Category Archives: Motivation

How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road

Motivation, ,

How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road. I last posted here about  a technique for boosting your writer’s Imagination. The fourth entry in my Attitude Adjustment series. Confession time. I did not boost. I did not adjust. I walked away.

I needed rest. Maybe you have felt the same. I am done with resting now and ready to get back to work. Please, feel free to join me. Return to a rediscovered writer’s journey. Or repave the road you never left. Here’s How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road.

Life changes when you start your day writing. Wake up. Wash your face. Brew a cuppa. Begin to write. Fall into the world of your story where doubts disintegrate and make believe reigns. A world more truly real to a writer than day-to-day and down-to-earth could ever be.

Plus – something else equally enthralling. After each first-moment-of-the morning writing session, an aura of its captivation magic remains. Your mind feels less fettered. Your worries press less heavily. Even your To Do lists have lost a huge measure of their tyranny.

Need a kickstart? Try this prompt. “I would like to introduce you to my favorite self.” Or. “Meet my favorite character.” Choose the one that attracts you most powerfully. Do not ponder. Put your pen to the paper, or place your fingers on the keyboard. And just write.

Let your imagination fly free. Open your senses wide and turn up their volume. See every detail at maximum vividness. Listen to each glorious sound. Taste your words on your tongue. Smell every scent, pleasant or unpleasant. Feel it all, both outside yourself and within.

Write it down. Fragments of thought. Impressions. Dialog snatches if you hear them. The sensations. The silliness. If you catch the spark of a writing idea, record it, but only briefly. Then abandon yourself once more to your flight into this wide open moment, whatever it may be.How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Think of this day every day as a jewel on the thread of your life. Know that this day, this moment, is a precious step on the extraordinary journey of your writing experience. Place your jewel artfully. Admire its beauty. Take each step with every fiber of you at high alert and maximum awareness. Recognize the wonder.

If a discouraging thought appears, let it pass. Everything you need for your journey is right here, right now, wherever you are. Each step along your road will take you toward the place you need to go. You are on your personal path to your personal writing triumph whatever it may be.

Never relinquish your Power of Enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that enthusiasm is the energy you need to fuel yourself in life. You are energized. You understand How to Step Up Your Journey on the Writing Road. There will be no stopping us now.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

A Time of Fear & Loving

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

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Present Perfect Survive-Thrive Secret #1

Motivation, ,

Persist Till You Prevail. We’ve seen many of us fall by the wayside. We’re called Creatives. Yet, we struggle to create the mindset that will keep our bodies and spirits from sliding off the path which gives us joy and satisfaction. The challenge is to Persist. The goal is to Prevail.

I Have Persisted. Over boulders in my way. Under bridges where trolls lurk at every turn.  Am I boasting? You betcha, though God and a great support network had a lot to do with it. Plus maybe my rat-dog stubbornly stupid refusal to give up.

Alice’s Survive and Thrive Secrets. Five rules for life’s risky road were planted deep in me by Grandma when I was young, and I’ve nurtured them some since. I share those seeds in my next few posts. The overall message being Persist Till You Prevail.Grandma and Alice at Two and a Half

What Do I Mean by Prevail? Do I mean fame and fortune? Don’t turn those puppies away if they scratch at your door, but they’re not my thesis here. To Prevail is what my top-line title states and my bottom-line belief dictates. Survive and Thrive. Get past whatever you encounter. Don’t expect easy. Survive to Thrive and tell about it, because we must always share good news.

What Do I Mean by Thrive? Muster the strength to pick up your life, and celebrate your very existence. You made it this far, battered and bruised maybe, but still Present. That, like me not being crushed by boulders or devoured by trolls, is a miracle.

Present Perfect. So, here’s Survive and Thrive Secret #1. Be the Best You Can Be in the Present. The best you can be, not the best there ever was, or the best expected by whomever’s been flogging your psyche for almost ever. Your ma, your pa, Saint Francis. I expect of you, only the best that you can manage to be on any given day in any given moment. You should expect the same.

The Best You/I/We Can Manage is Good Enough. Better than good enough. Your Personal Any Morning Best. That’s a diamond, my friend, subject to polishing perhaps, but worth a fortunate fortune all the same.

