A Little Pep for Your Salt!

Don't you just love the title of this post? I do! Come on...admit it...you're totally smiling right now ;)
Now that I got that little grin on your face...
I wanted to share a little pep talk with y'all. I actually wrote this for a close group of friends when all of us were struggling to get back on the writing train. I was reading it again today and thought--What if someone else really needs to hear this? So I will share this overly peppy (and slightly amended) pep talk with all you awesome writers out there! Time to clean those slates of ours. Wipe away the old, broken promises we made when it comes to our writing.
Come on now!
Clean slates everyone! Clean slates!
*gives one last scribble, crazed laugh, then wipes clean*
There. Ahh...fresh.
Now...How dare you? Oh yes. You! How dare you let those wicked lies fill your head?
I mean those evil haters that whisper failure into your ears. You know the words.
"You started this years ago and you haven't finished."
"You're never going to be published."
"Nobody is reading it. Nobody likes it."
"You're wasting your time."
"You should be doing something else."
"Ugh, you're still chasing that dream?"
"I love you but maybe it's time you..."
"I believe in you but..."
Or worse! The things we say to ourselves are sometimes more horrible! I've heard them..I KNOW.
"I suck."
"I'll never be as good as..."
"I'm never gonna get a deal. I'm never gonna finish. I'm wasting my time."
"I can't get it right."
"Omg! I have to rewrite again? I should just give up."
See what I mean? We're just awful to ourselves. So quit it! What kind of talk is that? Huh? Chin up, shoulders square. (move hips side to side heh heh) Now shake. Shake says I! Just feel that negativity roll right off.
Haha this sounds like a bad workout instructional :D
Now see, it's all gone.
Now listen close: You are master, ruler, captain, etc...of words. You make them come like nobody else. Oh yes. When letters see you settling in to write they just scramble toward you. They practically beg for you to turn them into something fantastic. "Me! Pick me! Use me!"
Oh yes. You hear them? They're calling you now. You are incredibly gifted. Talent can't be bought or taught...and you are TALENTED. Genius is what you are. Brilliant! Must I say it again? Okey dokey...YOU ROCK! Like boulders in a great typhoon. Or maybe like spuds on blue soil.  Yeah...umm.
Oh you rock! Just like the robin in that song.
Now repeat after me: I am the bomb. I am a sexy, naughty little writer who is uber talented. I am going to do this. I will keep writing until I finish--and I will finish--and it will be amazing. I know my story is worth telling. Worth reading. And people will love it! I will let any bad things slip through my ears because they are evil and wretched and not true. I am going to write. I am going to work toward my word count this week knowing I have people in my corner who are rooting me on. And I will...above all...LOVE WHAT I DO.
Now don't you feel special?
I hope so. if not, we're going to have to have a chat, you and I.
Well, I hope this has been sufficiently perky for y'all. Until next time!
Happy Writing!!

Independence Day (minus Will Smith)

Happy Independence Day!! Isn't that a fabulous word? Independence. That is what I decided to focus on today for this post: independence. A simple word to say, but one of the more difficult ones to put into action.

This week, without realizing the significance of the weekend at the time, I made a promise to work on a query letter. For you more bold writers this may not seem like much of a thing to promise. However, if you are like me; timid, shy, that kid who always sat in the back and was told they'd never amount to anything, well then I'm sure you know how I felt. This was the next step. A new step into an alien world. Its not the world of publishing which was frightening. What was frightening was actually trying. To not stand on the sidelines and get into the game.

It's one thing to have talent, to have skill with putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and writing what's in you. Now you've breathed life into these characters, you've created a world unlike any other, and now you're creations have life and a voice. They cry out to you that they want to be heard...but you keep them on a file in an unused folder on your laptop. In my case, you keep several finished and half finished notebooks of stories in a dusty tote in a shady corner of the room. Day after day you lie to yourself that "today I'm going to pull it together", "I'm going to spend all day on this", and "Take the kids out! I need to focus. Do you want me to be a writer or not?!" So fine you get your way the house is empty. No kids running around. No phone ringing off the hook. That pesky neighbor decides to leave you alone for the day. Now its you...you and the silence. There's no more excuses, nothing to distract, nothing to keep you from reaching new heights and taking that leap of faith. Except there is something still there: you.

When you're in that position you have to face the fact that you aren't free. Fear, doubts, the past, whatever it may be something is shackling you and stopping you from being the person you want to be, living how you want, from even attempting to be that person. You wonder about yourself and the skills you know you have. I have even wondered why I was asked to be a part of this blog with such amazing writers. I've diminished accolades from other people, sites, and whatnot, choosing to live in a shell. But no turtle stays in its shell forever. You have to poke your head out.

That's when you have to declare Independence.

You have to stand up with the same conviction as the colonists had against the British. (I apologize by the way for the whole tea thing for our British readers) But they came to a point where they said "enough is enough". They fought for what they believed in and they made up in their minds they would sever the bonds of tyranny oppressing them. How? They tried. Talk wasn't going to get them anywhere. They had a focused goal and set out to accomplish it in any means possible.

Sure, many people fell and countless others were wounded. But they knew it wasn't going to be easy. Nothing worth having comes without buckets of sweat, drums of blood, and at least a warehouse full of pain. That's the only difference between the would be author and the bestselling author. The bestselling ones cried "enough", shook off the fear and the doubts and other creepy things lurking in their heads telling them not to procede.

I've been writing since I was nine. It's hard to remember a time writing has not been in my life. But until now I haven't been free. This weekend i took the steps, I'm trying, I'm telling those horrid voices in my head to can it. Writing is what I love, what I will always do, paid or unpaid. I declare my independence from the "wells, maybes, and certainly from those buts". I speak life over my dreams. I finally take control of my life!!

This week I will send out my query. No matter what. And I will keep sending them, while writing, writing, writing. I'm FREE!! Independent and loving it :D

My only question is...who else is with me?

Declare your Independence, loud and proud. Take back your esteem and move past the past. Brighter writing days are ahead my friends. Just shake free of those shackles.