hodges book but it was a lot of fun.

This summer my goal is to write stories in genres I wouldn’t normally write.

I’m not sure where I’ll go with these or what they’ll be about, but I need to write things I wouldn’t normally. It’s the only way I can think of to get better at this thing called writing.

I’m writing this as I listen to country music, bartending another event and like every wedding, things don’t go perfect, though this one has gone pretty close to that.

I see a lot of trying new things, people speaking that wouldn’t, people dancing who would never get on the dance floor, and the bride and groom doing something, maybe they never thought they would.

Life is about trying new things, and so is writing.

Get to it my friends and I’ll talk to you Wednesday.

Finishing a book is like…

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Brian B Baker

I’ve always loved the quote for today’s post. I feel Capote captures exactly what finishing a book feels like.

With deference to Mr. Capote, I finished a novel on Monday.

It is the eighth novel I’ve written and after every one I don’t know what to write.

I go through a period of reading a lot with few words on the page. It happens every time.

I try to write short stories but get stuck or they blow up into something bigger.

When this happened with the last book I worked on what I felt my weaknesses are. I’m unsure of what they are right now and that’s making this transition difficult.

I have editing to do, other things to do but when I’m not writing I feel like I’m failing my family and the trust they’ve put in me.

This trust is because part of the reason we left Las Vegas was to give me time to write, which I’ve done.

In the four years since we moved I’ve written six books.

That’s two books a year.

I’ll start querying one book next week and I’m going through another with my writing group. I’ll be querying that one the end of the year.

There are alternative plans for this books as I wrote a month ago.

Either way, I will work through what I’m dealing with and write.

Happy writing!

Don’t let anyone distract you!

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Brian B Baker

There’s a point when you’re an unpublished writer and all of your writer friends aren’t on the same level you feel you’re on.

This isn’t about bragging, narcissism, or vanity.

It’s about focus!

Projects may come along which can divert your attention, take away your focus, shifting it somewhere you don’t want it to go.

These projects are distractions from your goal, they’re mental masturbation.

You might get some joy out of them but they will always take your focus away from your goals.

They’re you telling yourself, it’s okay to do this thing these other people are doing because it “might” make you better. But you have goals to focus on, you have self-imposed deadlines to meet.

When everyone around doesn’t have true, set on paper goals for their writing it doesn’t matter what they’re doing. It’s a distraction. And distractions take you away from your goals.

Don’t let anyone tell you your goals aren’t real, that they aren’t attainable. And never let anyone distract you from those goals.

Brian B Baker, Writer

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