By Elizabeth Vaughan

You know that advice about “write every day”?

Yeah, not so much.

I mean, I think about it, ya know? And beat myself up about it, that’s for sure. But I sometimes get my head all messed up and my brain in knots because I suck. The critical voice in my head says “Why bother? Why even try?"

"But wait,” I hear you saying. “You have published eight books, a bunch of short stories, and you are a USA TODAY Bestselling Author.”

So? You think I don’t suffer from the Inner Critic? Think again, grasshopper.

Ah, but I have tricks. I will share my tricks. But first, I must tell you a story. Because, that’s kinda what I do.

I hate exercise. Loath it. I am a couch warrior, with all the best intentions of exercising and never actually doing exercise.

But I came to the realization that it was actually in my best interest to exercise, so I decided that I would re-learn long form tai chi. I had room in my living room, a video of my old teacher, and determination. I would get up early every day and do tai chi. 102 moves. Yang form, with a bit of Wu.

I didn’t do it. Every excuse in the book, which I will not bore you with, but I did not do it.

*sigh*

Then I stumbled on the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. Small steps, over time, bring huge results.

So the next morning, I got up early, got dressed for tai chi, and went back to bed.

After a couple of days of doing that, I felt so stupid that I got up, got dressed and went to the living room, took opening stance . . . and then went back to bed.

After a day of that, I set a timer for three minutes and did three minutes of form, and then went back to bed.

The cats were confused. They would watch from various perches around the living room.

This wasn’t perfect, but I kept at it, and kept at it, all the while the critical voice was saying “Why bother? Why even try?” I would never be graceful, never learn all the moves, never get the positions or my breathing right, etc. etc.

Until one morning, when I was starting to try the first kick. I lifted my foot, spread my hands, lost my balance and fell back with a loud curse. The cats, startled, exploded from the room, scrambling to escape from the crazy lady.

I laughed out loud . . . and in that moment I realized something very important.

I did not have to be perfect.

Nothing the critical voice said really mattered. I didn’t have to be perfect or graceful. That I could take joy in just moving. With that, my attitude changed. It has taken me a year but I have memorized half of the form, and now I do it every morning. It can still be a struggle at times, but if I don’t do it I miss it. And it has made a difference in my physical health.

"Well, that is lovely”, I can hear you saying. “But what does it have to do with writing?”

Stay with me.

There are times when the critical voice in my head shuts me down. “Why bother?” it says. “Why even try?"

"True,” says I. “But I am just going to open the document and check my then/thans.” Or “I am just going to try for ten minutes, then play [insert computer game here]”. Or “I just want to get this one scene done. It will suck. But I can fix it later.”

Writing is hard. There are the wonderful, joyful, creative moments when the words flow, and I feel like I am a genius. But then there are the other days when I suck.

Those are the days when I have to trick myself, and ignore the critical voice in my head. I have to remind myself that the words don’t need to be perfect. They just need to be on the page so that I can edit, revise, polish and re-write. So yes, try to write every day. But don’t strive to be perfect, or worry that it is not good enough. Just get the words on the page. The struggle is a constant, and it’s not always easy.

But it’s always, always worth the struggle.

Elizabeth Vaughan is a USA Today Bestselling Author of 'Warprize,' the first volume of The Chronicles of the Warlands. By day, Beth's secret identity is that of a lawyer, but she prefers writing about swords and sorcery. She has participated in many panels and seminars for writers over the past decade. Learn more at her website: WriteandRepeat.com

WHY YOU MAY NOT BE GETTING AS MANY RETURN COMMENTS AS YOU SHOULD BE

By Raimey Gallant

If you’re finding that people aren’t returning your comments, it’s likely because they can’t find you. This hop’s participants use a variety of blogging platforms, which means if you want to make sure you’re getting return comments from everyone, you have to take these three steps:

1. Update your Gravatar: When commenting on Wordpress blogs, your comment is linked to the Gravatar app, which is currently not properly linked for approximately 10 percent of our participants. Everyone, not just Wordpress users, has to keep the links in this app updated if they want Wordpress users to be able to find them.

2. Update your IWSG Name and Link: Make sure the name listed on the IWSG hop page is the name you are commenting with across blogging platforms. If your website is writingtroubles.com, but when you leave comments, people only see the name Linda Carl, they can’t search the IWSG page for your website, because they don’t have that information. Also, check your link on the IWSG page. If it is not going directly to your blog roll page, you haven’t given IWSG the proper link, and you’re making it so that people have to search around your website for your blog roll. To adjust your name and/or your link, please do so by October 31, 2017 using this Google Form.

3. Test your commenting widget: Ask a couple of friends from different blogging platforms to try commenting. If they’re finding it cumbersome, you need to adjust your settings or use a different widget.