November 1965 “I ain’t afraid this time. I ain’t some kid don’t know shit from Shinola,” my father hollered as he stood in the driveway. In the curve of his chest, pressed tight against the denim of his overalls, he clutched a black revolver. The other hand combed through the short dark hairs of his …
Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” I once spent 14 months writing over 600 pages. I thought I was done. I thought I had a novel, thought I could turn it in, thought I could work on the next thing. Then I sat down & read it. …
For some people, success equals money. For others, it’s fame. Maybe scoring an agent. Or a book contract. Good reviews. A New York Times bestseller. Your book optioned for a film. But what if you don’t have those things? What if your attempts at finding an agent fell flat? Or you got reviews that cut …
My writing space is my favorite room in the house. I made sure I decorated it so I loved it because I spend 8+ hours a day in it. Some of the time is writing fiction, the rest is doing my day job. If this room were a person, it’d be my best friend. Really, …
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never ~ in nothing great or small, large or petty ~ never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”~ Winston Churchill Persistence is the difference between success and failure One of …
In his stunning book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell states researchers have come to the conclusion that in order to truly have expertise in a certain area, you need to spend 10,000 hours at it. I’d argue that passion is a necessity to succeed at your dream and what you envision for your life. If you’re going …
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the sh*t that weighs you down.” ~ Toni Morrison I always thought I was in need of permission to follow my dream. Specifically, someone else’s permission. It didn’t occur to me that wanting it for my life was reason enough to pursue it. I kept getting …
This one goes along with a post I did a few weeks back about being careful which people you choose to listen to (find it HERE). But this one’s about possibly your worst critic: your own self and how to combat that negative voice in your head. Anne Lamott, in her fabulous book Bird by Bird, …
My husband & I did this exercise once at a motivational seminar: He stood directly in front of me, telling me: you’re capable, you’re intelligent, you’re driven, you’ll succeed. Two other people from the seminar stood on either side of him saying things like: you’re going to fail, it’s too hard, you’ll never make it, you don’t …
Sylvia Plath: “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Sometimes self-doubt comes in fast & hard: the first rejection, maybe, and you’re wondering if you should even try to be a …
