Dec 05 2008
Lend a helping hand.
As a writer and author it takes great committment and diligence to see through your projects on an everyday basis. It seems that every day something will rear it’s ugly head and it will distract you from the course at hand.
I’ve been working on a novel for the past seven months now. I’m finding it this hardest thing in the world to do. It all started when I watched the movie the bucket list. Amazing plot and story line and of course jack nicholson and morgan freeman gave a stellar performance as two people told they had a short time to live and to make the best of it. So they made a list of ten things they wanted to do before they kicked the bucket. After losing my parents, grandparents and long time friends I began to think about the bucket list in a serious manner and I devised my own bucket list of things that i’ve always wanted to do in the past years and never took the time to accomplish.
I’m happy to say that I accomplished eight things. The ninth will be to go on a trip in the United States and the tenth is to write a novel and have it published. My idea of writing was sit down, jot down a few words here and there and voila! I was ready to get it published until I started reading all those “how to” books. What a total bummer talk about discouragement. Here I am one of those people that hates any type of criticism for starters and I get easily depressed if things don’t go right. I was terrified to even think of starting a project.
I became lost in my own little world and found a sort of peace and happiness I never knew that I could tap into. Then I thought of how great it would be to write something that would entertain people and become a movie! Now that will be on my next bucket list once I do the last two things. To compose a novel and have it shown to me on the big screen, that would be the ultimate goal in life i think. To see and share my work with a crowd of strangers, it would be thrilling in the least!
So I’ve completed most parts of the drafts and now I’m trying to figure out how to do a manuscript when I realized there’s alot of missing parts in this book i’m writing. In fact because I was having so much trouble with it, I’m thinking of dividing it into a six part book series instead to do it the proper justice. Then I can really let my imagination fly with the wind and take it’s course.
You know there’s a pattern with people who make it on the #1 New York Times Best Seller Lists? They have all had a dream and have written the words down. Then they took it a step further they wanted to see if it could possibly be published and voila! They are an overnight sensation now I ask you, is it the Universe’s will that they become writers and by tuning into their instincts they open up to a powerful force that gives them the right words to write down so that it may touch all of our hearts? Or is it just pure imagination working it’s thing in the minds of those that wish to believe in themselves.
Really to be an author is to believe in one’s self. To believe against all odds that the message you have to say can be cherished by others. To some it shall uplift, to others it will add to their fantasy world and then theirs the fact of gaining knowledge and the powerful concept begins to bud within your soul that you can do anything that you put your mind to. With a slice of persistence, diligience and hard work you may just be able to reach any goal that you strive for. Is this a pep talk of sorts? Yes in some ways it is but in other ways it’s a way to really think about what you want to do with yourself today. Do you want to accomplish the impossible? Or do you want to carry on in life doing the same old thing day after day with no goals, dreams or aspirations?
I’ve had my goals and just when I think all is lost, I get a break through. Mine was needing an editor or proofreader. Sure I love to write but according to the lovely microsoft office 2007 programs (awesome I love it!) i am constantly suffering fragmented sentences. I swear i wasn’t always this way. It’s the text messaging for the past ten years or so that’s ruined me. It’s the fun of sending short formed messages like codes and having the other person figure it out. Now if your someone new it will be a total clueless exercise. But if it’s someone that knows you and how you speak, they probably will be able to figure out just what you’re trying to say.
When it comes to money I don’t have much so I was at my witts end as to how would I get an editor to help me with the book? Facebook gave me the answer i was talking to a chap about the maladies of the call center industry and how he’s going through some issues in that department and then out of the blue he mentions that he’s got an English Literature Degree going to waste and he would be willing to do some editing and proofreading for me? I’m like cool! But I have no money see… He said, not a problem what we’ll do is this. You read my manuscript and give me some input and I’ll read yours and we’ll both help each other get published! What a manificient idea, why didn’t I come up with that one?
So to make a short story shorter i’m going to suggest that each and every person use the talents you have either the one’s that come naturally to you or the one’s you’ve acquired while learning new hobbies. Use your gifts to help others out and lend a helping hand. You will find it rewarding and they in turn will lend a hand back to you.
