Part of the system is a reminder poster
What am I doing to fulfill my purpose in this life?
As I work toward finding and fulfilling my purpose, I get the same answer over and over. My purpose is writing fiction, with my own perspective, and it is up to me to find the motivation to just do it. What am I doing?
There are people who want to read more of what I write:
I would recommend this book to anyone who believes in fairy tales. Hopefully, there will be a sequel! –Tammy M Brewer (New Market, TN, US) I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes quirky fairy tales and good stories. I can’t wait for the next book! –By Courtney Bond I so look forward to the next Maven story or any other story by this author.–By D. Anderson “mastheart” (Florida USA)
With this kind of response to my story, I have no reasons not to jump feet first into the next piece. What’s stopping me? Maybe that is a wrong question.
I’m trying to make an outline. Everyone seems to think this is the way to avoid six or eight re-writes, but perhaps I’m just a pantser and that is that. I know that if I just put my hands on the keyboard and type the words or images that come into my mind, that eventually it works out.
If I truly believe that I am here to do this thing, and that I cannot fail, then all I have to do is jump off the edge of the diving board and into the depths of my story. I’ve read the pieces that have already been written, and I know from experience that if I write, it will come.
So what am I waiting for?
Just close your eyes and jump! And do what you’re doing – it will make sense in the end!
Did some jumping last night, filling out character questions for one of the secondary characters. Just writing that helped a lot, and having a set of questions to ask (hmmmm….a SYSTEM) helped also. Thanks for encouragment!
This is a wonderful article. I am inspired by your passion for your purpose
Thanks for dropping by, Wyneatte. I left you a comment about relationships at your place.
Although my outline always changes I find that I wrote MUCH faster and with fewer distractions when I have some outline to follow. With five littles running around I can’t afford to let the interruptions I KNOW will come sidetrack me.
I can see where the outline would help. I just can’t see how to make it work. I can outline for non-fiction, as that has a logical progression, but it looks like I’m going to do a synopsis for each character to decide how to tell the stories. Some people think I have too many characters, but they are all involved with each other.
I can’t imagine five littles. I’m not cut out for that kind of motherhood. BLESS YOU!
Great question to pose – have you come up with the answer yet? I always punt to Rilke in these situations. Are you familiar with him? Here is my favorite quote when these situations arise:
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet
Best wishes… and I like the poster you made. Very clever and I imagine useful.
I’m visiting from the Ultimate Blog Challenge – so great to meet you!
Patience, from what I’ve been told, is a virtue! 😉 I’ll have to think on that idea more, that “I can’t handle the answer right now” because I think I have seen some of the answer in my searching, and I got scared, silly woman that I can be.
We’ll see how the poster works out. i’m glad you like it. It certainly does not allow for argument.
I love your post about your daughters. My daughter and I became like girlfriends when she graduated from college, though now she and I are both on our own across the continent from each other. And just the other day we were swapping recipes. We knew then that thy Mayans were right, and the world had rebooted. Neither of us cook. 😉
You’re waiting for a muse to appear! Unfortunately, muses are elusive and must be chased! I’m sure you’ve already done this, but try free writing about something completely unrelated to what you think your next novel is about. Watch what happens.
Thanks for the tip. The completely unrelated stuff is what the Ultimate Blog Challenge is all about. I really like your flash fiction piece about the girl on the roof in Phoenix…maybe because my daughter is in Phoenix. I’ll try some flash fiction pieces and see where that leads.
Something that works well for me whenever I do creative work is to go to a different environment. Somewhere inspiring, usually in nature. It seems to help get the juices flowing! 🙂
Thanks for the tip. I do get a bit stuck in the cyberworld. That might be a new piece of the system, to go somewhere and write with a pen and a notebook. My laptop just won’t hack it any more if not plugged in.
I’ve done some brain dump in the past, as you suggested in your blog post. In fact, I wrote over 100k words at the beginning of last year on 750words.com. It’s a great place to do brain dump, and you even get badges and some text analysis into your hidden psyche. But something about having written nearly every day for 4 months, and not having anything like a draft of the WIP was a bummer. So, I’m trying something different this year.
That is a great tip especially to those new to the blogosphere. Simple but very accurate info… Thank you for sharing this one. A must read post!
Thanks for the encouragement. There is no try. Do or do not.