Motivational Moments…for Writers! #26

HATS!!!
This morning was typical…as an indie author. Wearing many, many hats!  There’s a hat for writer, blogger; one for editor, proof reader, and publisher.

  Check emails for that BIG break!  A Hollywood film Co. wants to make my book into a movie, a ‘big-name’ Publisher stumbled across my novels and wants to publish me. 
                                                                         Nope! Not yet! 

Next, Edit and proof the short play I’m working on….rewrites,  rewrites, rewrites, rewrites,….did I say rewrites?  Submit edited play to my publishing platform and wait for the proof to be approved or for more changes.

Work on my book of poetry and get it launched onto Amazon.com

Work on postings for my Blog. This is a job that doesn’t go away if you want to be considered someone with ‘viable content‘ by the search engines. 

and after all those chores are complete……….Do some creative writing……..never neglect this!  Write Every Day!! Also found time to write 10,000+ words of book #12 in a true crime series.

“I’m not saying all publishers have to be literary, but some interest in books would help.”~~ A.N. Wilson

“Contrary to what many of you may imagine, a career in letters is not without its drawbacks – chief among them the unpleasant fact that one is
frequently called upon to sit down and write.”~~Fran Lebowitz

                                               “Writing is Not a Calling.  It’s a Doing!” Trisha Sugarek
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Motivational Moments…for Writers! #25

One of the main problems you may face as a writer is standing up to your inner critic.  Being overly self-critical can be very dangerous; stopping you dead in your tracks.  It is all too easy to tell yourself to give up, that there is no point, that you will never get anywhere.

But saying things like this to yourself is untrue and the kiss of death to your creative spirit!

So how do you control your inner critic and learn how to shut it down when it is threatening to ruin your writing career? Here are some examples of what it might say, and exactly how to respond.

‘You’ll never be as good as [insert name of your favorite author)’. We can’t help but compare ourselves to authors who have been and gone, ones who’ve had successful and seemingly effortless writing careers, whose fans adore them, who are praised by the media and their peers, who win awards and make millions.

Of course, there are going to be writers out there who are more successful than you, but this shouldn’t stop you from writing. Nor should it give you any reason to think that you can’t be that successful too.

There is no one right way to write, many different authors have become successful for various reasons. Write for your audience and yourself and know that you are unique, your stories are written just the way they should be and comparing yourself to others will get you exactly nowhere.

‘Your book will be a flop.’  Your self-critic will always try to make you feel like a failure and will fill your head with thoughts of giving up.

Don’t let it win.

Your inner critic has many tricks up its sleeve. They’ll range from petty insults to targeting your biggest fears and insecurities. However, knowing how to respond, to shut it down and feel positive about your writing will only help spur you on to become a better more productive and more exciting writer.

So whatever you do stand up to your inner critic, and never let it stop you from writing!

 

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking.”  Unknown

“It’s okay that I am a little strange, I’m a writer.” Satine

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?   December: Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. January was Dinah Jefferies and February’s author is Sheryl Steines. Johan Thompson (South African author) will join us in March.
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Motivational Moments…for Writers! #22

You’re a great writer.
Not an aspiring writer, a mediocre writer, or a someday, somehow, almost writer.

You’re a great writer, right now.
People are going to line up ten deep to tell you that you
aren’t good enough. Don’t do their work for them.

Maybe you aren’t published.
    Maybe you aren’t successful.
       You definitely aren’t perfect.
But, you’re a great writer.
Being great doesn’t mean you won’t continue to improve, or be excited and passionate.

My awesome takes nothing away from your awesome;
your awesome takes nothing away from my awesome.
Awesome is not a finite resource.

So say it. Out Loud. Every day.
“I’M A GREAT WRITER!!!”   
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My BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!    December: Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series.  January: Dinah Jefferies.

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Motivational Moments…for Writers! #21

My friend and fellow writer, Jodi Thomas, has sent us another motivational moment to inspire and spur our creative spirit.

Quilting with words

My mother quilted, my grandmother quilted. Both my sisters quilt.I have a quilt room in my house full of handmade quilts dating back five generations. But I don’t quilt. 

One of my first memories is lying beneath the quilting frame and listening to my mother and her friends talking as the needles flew.  I learned that for them it was never about how fine the stitches were, it was about the friendships, the creative adventure, the love that went into each quilt.

