New Year's Eve...final musings for 2009

Some final thoughts on writing for this year:

20) Get plenty of exercise. Drink lots of water. Don't get lost on social networking sites.

22) Understand that as a creative person, you will experience some anxiety, its part of the creative process.

23) Learn the difference between some anxiety and crippling anxiety; seek help for the latter.

24) When anxiety shivers through you, open to your curiosity and let it guide you forward.

25) Creative people are curious people; follow your curiosity the way a dog follows its nose.

26) If you have never written a book, know that its creation is not to be taken lightly.

27) Commit to a writer's life and begin the journey knowing you will encounter many challenges.

28) Know that facing your fears and meeting challenges are part of the journey--this is how you will grow stronger and smarter and more skilled.

29) Seek guidance--take classes and learn from friends and teachers who have mastered their craft.

30) Laugh whenever possible. Have fun!

31) During those moments when you feel alone and lost, reach out. Writing is about relationships--in life and on the page.

Visit jackarnoldphotos.com for more incredible images of the Southwest.

December's Writing Child...and more

More musings as the Solstice draws near...

9) Know that Creatives need company, we need our creative community, those who will support us on our journey.

10) Understand that books are written in drafts, often three.

11) Embrace the mess of your first draft. This is special, this is the mud and mess of first creation.

12) Invite your constructive critic to join the writing/revising process only after you have completed your messy first draft.

13) Understand that your book may take one year or more to complete.

14) Build a strong foundation to support you so you can write without becoming desperate to sell.

15) Resist the temptation to query agents before your book (or book proposal) is complete.

16) Resist the temptation to query agents before your completed book is professionally edited and polished.

17) If your life is full of many demands, be sure to schedule your writing time just as you would any other first priority appointment.

18) If you are a lonely writer, schedule time to leave your desk to spend time with people, animals, nature.

19) Remember that if you are writing and keeping to your basic schedule, fallow time is not time wasted, it is vital to a healthy process.

December's Writing Child...more

More miscellaneous, so-not profound musings on writing:

4) If you are constantly doubting your work, ask yourself if you trust your own creative process. If the answer is anything but yes, add "TRUST" to your daily mantra.

5) You need a safe--some call it sacred--space to write, where you are free from interruptions and intrusion. That safe place might be your office, your car, the nearest library or cafe. If you write on a computer, you need to know others will not be reading your stories before you are ready to share.

6) You need psychic privacy to write--a sense of privacy protected by strong internal boundaries. Your internal protected place will help you maintain a healthy relationship with all aspects of your creativity.

7) Life and writing will be much more fun if you can recognize the difference between your healthy inner editor and your inner gremlins and saboteurs.

8) Your gremlins and saboteurs have important messages to impart, but never mistake their negative advertising slam campaigns for their deepest messages. Recognize these negative ads? "You will never write!" "You have the talent of a flea!" "Your prose is shit!" "You wouldn't know a story idea if it slapped you in the face!" "If you do by some miracle stumble upon an idea, you will never ever follow through!" The deepest messages behind this brutal ad campaign probably go something like this: "It is scary to write something other people can read!" "What if I write a book and it doesn't live up to my expectations?" "What if everybody doesn't love what I create?" "How will I deal with exposure?" "What if I expose the people I love to criticism?"

December's Writing Child

3 of 31 miscellaneous, so-not-profound musings on writing:

Dec 1, Beware, you can lose your butt in the chair.

Dec 2, Dive with your heart as deep as you dare...and then go deeper.

Dec 3, Three words to unleash on the page: yearning, relationships, intention.