Find Positive Energy Here

There is a dream in each of us.

A dream we think about and hold in our hearts.

For me, the dream is to make a living as an author. To write and do school visits and to work for myself, and utlimately to have more time to spend with my family and friends.

I was reading through some past posts here and I see that last year, I had hoped that by this summer, I would be living that dream. But it didn't come to be.

However, I believe the following to be true about dreams:

~ That big dream that lives inside each of us wouldn't have been put there if we didn't have the capacity to DO it.

~ We have to trust the timing of things, and understand there are bigger things at work. We won't always understand why things don't work out to the timing we have in mind, but in the end, when it happens, it WILL be the right time.

~ Just because it didn't happen today doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow. Everyday we must believe it is possible, and think and act like it IS possible. Everything that comes to be started with a thought first. That's why our thoughts are so important.

Have a great day!

"To be courageous means to be afraid but to go a little step forward anyway." - Beverly Smith


That's the important thing - to keep moving forward, little step by little step.

Have a great day!

As you can probably gather from past posts, I'm a big fan of visualization. Understand, you still have to do the work to make what you visualize come true. And positive energy and thoughts are also important.

But I think visualization helps the impossible seem possible. 

One exercise you might want to try is the Publisher's Marketplace blurb. I did it this morning for my latest WIP.

Write a one sentence blurb about the book you are writing. This is a good exercise in and of itself. But then, tweak the blurb so it looks similar to what might appear in Publisher's Marketplace, with your agent's name, and perhaps an editor you would love to work with. And hey, if you want to visual a "very good deal," be my guest!

As an example, here's the blurb that ran in PM for I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME:

Lisa Schroeder's debut I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, a novel in verse about love and grief in which  fifteen-year-old Ava's boyfriend, who is dead but not gone, is keeping her from moving on, to Michael Del Rosario at Simon Pulse by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger, Inc

Everyday, read that blurb. Imagine it being posted where others read and send you congratulatory messages.

BELIEVE it's possible.

Because it is! 

"Greatness is not born of luck or talent; it is a product of habit and hard work. No matter your natural talent, fingers don't play Chopin the first time they touch a piano. We have to practice." - Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey

I've said before, I think there is some luck involved in the publishing business. BUT, you still have to have a good manuscript. And I agree - the only way to get better and better, is to work hard at our craft.

And so, with that, I'm off to practice.

Have a great day!

"We cannot choose the things that will happen to us. But we can choose the attitude we will take toward anything that happens. Success or failure depends on your attitude." - Alfred A. Montapert

I'm sure we've all heard this before.

It's not what happens to us that's important, it's how we react to what happens that's important.

As writers, this couldn't be more true.

Two LJ friends in the past month have had book deals because they didn't curl up in a ball in defeat when they couldn't find people who loved their work. They were rejected and rejected again, over the course of YEARS. What did they do?

They kept writing. 

They kept trying.

Which means, they still believed it was possible. Because it IS possible. The only way anything isn't possible is if you don't try anymore.

I know not everyone is in a place right now, waiting for the phone to ring, but some of us are, and if you are, and doubts have started filling your mind, we need to clear those. 

Say:
I will get good news.
When the time is right for me, I believe I will sell my book.
It's just a matter of time.
I am ready when it is time.

Have a great day!

"One can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes, I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." - Lewis Carroll

As writers, we spend a lot of time thinking about the work. We think about plot and characters and point of view and all of those things you need to make a story work.

That's all important, of course.

But try to spend a minute every day visualizing the book on the bookshelf. Imagine a kid or teen going to the bookstore, seeing YOUR book on the shelf, picking it up, and taking it home. That is one of the reasons we write, correct? To find a reader. To touch a reader. If you do this early on in the process of writing a book, when you get to the stage where it's time to start sending it out into Please Publish Me Land, I think you'll find you have less negative thoughts during the process. When the rejection letters start coming in, it won't matter. Because you've seen the book on the shelf and you know it's just a matter of time.

Regarding the quote: I'm guessing becoming Queen one day was one of those impossible things she thought about everyday before breakfast. Turned out pretty well for her, didn't it?