The Best Way To Use Your Time As A Writer: Don't Listen To The Haters

So... You work full-time. You are a janitor. You are a teacher. You are a cashier at a grocery store. 

IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!!

You know that you are a writer. You hear the voices in your head. You dream magically amazing stories in your sleep. You wake up and are like, "Damn! I need to write that down!"

But... you have Debbie Downers in your camp. You share your ideas with those around you. They say, "That's stupid."

What should you do?

Write it down. Write everything they say. Write everything you think in the moment. Write. Write. Write!!!!!

Don't listen to the haters.

Here is the reality. Most people live life unsuccessfully. They believe that they are not one of the lucky ones who get to be a writer, a movie star.... in short... a success.

They settle. I need a job. So... this company will give me a job at XX amount of dollars an hour. I need to pay the bills. 

Fall into that trap and you will never be a writer. You will be a wage earner.

Don't get me wrong... You must pay the bills... But you don't have to give up your dreams to do it.... 

I quit my day job. I decided I would make my own future. It's been rough... but I'm still at it...

As a writer, that means ignoring everyone who says I can't do it. Even family has questioned my decisions. Maybe yours has too. But... be brave. Follow your dream.

Just do it strategically...

MORE TOMORROW ON MY JOURNEY AND HOW I STOPPED WORKING FULL-TIME TO PURSUE MY WRITING DREAM...

One Writer's Goal - Read A Book A Week

Trying to get back into a regular reading habit...

My initial goal is to read a book a week. Today is Monday, and the book I started is "The Word Exchange," by Alena Graedon. 

Just like I do in my writing, I like outlining every step of the way before I begin so I know where I should be every day. In this case, I divided the book into 7 parts that way I have, at the very least, the number of pages I should read each day.

Six sticky notes placed at my benchmarks throughout the book's pages: "Daily Reading Goal #1," "DRG #2," "DRG #3," etc., etc...

We'll see how it goes.

Also...since it's said by goal-setting experts that it's more likely for someone to stick to a goal if he announces it to others, here - this blog post - is my announcement of my goal to read a book a week.

Now for the hard part....

Looking For a Fun Way To Build Your Vocabulary Word By Word?

Remember all those vocabulary lists you had to memorize in elementary school? I know, it's a bad, bad memory for many.

If only our teachers had provided us with a fun way to build our word knowledge. Fun or not, if you're a writer or student, words are your tools. The last thing you want is to limit your ability to express yourself because your word toolbox is half empty.

Last month, I found Vocabulary.com, a site that tries to make building your vocabulary fun. I tried it, and liked it. One of my older children saw me playing on the site and got hooked, too.

So if you've been telling yourself you need to improve your vocabulary, then check out Vocabulary.com. Maybe you'll like it.

Note: Every so often I will share links to sites I find interesting. I do this because mom always said it was better to share.

Are You Good Enough To Be A Writer?

Have you ever wondered if you're good enough? Talented enough? And then a relative steps up to say, "No, quit dreaming already. Go get me some more cake."

And just maybe in that moment you cowered. You wanted to shout out: "Yes! I can do it! I am a writer! Shove your cake where the sun don't shine!"

But this isn't your fictional world. You can't manipulate the actions and reactions of the characters in this far too realistic drama. So you freeze.You say nothing. Maybe they're right. Maybe you weren't meant to be a writer.

Now, maybe you agree. Everyone's right. I was delusional. Now what?

I think I'll write about it.

Number One Question for Writers...

Here it is:

Are you a wimp?

Are you afraid of what your friends will say about your story? Maybe you're worried that your mother, father, children, cousins will recognize a character or situation in your story. Here's my response:

Who cares!?!

You can't free yourself as a writer if you're constantly thinking about how your words might offend someone. Here's what you must do: Accept the fact that your writing will offend people. Then, write anyway. 

Shakespeare Is Still The Man

Source: Microsoft Office

Love him. Hate him. Don't understand him.


Whatever.


This is the guy who writers are still being measured against nearly 400 years after his death. And quite a few writers in history didn't seem to like that. Truth be told, writers are a jealous bunch. There. I said it. We'll congratulate a colleague who's recognized for his or her work, but deep down inside we're mumbling to ourselves.


"Can't believe people thought that was good. My work is so much better!"


OK... We're not all like that... ahem... But, here are some quotes from other writers in history about the Bard.

I remember, the Players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, (whatsoever he penned)he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand. - Ben Jonson

Shakespeare's name, you may depend on it, stands absurdly too high and will go down. He had no invention as to stories, none whatever. He took all his plots from old novels, and threw their stories into a dramatic shape, at as little expense of thought as you or I could turn his plays back again into prose tales. That he threw over whatever he did write some flashes of genius, nobody can deny: but this was all. Suppose anyone to have had the dramatic handling for the first time of such ready-made stories as Lear, Macbeth, &c. and he would be a sad fellow indeed, if he did not make something very grand of them. - George Gordon, Lord Byron

I do not believe that any writer has ever exposed this bovaryisme, the human will to see things as they are not, more clearly than Shakespeare. - T.S. Eliot

When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder That such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language. - D.H. Lawrence

I particularly like Lord Byron's quote. I read it and think, 'I can take old stories and make them my own. What a great idea!' Aha, that sums up literature. Doesn't it? I tip my hat to the Bard. (Tipping it now.)


Are you a Shakespeare fan? Is he still relevant today?

Revisiting Your Past To Help Your Writing

You ever wonder when you started believing in something, talking with a certain twang (or without it), wearing a specific brand of jeans? If you're like me, some of those details have vanished from recallable memory.

That information, of course, is up there somewhere in my brain, but I can't seem to find it. Think of my memory like a large house with several levels, rooms and hallways. Each room has certain pieces of memories. My problem is that I don't know which floor or down which hall those memories now reside, and even if I did, the doors to the rooms are locked and I've misplaced the keys. 

Come to think of it, those rooms might be so cluttered that those memories might even be packed away in unlabeled boxes in those rooms. Add to this the idea that my memory is more like an endless track of houses in a neighborhood as vast as the horizon on the Texas plains. Each day I keep adding more boxes and more houses.

 I tweeted this the other day:

When's the last time you visited your childhood home and reflected? If you're a writer, you should and take pen and paper.

As an educator, I know that I am who I am because of all I have experienced - especially early in those particularly exciting developmental years of life. My exercise is to rummage through that part of me that existed what seems like a lifetime ago: before I was a husband, father, educator, college graduate, etc., etc. 

I know it will affect (and help) my writing. I just don't know exactly how. That is the exciting part.