Basic Training Tuesday

I'm experimenting with posting a consistent blog entry each Tuesday.
I've been second-guessing some material I've written and almost got to the point of trashing it all.

It helps to refocus and remember the basics. Here's my bootcamp basic for the week.

#1.) Know why you are writing

Back up the truck if needed, look at the road again, get your bearings. Are you steering your story off a cliff of cliches, predictable plotlines, and cardboard characters? Has finishing the story become more important than telling a story? Wasn't telling a story the reason you began writing in the first place?

One of my favorite attention-getting openings to a book comes from Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life in which he starts off with "It's not about you."

Try infusing some purpose-driven writing. It's not about you (unless it's an auto-biography or memoir, perhaps). It's about the story. Tell it.

Now drop down and give me fifty pages.