BIAM- What a Motivator!

By Christine Thackeray

I recently read another blog about how you shouldn't make excuses about not writing. If you want to be a writer, you simply make it a priority and write. I know so many people who say they want to be writers but when you ask what they've done, they haven't written anything. Just because we may be gifted in writing, the thing that makes you a "writer" is the same thing that makes you an athelete- doing it on a consistent basis.

This week my email box has been flooded by writers writing who are participating in BIAM. As I look at their incredible word counts I've turned a little green. I've been getting out wedding invitations, putting off doing housework while playing too much solitaire, getting curriculum together and talking to my college children on the phone for hours. Next week I begin homeschooling my sixth grader and a neighborhood child for an hour each morning (their teacher is burnt out and for my son to endure a year of not learning anything in an area he struggles in doesn't work for me.)

But with all that, I can still fit in writing. I was going to wait until the New Year but I don't think I can. I'm happier writing. I still remember going to my first writer's conference here in Portland. I sat next to a woman who told me her first book was bought by Bantam with a contract for her second. She said that she couldn't get out that second book and lost her contract. She's been struggling to finish a second manuscript ever since. I gawked at her and must have seemed terribly rude, but I couldn't imagine having that sort of opportunity and not leaping at it with everything in me.

Now I understand her better. I've had a strong concept for years. My publisher and a NY agent have expressed interest and I'm still only two thirds of the way there. Three years is too long to be working on the same project. It's time I suck it up and finish. Starting Monday I'm joining BIAM.... if they'll let me.