Does anyone here play chess? Or checkers? Risk? I’m pretty sure we’ve all said at some point in our lives, “It’s your move.” It’s all about strategy and planning. Sometimes, though, we don’t know what move to make. This happens a lot when writing a novel. Simply put, stuff happens. Emotional stuff. Action stuff. Good stuff. Bad stuff. When an author starts writing a book, the dream is to get it finished and into the hands of readers. Then stuff happens in real life and the writer gets all wrapped around the axel and stuff comes to a complete halt. No forward movement. Or very little, in fits and starts, with promises and excuses. Then the Universe shows up and pretty much boils it down to this:
When you move toward a dream, Silver, it moves toward you.
When you move every day, it moves every day.
Someone pass me a calculator –
The Universe
©www.tut.comP.S. Do the math, Silver, and keep moving… this could be your week!!
Too bad I’m terrible at math. Still, to me, the Universe means that it’s time to lead, follow, or get the hell out of my own way. Your mileage may vary. This message really hit home as I’ve been struggling–as y’all know–when it comes to Ariel’s Dang Book. The thing I need to keep in mind is that I need to move. Every day. If I “move” (ie. write) every day, the book moves ever closer to The End. I need to get out of my own way. I need to stop thinking that I need all these words written every day. Yeah, yeah. I used to write fast. I don’t any more. I used to be focused. Now I’m easily distracted. I get excited if I write 250 words on a Thursday. When I win, place, or show based on a random judge’s judgement, I know that the words are good ones because the writers who take the challenge each week are not novices. To write, you need to be in your head but if you get too deep into your head, you get lost in the weeds. New goal. Words every day. Whether one sentence, 250 words, a few pages, a chapter. It doesn’t matter. If I don’t start, I won’t finish. It’s that simple and that hard.
Silver James 