Let’s face it: Nick Miller is the writer we all truly aspire to be: Overconfident. Passionate. Hires someone to punch him in the face if he doesn’t finish his page goal on time.
I’ve rewatched New Girl too many times, and I love Nick in his writing era more each time. In a weird way, it creates this authenticity around being a writer; it’s not always an individual without a job who has a focused, beautiful workspace and no distractions who goes to the nearest coffee shop when they have writer’s block. Sometimes, it’s a bartender with a chaotic (but interesting) dating life who just has some things to say about zombies.
Hey, I wrote my latest novel while living in a skoolie, working full-time, and raising two kids. I cannot wait for the day that I have a writing desk carefully decorated with notepads, sticky notes, pens, and a never-ending cup of mushroom coffee, but until then, it is entirely possible to write whenever and wherever you are.
Take it from Nick:
“I’m becoming Ernest Hemmingway. Ya idiots.”
Truly, the confidence in his writing abilities is inspiring. Not to mention — getting buzzed at the zoo for inspiration? Sign me up.
“I’ve done things. I wrote half a book about zombies.”
Once you’ve accomplished even half of a book…you just feel different. You are literally halfway to finishing a whole book.
“I’m not convinced I know how to read. I’ve just memorized a lot of words.”
Precisely how I feel about editing my own work, or digging into research for an article.
“You see a red book; you buy a red book.”
Book marketing, simplified. Just kidding, please don’t color your book red based on this alone. But if you do, and it works…let’s chat.
“I’m screwed. I only have six pages.”
Me moments before any contest deadline, ever.
“Guys, please let me hate myself and everything I have created.”
We’ve all been there…
“Writers don’t read. We write.“
Except we do read — a lot.
“Look at that font! What is this? Amateur hour? At least use Palatino.”
Me, to myself, when reviewing my own work. But seriously — does a font ever make or break your writing experience?
“No notes? No notes? No notes!”
How we want the conversations with our beta readers to go.
“You can’t teach people how to write.”
Can you, though? One of my goals in life is to teach a writing course of some sort. Someday. And I will be using Nick Miller as a reference.
“This is good. I got nothing.”
When you hit a streak of good…and then a streak of bad. It happens to the best of us.
♡ this blog post? You might also like:
- 10 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block.
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- 40 Writing Prompts for Writers, Dreamers, and Doers.
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