……..and someone was griping about the exercises being posted every day, saying that if he had the time to do the exercises (which are, in some cases, pretty detailed), then he would have the time to actually write, which is what he would rather do (the implication being that he did not have such time).

This is why it’s called ‘discipline’. You write whenever you can, wherever you are because you can’t NOT write. If you need huge chunks of time and no distractions in order to write, then you’re enamored of the idea of being a writer, with no intention of actually doing the hard work it entails. This applies to every artistic and creative pursuit, not just writing. Heck, it applies to just about anything that tickles your interest.

Stephen King and JK Rowling (to name the most obvious) wrote while struggling financially at menial, hard-labor jobs or while trying to find steady employment and surviving on assistance.

The point is, if you want to write, then write. Outlining your need for the perfect time and quantity of time is just a way to avoid committing to an indeterminate amount of time to create a world within a story.

And that’s the fear – commitment and looking inside yourself to see what monsters or angels lurk there.

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