SBICAW (Sit Butt in Chair and Write)

Years ago, in a creative writing class at a local community college, the instructor wrote SBICAW on a chalkboard in florescent blue chalk and stabbed at the chalk letters with his index finger. He said, "Sit butt in chair and write, that's how you write a book." At that time, I didn't begin to comprehend the mechanics of writing a novel; therefore, sitting my butt in a chair and writing certainly didn't accomplish much.

However, with the write tools (love that!), such as Cathy Yardley's Rock Your Plot and Rock Your Revisions, learning mechanics, although I'm always continually learning something new about writing, isn't a key issue, I am now able to apply the enthusiastic instructor's SBICAW advice.

No, I don't wait on some sort of muse or inspiration, I sit my butt in a chair and write.

To me, waiting on the muse equates to waiting for inspiration to strike like a thought lightning bolt, or waiting until you are in the mood, or holding off until your toenail polish dries, or . . . . (See where we're headed here?)

The story I want to write is my inspiration. Finishing my book is my inspiration. The desire to write books for a living serves to inspire me. I have written while suffering from an upper respiratory bug and taking cold medication (now, those were interesting chapters). I have written while suffering from anemia so severe I was unsteady on my feet.

If I waited for THE mood to write, whatever "the mood" might be, I would never make / take / claim time to write. As far as waiting on some sort of invisible muse . . . I write because I CHOOSE to write, in the SBICAW way, fifteen minutes at at time.