Years later, I was in my late thirties and just beginning to write.  My mother was moving into Alzheimer’s.  She’d set in the study with me and quilt on a little frame while I typed away on my stories.  As the years passed and my skill as a writer grew, while her skills slowly vanished we both still loved those morning working together.

Finally, when my first book came out, of course, I dedicated it to her.  To Sally Faye Kirkland Price, who always believed in dreams for her children. I’ve published 45 books as of January 2017.  I’ve won many award and am a New York Times bestseller but her review has always meant the most to me. She was only able to read the first one. When she finished, she smiled, holding the book as if it were a treasure and said, “Jodi, you quilt with words.”

“Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” ~~Gene Fowler

“For those who can do it and who keep their nerve, writing for a living still beats most real, grown-up jobs hands down.” ~~Terence Blacker
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                     “As a writer, I marinate, hibernate, and speculate.” Trisha Sugarek
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My BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!    November was best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series

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Happy Holidays to One and All !!

Wishing my family, friends and fans the merriest and happiest of holiday seasons!  Hold your family dogclose and your egg nog closer.  May the coming New Year be filled with good health, prosperity and laughter.Sadie, 2012

Dog4
in remembrance, Sadie

Thank you all for your support of my work this past year!trish-signature

Wear a Christmas hat!? You're joking, right?
Wear a Christmas hat!? You’re joking, right?
Miss Molly
Miss Molly

 

dog2

Motivational Moments….for Writers! #20

Motivational Moments….for Writers!  #20

R U Passive? waiting for your muse to strike and help you write your novel or story?  Back in the day, a muse was thought to be a creative spirit that unleashed your creativity. If you weren’t creative, it was the muse’s fault. 

R U External?  Setting an external reward for completing your daily writing task.  Usually food, drink or an activity such as watching your favorite TV show.

R U INTERNAL?  Ah, now we’re talking!  Writers need to examine their own brains to get that motivation working.  Your pain/pleasure receptors, in your brain, need adjusting if writing is painful.  If your writing causes you more pain than pleasure, waiting for a muse or an external reward is all you have. 

You need to write for the sheer joy of writing. Writing becomes the motivation for writing. Writing becomes your addiction.  Turn off the negative voice in your head that tells you you’re a crappy writer, have no talent…you know the voice I’m talking about.  Reinforce yourself by making positive statements, to yourself,  about your writing.  Take the time to admire that well-turned sentence, page, or chapter that you just wrote!

“Writing is a journey of discovery because until you start, you never know what will happen, and you be surprised by what you do~~expect the writer-ship-left-quote-copyunexpected!” Mini Grey

 

 

 

“As a writer, I speculate, hibernate and marinate.” Trisha Sugarek

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   October Author, Lisa Jackson.  November will be best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series

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From Pawns to Kings! by Eugene Brown ~~ A Review

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing 3 out of 5 quills     A Review ~~ From Pawns to Kings! by Eugene Brown & Marco Price-Bey51-jidtj-0l-_sx331_bo1204203200_

A cautionary tale for all young people who have had to grow up amidst the chaos of a dysfunctional family, quit school and run the streets.  This autobiographical narrative is about a young black man in a rush ‘to be somebody’. An alcoholic father and beat-down, defeated mother were of little use in keeping this child from a life on the streets and finally being incarcerated in the federal prison system for armed bank robberies.

Eugene Brown (the author) literally stumbled over the game of Chess (in prison) and recognized that winning at chess could translate at winning in life. The same rules apply; plan before you make a move, have several moves planned ahead of time, follow the rules, become better and better at the game of chess/life, and be able to see ‘the end game’.

eugene-brownAgainst all odds, he turned his life around and, after serving his time, went on to form a non-profit “Big Chair Chess Club” that helps get teens off the street and refocus their lives through the experience and rules of the game.

