The power of bum glue

Bruce Courtenay's rules for writing include one that  says that the writer with the best bum glue wins. What does he mean by bum glue?  He means the will to sit your backside down at the chair at the computer, or in my case at the coffee shop, and write come what may.

There have been many times over the last twenty years when I've wondered why I bother writing.  Over 200 rejections and still not mainstream published, I still have periods of doubt when this blackness returns.  Did I have any talent as a writer?  Was I ever going to achieve recognition for my work?

But bum glue kept me going.  I write because I am a writer, because that's what I was called to do.  And I wish I'd taken myself seriously as a writer a lot earlier.  But I did keep writing, and that bum glue has allowed me to amass over twenty novels and a couple of hundred short stories.  

Bum glue is about committing to write about what you think is important, not following a market trend, it's also about following our passions as writers.  In my case that's the beauty of the natural world and big cats, and resulted in my Panthera series of novels.  I also write about what interests me, and that for me is soft science fiction, the type that deals with how people respond to events and technology.

Bum glue is about commitment.  It's staying committed to your dream of being a writer, and having the stories you want to write published.  And it's about "putting up your heart to be shot at" as Tolkien called it, having the courage to send our work to agents and editors.

Bum glue is about saying this is who I am, this is the type of writer I am, this is my essential being, and I'm going to sit here plugging away until the world recognizes the value of my vision.  I'm a stubborn bugger and I have a lot of bum glue.