Dropping Keys

It will come as a surprise to absolutely no one that I used to be a pretty hardcore Star Wars (and Star Trek, if you can be both) fan.

Of course I watched the movies over and over, but I also read many of the Star Wars books that you see when you walk past the sci-fi rack of your local bookstore.

Many of the novels are written by the author Kevin J. Anderson, and this post is not about my hatred of midi-chlorians or where Darmok and Jalad were (at Tanagra, of course), but about a blog post he did entitled Olympics and Writing.

It turns out that bestselling authors get people coming up to them all the time with this:

I’ve had many people tell me, “Oh, writing is easy. Anybody can do it if they just sit down and put their minds to it.” Here’s how the conversation goes: Somebody at a book-signing: “I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I could write a novel.”
Me: “Oh? Why haven’t you?”
Person: “I just don’t have the time.”

How many times have you heard people at the office saying that they wish they could do XYZ “if only they had the time”? I know I certainly have said it.

As with most things that are worth doing, it all comes down to hustle. If you are really committed and passionate about doing something, no matter what it is, you will make the time. Otherwise, talk is all it will ever be.

Me: “Hmm. Nobody gives me the time, either. I have to make the time, set priorities, discipline myself to get my writing done each day, no matter how tired I am. I worked a full-time regular job while I wrote my first novels, scraping out an hour here or there in evenings and weekends. That’s how I’ve become a successful author.”

What are you doing to make time for your passion?