We live in a world where it’s inappropriate to admit how you truly feel.
We are shunned from certain circles when we question authority. It’s not always the authority figure shunning us. Often times, the authority figure is excited to finally have someone aware enough to engage with. It’s usually others in the group that shun the question asker, as if questioning behavior is uncouth.
We are taught to keep our heads down and be like everybody else.
But there’s some writers who are a different. They write to capture all their feelings. They question without fear because they need those answers to write the truth in their stories. They hold their heads up when everyone’s told to put their heads down, so they can observe what’s not being seen. These writers, they’re on a journey and their writing is proof they’re still alive. In poetic terms, each page is an exhale.
Wake up with brand new expectations daily. Let go of whatever you didn’t finish the previous day and just focus on finishing today’s goals.
You may ask, well what if I get behind? Yes, that is a great question. I used to overwhelm myself when I didn’t complete my task list and it would snowball throughout the week until Friday came and I was ready to quit because I could never catch back up. My focus was on what I didn’t finish yesterday, rather than what I’m capable of in the present. Also, knowing that tomorrow is a fresh start and my work won’t snowball, means if I don’t push myself a bit harder to finish it, it’s not getting done. Which will put me past my deadline. It’s effective.
When I began to start everyday as a new day, the snowball effect disappeared, and I was still getting my work done in a mindful manor. Start everyday as a new day and don’t allow the unfinished work snowball into an anxious mess.
What you have to share is irreplaceable. People can write things similar to you and that’s ok. You’re adding your work to the mosaic. Maybe your piece is a little darker, or more positive, or more factual. We need it all. No matter what, your writing is unique to you because your life experiences, personality traits, and the place you were raised separates you from others. Own it, accept it, and keep writing.
You never know who you’ll inspire when you put your writing out there. As a shy person, I know there’s a lot of shy people who fear speaking up to support your writing, but they are still moved by it. Write for them. Write for you. I know when I first started blogging, I was really shy. I didn’t even want bloggers to know I was reading their blog. Now, I always try to make sure to let writers know I’ve read and appreciate their contribution. I’ve changed from reading blogs over the years. Your posts change people.
If, for the briefest moment you rescue someone from a dark place, your work has filled its purpose. This world has only a handful of moments that are pure beauty buried in the midst of a whole lot of bullshit. It doesn’t matter how you look at it. Dead is dead, gone is gone, and sometimes we are so lonely we can’t get out of bed. We need your work to get out of bed. We need your work to take one more breath. We need your work to remind us that there are times when everything is not ok and even then, we can still bask in a moment of bliss.
Now’s a great time to start valuing your voice as a writer.
Consciousness is the ability to exchange a vast amount of ideas. These ideas can be externally or internally challenged. They are concepts that grow and change and bloom or fizzle away to allow new ones to take their place. In some instances, consciousness can separate the individual from things around them and in other instances, consciousness brings connection. It’s this constant exchange that is consciousness and it is this exchange that is also art.
How can consciousness separate an individual?
Consciousness can separate an individual from others in many ways. One main way it can separate them socially is if one person sees ideas or concepts in a different way than the majority.
How can it connect individuals?
Consciousness can also connect an individual to things around them. It connects us when we have similar feelings, whether towards each other or toward a specific outcome. Two people who have similar exchange of ideas feel strongly connected and may even call each other soulmates. In another way, many people claim they feel a stronger connection to a group when they are all fighting toward the same cause even if they are all fighting for different reasons. Having similar desires for a specific outcome makes for stronger emotions toward exchanging ideas.
As artists, when we become aware of our own natural exchange of ideas, we analyze what is not in line with the majority, and ask why. Or we just analyze what we want without the hindrance of popular expectations. These two acts are the consciousness. They are the art.
Art isn’t the paint, or the brush strokes, or perfect grammar. Art is giving our inner thoughts to the outer world so they can then use them to nurture their own consciousness.
You know that feeling when you’re creating and you’re chasing everything your thoughts, new ideas, the missing links, that’s what you’re in it for.
You chase, your brain is all over the place, and then it slowly and suddenly you realize, it’s all come together.
That’s when the feeling begins to dissipate, because it’s not the coming together you’re in it for,
it’s the chase.
I think that the joy of writing a novel is the self-exploration that emerges and also that wonderful feeling of playing God with the characters. When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish … I think the most important thing for a writer is to be locked in a study. — Erica Jong
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
Believe it or not success looks different for everyone. Some might think of success as fame, or as having a big house with a nice car, while others prefer to serve the community and live modestly. These are all great “big picture” ideas and they absolutely deserve to be on your vision board, but this is just the best place to start. You know what you want perfect now what other things do you need?
