Cat-O-Nine Tip of the Day: Calling All Lurkers

I often hear from fellow pirates that "I am a not a writer", and often this is their excuse for not commenting on various blogs and such. They feel intimidated that the Mission of this ship is to write and publish...or perish in the attempt. This is what I say to that:

If you hear a voice within you saying "You are not a painter," then by all means paint . . . and that voice will be silenced.

~Vincent Van Gogh

And if truly you'd rather be set on fire than write anything as ostentatious and exhausting as a novel, try this instead:

My advice to the would-be writer is that he start slowly, writing short undemanding things, things such as telegrams, flip-books, crank letters, signature scarves, spot quizzes, capsule summaries, fortune cookies, and errata. Then, when he feels he is ready, move up to the more challenging items such as mandates, objective correlatives, passion plays, pointless diatribes, minor classics, manifestos, mezzotints, oxymora, exposes, broadsides, and papal bulls.

~Willa Cather

These should help. And if writing is not your bliss, truly, madly, deeply, we understand...though we'd still love you to stop by and comment. Frequently what works for writing also works for most anything, really.

What have you been afraid to try that you've always wanted to try? Share. Plot out your plans of how to accomplish this dream with smaller achievable goals. (I.e. "I want to skydive but I'm afraid of heights!"--begin by jumping off the chair in your living room until it no longer frightens you. Then work up to tandem jumping with a George Clooney lookalike.)