Gladness in the Ruthless World

We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world ~ Jack Gilbert

I hope your 2013 goals are coming along as you wish.  Part of the reason I think that having a vision, goals, and routines in place is because the world is a big, bad furnace just waiting to burn us up and burn us out while we try to accomplish our goals.

But if you're on a dream journey, I think you have make the positivity come through to cool that furnace.  That's where the stubbornness and gladness come in. 

That's the crazy thing about writing.  A good story is built on conflict and tension and there's a lot of rejection.  But through it all, folks are plugging along and publish books.  When my routines work and I fell myself moving forward with my project, that's when I feel the positivity cooling the furnace in the world around me. 

Where do you pull your stubbornness and gladness from when the world is a furnace trying to burn you up or burn you out?

Polar Privacy

Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself --
Finite infinity ~ Emily Dickinson

How are your routines coming along this year?  If they didn't work in 2012, have you evaluated why and made some changes?  If they worked in 2012, is there anything you can do to make them better? 

Whenever I've accomplished a big stretch, it usually involved new routines that I had to create and then follow. Nearly a year ago I found the routine formula that worked for me, and that included a shift change at work.  Now I've finished writing a novel, wrote a novel in it entirety, and started a third novel since the end of February last year.

How are your routines coming along for 2013?

Right or Better

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better ~ John Updike

No matter what your dream journey, I believe it certainly does become creative when one cares about doing it right or better. 

No matter what your dream journey, you should be able to obtain books and other reading material to help you on your journey.  I am blessed to have such resources available for writer like myself, aspiring to be published.  In the last six months I've honed my reading schedule to assist with getting better at the craft of writing.

I am on schedule where I read a novel that I want to emulate, a book for research, and finally a book to improve my writing.  Recently I finished reading Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maass to help improve my writing/storytelling.  I am currently reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton  because its plot resembles what I'm trying to accomplish with Disappear With Me.  When I am finished with The Forgotten Garden, I will be moving to research for my next book, The Higher Law.

What types of books do you read to further your dream journey? 

Our Success Already Exists

Our success already exists on a spiritual level; it's a matter of pulling it into the physical world ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

There's nothing more I can add to today's quote, except that I hope it's as inspirational to you as it is for me.  I hope you're having a great Saturday and either getting done what you need to on your dream journey or relaxing because the week went so well.

If An Echo Sounds

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human ~ Richard Wright

I've heard Oprah call this echo a whisper in her mind.  Many people hear this whisper or echo, but very few follow what they hear. 

What is whispering or echoing at you this year?  It's the beginning of a new year and you have eleven whole months to accomplish what is echoing back at you right now.

Do you hear an echo right now and then you hear another whisper that says, "but not right now?"  That's fine.  I decided to quit smoking in January but didn't start until April.  That was sixteen years ago.  I also decided to go back to school in January and didn't start until the summer term that year.  I graduated with my bachelor's degree in 2000.

What's echoing back at you this year and what are you doing about it? 

All Things Connect

Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect ~ Chief Seattle

As you're planning your goals/resolutions, I hope you've taken into account that everything is connected and that your goals have be connected, too.  And sometimes, things are done in the obvious order.  That sometimes is no fault of our own.

What I'm talking about is what going on within myself.  All last year I was bound and determined that I was going to publish the novel I wrote first and then the second.  After some serious thoughts and meditation, I've faced two fears with the first piece.  The first fear is whether it's good enough.  The second fear was showing growth in my work as a writer.

So there it is.  I've decided to publish the better work first.  After some further time alone, I think I'll have more tools available to make my first project even better.

What I hope translates for you in another dream journey is that sometimes when you think you've planned projects, sometimes it makes sense to shelve some and work on others, even if that is outside your original plan.  For me, this has been an energizing thought this weekend.

When have you changed course and started working on other projects?  I'd love to hear how that worked for you!

We Do Not Need Magic

We do not need magic to change the world, we all carry the power we need inside ourselves already:  we have the power to imagine better ~ J.K. Rowling

The power to imagine better gets better each time we are creative.  It took me four years to write my first manuscript, largely due to the fact that I didn't plan my novel beyond its premise.  Last year, I sat down and brainstormed the end of the novel after writing two-thirds of it.

Recognizing the power of outlining and planning, I outlined my entire second novel, Disappear With Me.  With that outline in hand, I was able to write the first draft (at 90,000 words)in just four months!  Again, the more creative I used, the better my "imagining" became.

I am now entrenched in editing Disappear With Me.  Even as I work through each chapter I am coming up with new and different ideas to use in the novel.  It's been a wonderful experience.  And when I am done with Disappear with Me, once again I will return to A Place to Call Their Own and continue to massage it.

My point is that as I gain more experience with my writing, I'm becoming more creative.  Instead of running out of ideas, which is my fear, I am coming up with more and more of them.  The same can work for you in your dream journey.  The more ideas one comes up with and implement on your dream journey, the more creative one tends to be.

What have you done on your dream journey that's been a breath of fresh air?