Your how? At what cost? What will keep you going?
How will you get your house and car?
This is vital. You might say, “Well, Sasch, obviously I’m going to get a job.” And yes, that seems obvious, but there are people out here that gain these things without working a day in their life. So let’s talk about it. How are you going to gain this level of success? Is it from a lover, building your own business, stock, invention, working in a field you love, working regardless if you love your job or not? There’s a million different way to get there. So really sit down and think about what actions you are going to take to become that successful.
At what cost?
At what cost are you willing to gain this level of success? It’s important, very important to flesh out what you’re not willing to lose in order to gain your ideal level of success. If you’re willing to lose it all, you might just do that. But if you prefer to have people, places, or things you’re not willing to give up to have your dream house, note those things. This helps to set boundaries. It helps to respect yourself and your values. For me, I’m not willing to lose my loved ones for my success. I want them here with me through all of my successful days.
Ok so now you’re there, you’re successful. You look around and appreciate what you worked hard for? Now what? You can’t just stop. You have to maintain at this point, so…
I used to be offended when people misunderstood my work, then I came to realize that the evolution of thought is what art is all about. Not that it’s about being misunderstood but it’s about setting the idea free and allowing it to be whatever it becomes. It’s not always easy to allow your work to be its own thing separate from you as the creator.
The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke. — Jerzy Kosinski
When we set out to create something, we must trust that when it’s time, a message will be revealed. We must also be understanding that it won’t be in the same way that we, as the artist, received it, because the artist didn’t have her own art yet to give herself that message. So as the art is sent out into the world, it’s going to give its message in a different way than the artist received it.
The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist’s own spiritual nature.— George Inness
What’s great about being an artist is that our art not only evolves and changes when we set it free but we also evolve and change every time we set our work free. The process of creating changes us in million different ways. The way we see our own struggles gaze at us, the way we fill gaps and solve problems, and the way we attempt to give our ideas digestible context. These few things requ
A lot of us writers have our schedules with Time to Write scribbled in on the weekends (or whenever). And hey, that’s great. Setting time aside to write daily is one of the most important disciplines as a writer, but after some time, it’s important to start being less general. Define exactly what you’re doing when it’s time to write.
There’s a lot more to being a writer than just creating content. We have a boat load of things we are developing as writers. If you want better time management it’s important to flesh out what you plan to do with your writing time. Plus, if you give yourself a small list of specific goals it gifts you by returning a feeling of accomplishment. Check. Check. Check.
Here’s a list of ways you can think about how to be more specific with your writing time.
For a WIP- Focus on things you’re developing like plot, characters, their thoughts and motives, background story, details world building
There’s different areas of the story you can focus on while your writing or editing. Monday can be world building, Wednesday can be character building and so on. This helps so that you can improve on the smaller details of your larger work.
Grammar
This.
Networking
Networking isn’t something that needs to be done daily. 3x a week for 1-3 hours is enough. Anything more takes away from precious time to build content.
Self Teaching
I think it’s important to continue learning different ways to think about your writing. Writing has so many different perspectives that we could read everyday for a lifetime and still have more to learn.
There’s four more specific goals to start with. Let’s think about how they can be broken down even more. With WIP, you can focus on different characters on different days. For Networking you can focus on one specific platform or different target groups on different days. So break them down into each moving part. Doing this will help keep things in perspective. We don’t need the world to know how much we’re doing, but we truly are doing a lot. This will help you have a visual about how much effort you’re already putting in. Believe me, I get it. It feels, sometimes like we’re not doing enough, but trust me, if you’re pumping out content and maintaining an online presence on top of all your other life demands, you’re doing enough! Keep up the good work.
When writing a character, it’s the wounds that guide their decision making. Unless something divine intervenes, when the character is left to make their own decisions, that decision must be made with their old wounds in mind. Whether it makes them use courage and face something head on, or if it makes them a coward (in the most honest term) and avoid any confrontation. Or maybe it just makes them take a second longer to make an unbiased decision. Anyway, the past must be taken into account with decision making. It tells the reader if the character is learning, if the character is ending up to be quite the bore which hopefully places the spotlight on other more interesting characters, or more excitedly is it pushing the character in a negative way causing negative reactions or villainous behavior. dum dum dummmm….
In life, we’ve got to understand our wounds like our character’s wounds. We will make decisions based on our past traumas. It’s up for us to decide if we will allow those wounds to make us stronger or turn us into our own villains. Or if our avoidance behavior is going to remove us from our own story.
Don’t remove yourself from your own story. We need you in all your glory to show up.
