Living the Fantasy

I got a taste of the dream the other day. I hopped on board a commercial jet to join the Pilot Guy in Phoenix. Needing to keep my NaNo word count rolling, I pulled out my laptop at 40,000 feet and started typing.



This is part of the fantasy of being a best selling author, right? An author so busy flying to book signings, so in demand as a speaker, and so wealthy she can hop a jet any time to research a gorgeous island retreat that she has to write in any bits and pieces of time.

Yes, for a few minutes I was Jodi Thomas and Nora Roberts happily typing away on my next bestseller.

To get to the fantasy part of any career, you got to do the work. I've spent some time with Jodi Thomas. She treats writing like a job...she gets her work done even if it means writing late into the night in a hotel room after speaking at a writer's conference. Rumor has it that Nora Roberts can be seen typing away at poolside during conferences.

Deadlines and doing the work. There is no substitute.

50,124

I DID IT!

Yesterday, I crossed the finish line in the NaNoWriMo challenge!

50,124 words written in 25 days.

The novel has a decent beginning and a reasonable end. The middle....well, let's just say that Indiana Jones with a map, a native guide, and a GPS couldn't find his way through there. That's okay, it is fixable. Nora Roberts says you can't fix a blank page. My pages are NOT blank. How cool is that?

I told someone else that this is a bit like having a baby. The little critter is here, but the work is not at an end. The book still needs lots of nurturing and raising.

But it's there. A story. That's the coolest part of this.

I have created.

I'm feeling a bit Wonder Womanish these days! Can you tell?

Wild, reckless, rough, rustic...the journey was often stressful, insane, and very exhilarating. I learned things about my creative abilities I don't know I could have learned any other way....and I've been a professional creative soul most of my adult life. That's saying a lot.

Whatever you create with, how ever you create....take a challenge...do it with ABANDON and JOY!

Creativity as Therapy

A few days ago, I found an article which discussed a link between what our hands do and a happy place in our brain. In other words, doing something skillful and useful with our hands sends an 'atta girl' to a part of our brain which, in turn, turns on seratonin, our favorite feel good hormone.

One of the points of the article was that in our modern, push button, touch screen, digital, microwave world, we don't DO enough to trigger this pleasure response. This, they hypothosize, is one of the reasons depression is on the rise in our world. Modern man doesn't take up tools to plow a field or chop wood to heat his home. Modern woman tosses laundry in the machine instead of getting physical feedback from scrubbing each shirt. (I'm happy enough about that, too, by the way.) One of the ways the authors suggested we cope was through crafting and art.

In other words, the act of hands-on creating makes you feel great. Creating something to delight your soul only reinforces the pleasure. The physical act of creating--handling fabric, cropping photos, molding clay, or picking up a paint brush is enough to begin to trigger this pleasure response.

The next time you decide to scrapbook, quilt, garden, needlepoint, cook, make soap, photograph, paint a wall or a canvas, sketch in your journal, or play with words on paper, you are investing in your own well being. Think of the dollars you are saving by not going to a therapist! Go ahead, invest in shiny, new tools, buy more fabric for your stash, stock up on any and all creative supplies. Remember, its for your own good, not to mention the well being of your family. (And more fun than doing laundry on a rock.)

Point of View

Point of view.

I've heard the phrase a lot lately and it's got me thinking. We writers love point of view. We wrangle endlessly about whose eyes from which a scene is being observed. Woe to the writer who has an abrupt POV shift within a scene, although Nora Roberts does it quite successfully....

In the last few weeks, I've heard the phrase 'point of view' on a couple of reality based shows like 'The Next Food Network Star' and 'Project Runway.' (Yes, I'm addicted to both. Cut me some slack. I don't watch American Idol or Survivor.) The phrase puzzled me a bit at first, then I got it. The contestants are talking about style. Personal style. Their unique factor. Flair. The one thing that makes their work different from everyone else's. It's the way they see the world. It's probably the one thing about their work that makes their hearts sing.

Back in my professional photography days, my reputation was built on a love of contrasting the elegant against the rustic. Time after time, I posed brides in beautiful white gowns between sharp cliff faces or on the edge of the canyons. It was dramatic, exciting, and beautiful. Clients came to me for just those looks.

When I think of photographers I've known and studied with, I see their signature looks also. Charles J. Lewis's warm family portraits, Monte Zucker's elegant lighting and emotional style or Rocky Gunn's dramatic outdoor art portraits. Each is so distinctive that if you knew what to look for, you would easily be able to pick their work from a collection. It would be like being able to find the Renoir among the Rembrandt's and both from among the Picasso's. Totally different styles.

Writers, too. Can you tell Stephen King from Charles Dickens? Jane Austen from Nora Roberts? John Grisham from Jodi Picoult? Of course you can. Foodies, as well. Bobby Flay is different than Rachel Ray. Come to think of it, you can tell the difference between Debbie Mumm and Martha Stewart, can't you?

So the question is.....what's your style? What's your point of view?

Are you writing, painting, sculpting, sewing, or gardening according to your style or are you trying to please someone else? If you gathered several pieces of your work together would there be a cohesive thread throughout?

As an exercise this week, try to define a portion of your style. Don't be afraid, it will not limit you to only that one thing. Those dramatic portraits I used to do? They got people talking and brought work into my door, but many of my clients only wanted a sweet and simple portrait, they were not interested in traipsing into the canyons. That's okay, my style for fresh, unique design carried over. So....maybe in reality, that was my point of view. Hmmm....more thinking to do. One of the worries I have in my writing is my lack of a definitive style or voice. I sound like too many other people still when I write so I'll be exploring this exercise with you.

Whatever you do, it's got to look like YOU. Not your features or your skin color, but your personality.

There is light within you. Let it shine!

The Notecards

The notecards turned out great! It was such fun to create them.

Need an extra stocking stuffer for someone?