I particularly liked some of the last words in this book: “They (young people) want to be hustlers, but like myself, they had a very limited view of what makes a real hustler.  You see some people working two jobs, going to college, taking care of a family, that’s hustling man! Being a good hustler is finding a (legal) way or making a way to get what you want by using what you got…”

His story transcends the occasional grammatical errors and lack of punctuation, but it was distracting for this reviewer. For a novella, (154 pages) it is over priced.
http://www.chessmaneugenebrown.com/
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   October Author, Lisa Jackson.  November will be best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series

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A Little Poetry from Our Pets

fionacatCat Love  ©  (by Trisha Sugarek)

Don’t ruffle my fur that direction! I’ve got it looking just the way I want it to.

I love you but I’m very busy today.

Don’t move, this is my lap time and I’m very comfy.

Scratch right there, no a little more to the left, a little higher, to the right.

Look what I’ve brought you–isn’t it beautiful? I killed it in the garden.

That’s what we’re having for dinner?rocky-gus-fee

You need to work on how you pick your friends. I don’t like that one and besides he had the nerve to sit in my chair!

I could find a better human, you know, if I put in some effort….

But I guess you’ll do…for now.

 

molly-i-luv-u-momDog Love

Pet me, pet me, pet me! Oh boy! A butt rub!

I love you to the ends of the earth and beyond!

I’ll just lay here quietly, I won’t bother you, as long as I can touch you.

samThrow the ball! Throw the ball!  Again! Again!

I love my dinner, you’re such a good mommy!

‘Walkie’, ‘go outside’, ‘go for a walk’, ‘let’s go pee-pee’. Yippee!  Where’s my leash?gus-graduates-1

I love your friends. That one scratched my ears and told me I was a good dog.

You’re home!  You’re home!  Why were you gone so long….it doesn’t matter now…You’re home!

You’re the best human ever….I love you!
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   October Author, Lisa Jackson.  November will be best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series

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Motivational Moments…for Writers! The Writer’s Iceberg #19

Writer IcebergI stumbled across this wonderful graphic (by Sudio Sudarsan) of a ‘writer’s ice berg’.    Not many people, aside from we who write, know this world.  It’s lonely, scary, humiliating, and painful.  It’s also uplifting, soul filling, mind stretching and wonderful.

I count myself the luckiest of women that I developed my craft and didn’t give up when people said, ‘no’.  I am the most fortunate of writers to have realized that the process has to be planted in good soil, watered, and given lots of sunshine. Even when I am writing from a dark place.

We writers should never sit back and say, ‘I have arrived. I don’t need to grow anymore.  I am at the top of my game.’   If you’ve read any of my interviews with really famous authors, they aren’t smug….far from it…they are striving to be better just like you and I are.  I’ve found in my interaction with these authors that the more successful they are…the humbler they are.

“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”  Shannon Hale

“As a writer, I marinate, speculate, and hibernate!’‘ Trisha Sugarek
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To Purchase

Butterflies and Bullets, Poetry and other Musings {2nd Edition}

_butterfliesandbullets_finalReleased and on Sale Now!   www.amazon.com

Butterflies and Bullets is a collection of free verse poetry and musings about life, loss, love, and overcoming grief. Some fall on the ears like the touch of a butterfly. Others slam into your brain like a bullet.  The poet’s inspiration was taken from life’s experiences.

‘Joy and anguish, pleasure and pain … concurrent tides of diverse expressions run through these pieces to profile the intricacies and nuances of life. When paired with evocative illustrations, it’s a dance of life that flies and falls through experience with a poet and observer’s astute, deft touch.

Poetry fans will find these works accessible; and though they may seem deceptively simple at first, their lasting impact lies in their thought-provoking, descriptive moments.’ ~~ D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

 

“Some fly joyously in the sun, alighting briefly, warming the heart – and then there`s the killing bullet, taking a straight path to the heart, bent on destruction. Trish`s poems are like that. She had me hooked from the very first with Joy Filled Canine. Dog-lovers will recognize the essence of dog (not the smell) at once. There`s the joy, living for the day. `brandy eyes alight` – that`s it, in three words. And Mandolin Man, so touching in its simplicity (and dogs again). Then The Song of Agony – the bullet straight to the heart. A short tale of desperation, and again, pared down to a distillation of pain. There`s where Trish Sugarek`s considerable talent lies. Buy it, folks!” Anne Purser, author

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   September’s author: Joseph Drumheller and October Author, Lisa Jackson.  November’s author will be best selling author, Grace Burrowes
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