I had a talk with a girl I know this afternoon about following her dreams. She's got this "crazy" idea of what she'd like in life but hasn't truly pursued it. Are you like that? You've got that one thing that just lights up your life like a million Christmas lights, but you're afraid to do it?
Maybe your parents wouldn't approve or other people would think it's silly. Who cares? If there is something that makes you happy, truly happy, then don't let anyone keep you from it.
Did that sound a little soap boxy?
I've learned some hard lessons over the past couple of years. Life has a way of knocking you where it hurts. But the amazing thing is that tough times and tears can teach you a lot about yourself. Life taught me to believe in myself.
I've spent years writing. It was my passion but I let fear and doubt hold me back. Then I had a wake up call that changed my life. I'd let life hold me back and I was done hiding in the corner. So what did I do? I wrote my first "official" book. Been working on it for the past two years and I'm only a few weeks away from publishing it as an e-book.
To be honest...I've never been happier! Taking that leap of faith and choosing to believe in myself has brought me to this point, on the verge of being able to call myself an author and I'm ecstatic. I've finally realized that I was born to write. I no longer wonder what I should do with my life or what job I should try to apply for. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and it feels amazing.
So I want to encourage you to follow your dream. No matter how small or big, how crazy or impossible it might seem. You are worth the time and effort.
book
Have you ever stopped to think about what drives a writer? To push beyond the normal limits and create new characters or worlds that have never existed before? I have.
Why do I write? I want the people that read my books to feel something. To fall in love with the hero who deals with their inner struggles. To root for the underdog. To want to be swept off their feet just like the lucky heroine. To feel a longing when the last page turns.
There is nothing better than a page turner that keeps you racing for the end, only to make you beg for more. The agonizing months waiting for the sequel to hit the shelves just so you can find out what happens to your favorite characters. That's what make a book good. Some characters stick with you. Those are the ones that I want to create.
I don't want my characters to be card board cuts outs of the latest best sellers. I want quirks and faults. I want real failures and real triumphs. Real characters with real problems.
What do you think? Are you tired of cliches?
book
As a writer it's fair to say that you need to expect disappointments. There will be doors closed in your face, countless No's before you get that miracle yes and of course the lovely reviews of your fans that simply didn't fall in love with your book. I was told from the beginning that I needed to grow thick skin to make it in the writing world. Oh how true that is!
I've always been one of those people that takes things too personally. Not that I meant to...it's just always been that way. I can get my feelings hurt or get my dander up easily...so starting out on the writing journey has been an adventure.
Agents will turn you down with an impersonal email stating that you are not a right fit for their agency. Publishers will simply not want to read your unsolicited manuscript because you can't get an agent. It's a terrible cycle of unfairness...but that's the business.
And what about competitions? Oh my. I'm there right now. I entered a writing competition a couple months ago, made it to the second round and realized that my book simply wasn't ready to be judged. Of course by that time it's too late. You can't do any editing so you sit and wait for the inevitable...the announcement that you are out of the running. You tell yourself that you're prepared...and yet when the time comes you still feel that sharp pang of disappointment.
If you want to make it as a writer you need to be your own cheerleader. When you get shoved, relentlessly, off the horse you brush yourself off and get back on. Sure having others surrounding you to give you a high five along the way is great...but you have to learn to do that for yourself. I'm convinced that too many great writers gave up before they found their big break.
So...the next time something doesn't pan out for you remember why you wanted to be a writer in the first place. Write down your goals...your dreams. You can even leave Post It's of encouragement around you house...of course if you don't live alone this might be bothersome to the other occupants!
You are not defined by your failures but by the way you get back up. The largest leaps of growth that you will ever experience are in times of trial. Enjoy the journey, get past the failures and embrace the successes no matter how small they might be! As long as you are growing you are succeeding!
book
Nothing can be more frustrating for a writer than to be stumped for an idea. This is not normally a problem for me but today I just feel like I'm in a rut. On a typical day I could write for four straight hours and never realize that so much time had passed. Today...nothing! It's like I have this bottomless void in my mind. I'm having the biggest brain fart of my entire life! It's kinda creeping me out to be honest! I guess it's a good thing I had already planned on spending my evening editing my manuscript.
So what do you do when the words simply won't come?
book
Dreams! They're fun right? Sure but they only linger for a short while. Most of us can barely remember our dreams come morning. My mother was one of those people that dreamed in abstract. Nothing was ever as it seemed. It wasn't uncommon for her to tell me about dreams of purple skies, pink elephants and blue strawberries. Weird huh?
For me, that has never been an issue. My dreams are as real as they come...which makes it fun since most of the time I know that I am dreaming. Can you change your dreams? Many people say you can not. I guess I'm lucky in that aspect...perhaps that's the writer in me. My greatest inspiration for my books come directly from my dreams. It's like a movie unfolding right before my eyes. It really makes writing effortless and oh so enjoyable when you're not banging your head against a brick wall for an idea!
I see every detail from many angles. I see the story line laid out before me...and if I don't like the way it's going I simply change it. Now of course that doesn't happen every time. I'm just like everyone else. When I'm trapped in a nightmare and my legs feel like jelly when I try to run away to safety, my mind switches off and allows me to simply feel the fear.
BUT...other dreams, my creative dreams are like a blank canvas to an artist. I can paint any scene that I want, change the plot midstream and after I awake I can finish writing the conclusion. Many nights I have spent lying awake, staring blankly up at the ceiling as I finished out the final details of my newest creation. What's my next step?
I race to the bathroom, huddle under the light and scribble down every detail as fast as my cramping fingers will allow. These details will later be stored as book ideas. Remember that file system i mentioned in a previous blog? Yep...mine is extensive.
When I find myself stumped on one book I flip to the next until my inspiration returns. As a writer, writer's block is a fact of life...but that doesn't mean you simply stop writing. You push through, switch up genres or simply write for the fun of it.
So where do you get your inspiration from?
book
