Writer Wednesdy - Flannery O'Connor

As a Southern writer, I guess having writing advice from Flannery O'Connor isn't exactly unique, but eh, who cares? I've written about how my first encounter with Ms. O'Connor took place on a bench on the UGA campus, and I guess ever since, when I write any fiction, she is one of the few writers I do find myself trying to emulate, or at least looking to her stories for inspiration.

I'm sure I'm not the first.

Anyway, I've quoted FO on this blog quite a bit. She has a lot of great quotes about writing, but there is also a set of tips floating around out there. To be honest, I can't relate to some of them and one of them I just flat out disagree with, but she does talk about writing habits:

"I'm a full-time believer in writing habits...You may be able to do without them if you have genius but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows away...Of course you have to make your habits in this conform to what you can do. I write only about two hours every day because that's all the energy I have, but I don't let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place."

Over the last year or two, I've learned that habits are schedules are a necessity of life, whether you are talking about writing or any other type of productivity. But as it applies to writing, I couldn't agree more. With all of the writing I do for work, I tend to put writing as a personal project aside, but I do find I'm at my best when I find a way to balance the two. I've taken many steps to do that: I set up an office upstairs, I've set my own deadlines, and I've tried to make myself write for at least an hour every night. Even doing this "Writer Wednesday" thing helps because, as I've said, this is as much a learning experience for me as it is an excuse to make a blog post.

Unfortunately, I'm not as dedicated as FO seemed to be, but I'm getting there.

Anyway, I am going to wrap this up and go ahead and point you in the direction of this plus seven other writing tips from O'Connor.