Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Challenge

It's almost Friday!! The weekend is about to begin. After a week of getting back on schedule, I'm ready to relax. I did get some writing time in and it felt good. I have two manuscripts the best that I can get them so they are ready for the next step. I did start to query one of them. Yes, only one. I'm  not insane. But I can't help feeling that this round of querying will only wind up like my last. I've entered a few contests and the results are what I expected . . . nothing. There are days I wonder if I'm invisible. I'm not flashy enough. Are my stories that boring?

Of course, I've only just begun this path with this novel so I decided I'm going to try a different approach with the rejection. I know, you're already saying, here we go again, but I'm not going to write a post about my problems. I know rejection happens to everyone and I'm sure some of you have worse stories to tell. No, I'm not going to crawl into that hole I have next to the swing set and rock back and forth. I'm going to challenge myself.

You see, lately, after I get over the frownie face part of the big R, I've worked even harder. It's that whole prove myself thing. I can't let my dream go, so I thought, why not take that to the next level. Besides eating an elephant size bag of chocolate (which I'm not sure I could physically do), I'll do something writing related to push me through.

Okay, I will take a couple of pieces of chocolate to soothe my soul. I can't ignore my chocolate addiction. The other part will be one of three things.

1. Double my word count for the day.
2. Write a short story.
3. Do exercises to brush up on writing skills.

The more I write, the stronger I'll become. Well, that's what they say.

I will also not check my email every five seconds. Let's face it, it's filled with advertisements and possibly more big R's. Not fun.

Do you challenge yourself when you face the big, bad rejection?

Have a great weekend!!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Insecure Writer's Support Group--Learning from my muse.

Holy cow! Two years?! Seriously? I still can't believe it! I have to say thanks to the amazing Alex J. Cavanaugh for hosting and commenting and organizing and . . . you get the idea. Writers need all the support they can get. I know I do. It's nice to be heard and to listen as well as get some advice.
So thank you again, Alex.


With that being said, I want to talk about muses. I don't mean the band, Muse. Although, they are quite good. I'm talking about that thing that keeps you going and inspires. Ahhh. That's it, soak it in. Your mind is spinning isn't it? I've said in the past that my muse is music. I can't really play anything. I took chorus in high school and piano, but I'm no musical genius, but boy how I love it. Certain pieces create scenes in my head that make me stop and just write. Even develop whole stories.

On Friday, I got to see one of my favorite bands of all time, Depeche Mode. Yes, they're still around and still producing kick butt music. I sat back and listened and realized how long they've been around. I even went back to the beginning of their career and listened to each album in order. It's amazing how much they've changed. You can hear how much they progressed and refined their sound. The songwriting has always been awesome in my eyes, thanks to Martin Gore who is a songwriting genius, but even that has matured and deepened over the years. The thing is I forget to look at myself. Yes, I started this journey later in life, and you know what, it's okay. All I can do is grow and refine and strengthen. Even the most experienced still has wiggle room for improvement and that takes practice and determination. Things never come easy, but you must be prepared when they do. And even then, you must continue to show that you still got it. Depeche Mode still does after all these years. They continue to push themselves to create something powerful.


So thanks, Depeche Mode, for creating the music that has inspired so much of my life. Not only for the stories and visions of characters, but for showing me how to strengthen and grow and create something powerful.

Who inspires you?

Please go and check out the other fine folks who participate. You never know what you might learn or who you might inspire.

Have a great day!!