Whether I write or not, I will pay a price.

Monday: Dialogue, Lines, or Quotes

Browsing through past blog posts, I came across this one published May 28, 2012 and it struck a chord. I am re-posting because it's a message I need right now.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"I have no shrewd advice to offer developing writers about this business of snatching time and space to work. I do not have anything profound to offer mother-writers or worker-writers except to say that it will cost you something. Anything of value is going to cost you something."  (Toni Cade Bambara)

Anything of value is going to cost you something. As I've contemplated that phrase I've come to realize that everything comes with a price whether it's of value or not. I can choose to pay the price for writing time (neglected chores, lack of social time, loss of sleep) or I can choose to pay the price for not making time to write (frustration, resentment, loss of dreams).

Whether I write or not, I will pay a price.

What price are you willing to pay to follow your dream? What price will you pay if you don't?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Motivation: Set a timeline.

"The difference between a dream and a goal is a timeline." ~ Dr. Phil

November was National Novel Writing Month.  Writers strive for 50,000 words of a novel in those thirty days.  My daughter set the goal to complete the word count before Thanksgiving.  She finished in 24 days!  That's quite an accomplishment, especially considering she has three busy children (age five and under).

If you dream of writing a novel someday, check out the National Novel Writing Month website: NaNoWriMo.  Put a timeline on that dream -- make it a goal.  Research.  Take notes.  Be ready to hit the keys in 11 months!

Motivation: Doubt does not indicate a lack of talent.

"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as consolation prize."  ~Robert Hughes

I take comfort in this quote because it's been a tough year for me, plagued with doubt. 

Motivation: Don't fear the crayons.

This is a continuation of last Monday's post. (See Motivation: Get the crayons back.) As I mentioned, I checked the book out of the library. The quote I used last week turned out to be a heading for an entire section on the subject, which seemed directed at me. It read:

So you've got the itch to do something. Write a screenplay, start a painting, write a book, turn your recipe for fudge brownies into a proper business, build a better mousetrap, whatever. You don't know where the itch comes from, it's almost like it just arrived on your doorstep, uninvited. Until now you were quite happy holding down a real job, being a regular person...

Until now.

You don't know if you're any good or not, but you think you could be. And the idea terrifies you. The problem is, even if you are good, you know nothing about this kind of business. you don't know any publishers or agents or venture capitalists or any of these fancy-shmancy kind of folk. ...

Besides, if you write a book, what if you can't find a publisher? If you invent a new piece of world-changing software, what if you can't find a financial backer? If you write a screenplay, what if you can't find a producer? And what if the producer turns out to be a crook? ...

Heh.  That's not your wee voice asking for the crayons back.  That's your other voice, your adult voice, your boring and tedious voice trying to find a way to get the wee crayon voice to shut the [heck] up.

Your wee voice doesn't want you to sell something. Your wee voice wants you to make something. Theres a big difference. Your wee voice doesn't give a [darn] about publishers, venture capitalists, or Hollywood producers.  

Go ahead and make something.  Make something really special.  Make something amazing that will really blow the mind of anybody who sees it.

If you try to make something just to fit your uninformed view of some hypothetical market, you will fail.  If you make something special and powerful and honest and true, you will succeed.

The wee voice didn't show up because it decided you need more money, or you need to hang out with movie stars. Your wee voice came back because your soul somehow depends on it. There's something you haven't said, something you haven't done, some light that needs to be switched on, and it needs to be taken care of. Now.

So you have to listen to the wee voice or it will die...taking a big chunk of you along with it.

They're only crayons. You didn't fear them in kindergarten, why fear them now? ~Hugh MacLeod, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, pp. 26-28.

Motivation: Get the crayons back.

I liked this quote so much, I searched for the source and checked the book out of the library.

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the 'creative bug' is just a wee voice telling you, "I'd like my crayons back, please." ~Hugh MacLeod, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

Motivation: Don't give up.

"The only thing that I have done that is not mitigated by luck, diminished by good fortune, is that I persisted. And other people gave up." ~Harrison Ford

Motivation: The world you desire exists.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved... The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. ~Ayn Rand

Motivation: Go out and get busy.

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." ~Dale Carnegie

Motivation: Yes, dream, but take action.

"The universe doesn't give you what you want in your mind; it gives you what you demand with your actions." 
~ Steve Maraboli

Although I believe it is important to visualize and dream, without taking action (even baby steps) the "universe" cannot step in to help those dreams become real.

Motivation: Sacrifice

"You can only become great at that thing you're willing to sacrifice for." ~Maya Angelou

Motivation: It's your choice.

"Be miserable.  Or motivate yourself.  Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." ~Wayne Dyer

Motivation: Finish

"Best advice on writing I've ever received.  Finish." ~Peter Mayle

Motivation: Persevere

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."
~Newt Gingrich

I soooo need perseverance right now.

Motivation: Practice art.

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.  So do it." ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Motivation: Create, and lose the crank.

"Mortals must do what they are here to do creatively or they will become cranky." ~Jill Badonsky

Yep.

Motivation: The will (and choice) to act.

I've been sick for two weeks. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that I allowed negative thoughts to take up residency. My internal negative critic was kicking the snot out of me several days before I became sick, and then it took over full time.

Now I feel physically better but mentally beat up and need to oust the negativity. I searched for quotes that could help with motivation and these fit for me:

"The biggest wall you've gotta climb is the one you build in your mind, you don't need a hammer to knock it down, just the will to act."  (from Jonathan Fields', Good Life Project: Living Creed)

And somewhere in my surfing I came across this thought...

"It's your choice. Which do you want to do, criticize yourself or create?"

I want to create.

Today I will act... I will create.

Motivation: Say no.

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.  (Steve Jobs, Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference, 1997)

It has taken me awhile, but I'm finally starting to say "no" to some things in order to keep my focus. I turned in my resignation as Treasurer for Utah Women in Film, I turned away an opportunity to work as an extra, and said no to helping on a film project. 

Saying no to those things helped me feel more dedicated to my goals, and also gave me motivation... since I said "no" in order to work on my own projects, then I darn well better work on them, right?

Motivation: Dare Greatly

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. ..." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Motivation: Use creativity.

From the book The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown:

Let me sum up what I've learned about creativity from the world of Wholehearted living and loving:

1. "I'm not very creative" doesn't work. There's no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don't. Unused creativity doesn't just disappear. It lives within us until it's expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear.
2. The only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world will be born of our creativity.
3. If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing--it doesn't matter. As long as we're creating, we're cultivating meaning.

It's New Year's Eve. While planning and looking ahead to the coming year, consider:

Unused creativity doesn't just disappear. Find it. Use it. Cultivate it.

These ideas are remarkably expressed in the following short video. I posted it a couple years ago, but it's worth sharing the inspirational message again. 

Motivation: Come alive!

"Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~ Howard Thurman