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Last week I went over all the many ways we sabotage ourselves by not taking our writing seriously. This week I would like to share some of the ways you can remedy that. First you have to get rid of all the doubts and fears that you’ve been carrying around in your head. There is something strange about artists. They seem to always need someone else’s adulation and approval. As a nurse, I had to get a degree. In order to be officially recognized as a nurse, I had to pass a test. When I passed that test, I got a license stating that I was a Registered Nurse in the state of New Jersey.

Do you think any of that made me a good nurse? Oh, it gave me the knowledge and skills I needed to care for my patients. It didn’t teach me to care. My license didn’t teach me the instinct to know when something wasn’t right and needed attention. My degree didn’t give me the heart to drag my tired self down the hall to check on a patient just one more time. You can’t teach someone to be a nurse. It is born in them.

Too bad writers can’t get a license to prove to publishers, bookstores, and mainly themselves that they are writers. However, talent is not easily defined. I know many people who have English or Literature degrees who couldn’t write an interesting paragraph if their life depended on it. I know high-school drop-outs and many people to whom English is a second language who floor me with their talent. So what makes one a writer? Like nursing, I believe it is a calling, a gift from God.

However, we doubt our gift. We deny the very spirit that moves us to conger stories and create characters. I only know one thing.   If you don’t think of yourself as a writer, no one else will. If you don’t take your writing seriously, why should anyone else?

So how do you think of yourself as a writer? I want you to take two simple steps this week. First, I want you to tell everyone who asks or anyone you meet that you are a writer. Aren’t you? Announce to that family member who wants to keep you in a well-defined box that you’ve broken out of the box. Let them know you have launched a new career. If you meet someone new and they ask you what you do for a living, tell them that you’re an author. You may be surprised at how interested and accepting people are. Those fears and doubts are in your own mind.

Why am I telling you to do this? Not to convince others, but to convince yourself. There’s something about hearing your own voice say something that makes it accepted truth. Go ahead, plunge forward with courage.

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Secondly, I want you to create an office. In 2012 I watched a documentary on the author Nora Roberts. What caught my attention was her office. She had dedicated a room in her home to her writing. She had a beautiful wrap-a-round wooden desk. She had shelves that contained all her novels and awards. She surrounded herself with reminders of her own success. It made her prolific. She spends six to nine hours a day in that office. Wow! Just like a real job!

It inspired me. I looked around and found a neglected loft space in my home. I had my husband pick up my childhood desk that was languishing in my mother’s attic. It was a dark wood Spanish style, with shelves that sat above it. I framed all the covers of my books and placed them on the shelves with inspiring plaques and any good reviews or awards I received beside them. I put up a bookcase with all my reference books, and  signed copies of my favorite novels and the novels that inspired me. I went to Wal-mart and purchased a comfortable swivel chair and wastebasket. I had my office!

That is your assignment. You are a real writer. If you don’t have an office – create one! Look around.  You deserve your own spot. Surround yourself with your success. Each day it will remind you who you are. If you already have an office, spruce it up. Renew your surroundings and you will renew your spirit.

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in NJ with her retired husband Michael. She has two grown children and two grandchildren. She is an award-winning novelist and writes a children’s series for Chesterton Press

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com

8 Replies to “Monday’s Writing Tips – Your Office!”

  1. I loved this suggestion, because I know the problem of not taking myself seriously as a writer.
    I actually did create an office, but never was able to move my desktop computer into it so it sat for a year and became the junk room. The family uses my office to store Christmas gifts, a spare mattress, shopping bags, etc. But now I finally have a laptop and as soon as I pry it out of my teen’s hands, I will sit in my office with my laptop and finally fulfill that dream of being a writer in the countryside. Then, like Chevy Chase in “Funny Farm”, writer’s block will hit!

  2. Good post Karen;
    I actually did take a room and make it into an office and it is a mess and I have papers and books and slips of paper and post-it-notes stuck all over and I LOVE it and it is my senior-citizen world. As far as surrounding myself with my success I guess that means having this little place to work in. YES!!!

  3. Excellent points, Karen! I have a space, and nice desk…but it’s cluttered and not particularly welcoming right now. I’ll take some time to make it welcome me again, and I’ll start using it again.

    Regarding the other, saying “I am a writer.” Getting better at that!

    Thanks for a GREAT post!

  4. I love this. Over the summer I got it in my head that I needed to turn my former master bedroom (where I haven’t slept in more than a year because of outside light issues) into an office. Why that room? Not only was it mostly vacant, it was also the only room in my trailer large enough to accommodate my bookshelves!

    It’s still in process. I’m refining the way the room works. But man, oh man! I love it! —- I just need to spend more time in there.

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