In the Interests of Full Disclosure. My own consciousness lost the gist of that last paragraph for a while. The concrete of forgetfulness paved my path, honed it into hobble-stones that delivered a direct hit to my psyche more than once. A cautionary tale you must remember when tempted to overlook the glint of the jewel you already are, or misjudge it not glinty enough.

Be Gentle with Yourself (And so the Exercise Begins). Identify goals that are Realistic for You. Not for whomever you’re alleged to be less whatever than. Realistic/Doable/Workable Goals for You. Be compassionate. Cutting somebody a break begins at home.

Brainstorm Those Compassionate-with-Yourself Goals. Get someone who really loves you to join in, or make it a solo storm. A bottle of wine could help, or a pot of strong tea if you prefer. Make mine cabernet sauvignon, please.

Write Them Suckers Down. Do not edit. Don’t say, “That’s stupid,” or “This won’t work.” Remember the psyche-floggers I mentioned earlier? These dismissive self-critiques are echoes of her/his/their voice. Ignore it. Write down every syllable. Then leave the list alone for a bit, maybe even a day or two.

The Cooler Consideration. Again, do not edit. Guided by self-compassion, prioritize Your Realistic Goals. Start easy, not with the biggest thunderclap on your brainstormed list. Now, make a new list from the new sequence you’ve created.

Print That List in a Large Font. Hang it everywhere you hang. Your laptop lip, the fridge door. Do not laminate. Periodic tweaking, always in self-compassion mode, is encouraged.

Go After Those Goals at Psyche-Sensitive Speed. You are Present Perfect now, Lovey (as Grandma used to call me). Survive and Thrive Secret Number One is done and done.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

A Wrong Way Home – Alice Orr’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is a FREE eBook HERE. Enjoy!A Wrong Way Home

A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.  Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving. “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
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Scoreboard Status Writers’ Style

Motivation, ,

Scoreboard Status Writers’ Style. Have you ever heard this ponderous question? “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear, is there any sound?” Well, let’s ponder this one. “If your book falls into the marketplace, and nobody notices, are you still a real writer?”

 That doozy has been frying in my brainpan for some time now, and I’m not alone. More and more of us are deciding to quit the writing game. We not only consider ourselves losers there, we’ve concluded that we aren’t even up on the scoreboard.

We toil long and hard and believe we’re writing strong stories, but don’t sell many books. We don’t make much money either. What we thought of as a writing career is behaving more like a writing hobby. And, the IRS may be about to make that hobby status official.

Been there. Am there now. The only book sales I’m sure of are the copies I send to reviewers, because good reviews are supposed to make all the difference. My reviews are stellar, and no difference has been made.

Many authors report a similar experience. Their reviewers are generous, enthusiastic, even ecstatic. Still, sales figures don’t budge enough to get them even into the minor leagues. We’re playing pickup ball on the sandlots of scribes.

Before we start sputtering over the obvious injustice – let’s sprint this sporty metaphor back to the scoreboard concept. Who is up there in lights anyway? Whose numbers soar high, then higher still, over and over again?

The “Why?” of the above questions is in the last phrase, “over and over again.” These are repeat performers, repeat big sales performers, like our beloved Stephen King. Their identities repeat as well. The same bestseller names sell best, as I said, over and over again.

They are the superstars. According to a recent Sunday New York Times article, once you’re a superstar, you stay a superstar. Everybody knows your name. You’re a proven, recognizable commodity, and readers feel most confident buying a brand name. Plus, there are only so many superstar slots on the board, and those are pretty much filled.

 I succumbed to the blues notes of that tune several months ago. I stopped writing anything other than the occasional blog post and a regular column. Then I read the Sunday Times article, felt the truth of it, and somehow that turned me around. “WTF am I doing?” I shouted.

After I stopped writing, I became a less satisfied person. Anyone in my family will bear witness to this. So, started writing again. I picked up my novel-in-progress, shoved Patrice, my beleaguered heroine, into hot water, and turned up the temp.

Then, one morning, after a subsequent writing session, something happened. I was standing in my bedroom listening to a conversation between two people who only exist in my head. Patrice and John, my hero, were saying things entirely new to me. And, guess what? It felt great.

So, to hell with the scoreboard. Whether or not the marketplace acknowledges the presence of my stories in its midst, I am still a real writer. How about you?

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.comA Wrong Way Home

 A Wrong Way Home – Alice Orr’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 is a FREE eBook HERE. Enjoy!A Time Of Fear & Loving book cover art

A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE. Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/