Sometimes it can seem like that's all we ever do: Waiting. I've heard so many times that we live in a "Microwave Society" in that we want everything now. There's a fast food restaurant almost on every corner. We can have a packaged shipped overnight so it arrives the next day. The microwave itself. I think sometimes we'd all like to be the character "Samantha" where we simply twitch our little nose and 'puff' whatever we were wanting to do or have done is magically taken care of. Yet, God … [Read more...]
Day 170: The Dangerous Place
It's interesting but if you think about it the life of a writer is one of being solitary, alone, by yourself for long periods of time. Can you handle being along like this for anything length of time or would it drive you crazy. When you have any kind of job from home or business from home, you ultimately have to work by yourself as there isn't anyone around you pushing you to do whatever needs to be done. As a writer this is even more so. Who's going to tell you to write. Typically, just … [Read more...]
Day 169: Just Do It
When I think of "Just Do It" Nike always comes to mind. I love their shoes and have worn them for years. But think about those three little words for a moment. They're simple. We can apply this to almost anything we do in life. It like procrastination is a balloon and a needle is the words "Just Do It." We can use that needle to pop our procrastination bubble to get us moving. What's one of the easiest way to do this you might ask. Personally, for me anyway, is to set a deadline. Whether it be … [Read more...]
Day 168: Hero (or Heroine) Story
To try to put into words what today's post is about, I don't know if I could give it the justice it deserves. Here is what I read for today: When he was fifty-one years old, Reynolds Price learned he had a ten-inch malignant tumor in his spine, and he believed that his happy life of writing and teaching was over. Surgery and radiation left him a paraplegic, in unspeakable pain, and not sure that he would survive. But he did survive and was able to manage his pain through hypnosis. He then … [Read more...]
Day 167: Writing Space as a Metaphor
It's interesting that in life how different we all really are. No two people will do something the same way. Even as writers, we must remember to be true to ourselves instead of trying to copy another writer as it will come off fake. In the end, we must keep our own voices when we write. Reader can tell when we don't. Well, my writing space, typically, is in my living room in my big comfy cozy rocker/recliner with my feet up, my lapdesk on my lap with my laptop on top of that, my mousepad and … [Read more...]
Day 166: Blocks
In life we can take those things we need or want to do and put them into blocks, like blocks of time. Depending on the block is whether we get right to it or we end up procrastinating about it all. I tend to be a procrastinator, even though I don't want to be. When it comes to writing, I can put my fiction into one big block and nonfiction into another big one. Then those big ones break down into smaller ones where Mari's book is one and then the fiction book I'm writing now is another. At the … [Read more...]
Day 165: Reading Aloud
I've noticed with my writing that I can write and write and write, edit and edit and edit, but it's not until I read everything outloud do I find the things that I really need to fix. The become so glaringly obvious I wonder how I could have missed them in the first place. But that's what reading outloud my work does for me, it makes it more clear. In life I think there are many things where we could "read them aloud" to make them more clear. Like talking with your spouse over something instead … [Read more...]
Billy Graham and My Life
I sat here tonight watching a Fox New Channel special called “My Hope America w/Billy Graham.” I sat here crying as I watched because it’s just so simple and so many miss it. That Jesus died, yes He died for every last human being on this planet from the past, present and future. He took all the sin of everyone and put it on Himself so that we may have everlasting life. Think about that. He died having never committed a sin taking on every last one of our sins so that we may live eternally in … [Read more...]
Day 163: The Proper Training of a Writer
I love what the author had to say about today: Maybe you don’t have a college degree. Or maybe you have an MBA from Harvard. Or maybe you barely got through high school. Do not use any of the above (including your MBA) as an excuse not to write. Very often our path to becoming a writer is messy and unpredictable and totally disconnected from formal education. Abercrombie, Barbara (2012-05-08). A Year of Writing Dangerously: 365 Days of Inspiration & Encouragement (Kindle Locations … [Read more...]
Day 162: Privacy, Privacy, Privacy
In this life is anything ever truly private, like in a diary or journal? Probably not. I think of the book "Go Ask Alice." I guarantee that when she wrote out what she did that she didn't expect that once she died it would be turned into a world-famous book. Or Anne Frank or any other books that came from a diary. While we would love to have our privacy, the reality is no one really has any. Maybe were not supposed to. Since I was around ten, I got my first diary from Grandma Patton one year … [Read more...]
