Following up with goals…one of my goals this year is to start *and* finish, The Artist’s Way course. For those that don’t know, The Artist’s Way is a book by Julia Cameron, but is also a 12 week program to help with recover your creativity from various blocks, including fear, self-doubt, etc.

I started the course earlier this year when I felt particularly blocked. I wanted to complete the final draft on my novel, but I just couldn’t do it. I had no power, no drive, nothing. When things like that happen, I, like most creative people go to that dark place where I wondered why I even bothered writing. Those tiny thoughts tend to grow exponentially. First it’s why do I do this, next it’s, why bother? You’ll never make it anyway, hell you’ve never even sold a short story. You should be focusing on REAL things, not self-indulgent, artsy-fartsy things.

The problem is, I can’t do it. Every time I come to that point where I think I should give it up, I can’t. Even if I never make a dollar doing it, I can’t stop writing. When I’m writing, I’m happy. When I’m not, I feel like something is missing. So why, if I love it so much, do I run into these blocks? Why does anybody?

Various reasons of course…no time, life gets in the way, etc.

What the Artist Way course tries to do is find out what your blocks are and get you past them. Creativity is one of those ellusive things that we can’t just turn on or off. It comes and goes, and for me anyway, I can never quite pin it down. It’s like one of those friends you have who you LOVE visiting with, but then they don’t call or e-mail for a few weeks or months and you start feeling rejected, but then they come back and everything is right with the world again.

So, in embarking on The Artist’s Way journey, I’m hoping to equip myself with the tools I need to be able to get through these blocks when they happen, because they WILL happen. The people I know who have completed the course have said it was incredibly useful. Fingers crossed. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Have you done The Artist’s Way course or read the book? Any comments or suggestions? If you haven’t and you’re interested, drop me a line, maybe we could be study partners.

I’ve found it! We can all reach the top of the Amazon best-seller list. It doesn’t matter what your book is about, it doesn’t even matter if it’s out of print.

Click here to see Physicist Dr. John Gribbin discuss his secret.

Here’s a link to the original article.

Making a list of celebrity targets, I mean helpers, now.

As the famous Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Too true.

Every year around this time, people start thinking about goals for the next year. I’m no different. I also usually set new goals every month, hell, every day sometimes. After all, every day is a new day, right? (Ah…coffee fueled optimism!)

The thing about goals is trying to follow them. I set some writing goals for this year and want to know how many I achieved?

One.

Yes, just one. However, I’m not going to beat myself up about it, because I ended up doing many more writing related things that I didn’t consciously set out to do. I do wish I had achieved more of the goals I had ACTUALLY set, but it was just one of those years. This year, I will set more goals and I will try to follow them. If other unanticipated things (good things, please!) happen along the way, that’ll be ok too.

One thing to keep in mind about goals is to make them attainable. There’s no point in setting goals that you’re not going to reach. So in the beginning, it’s best to keep them simple. Example, “I will write at least one page a day.” Seems simple, but as I learned this year, even the most simple goals can be easily thwarted. With that, another thing I’ve learned is to allow the flexibility of re-assessing your goals at any time. If it’s looking like you’re just not going to make it, re-adjust. No, it’s not cheating. If you don’t make all of your goals, that’s fine, but I think it’s important to make SOME of them. Achieving even just one of our goals, can give us that boost we need to keep going. And hey, we ALL need that boost from time to time.

I’m still compiling my list of short term and long term goals, but what about you? Do you usually come up with a list? If you did this year, how’d you do? Or do you think setting goals is a waste of time?

So now that it’s cold out (in the Northern Hemisphere), what better time to curl up with a good book, er device…ok, story.

For those of you unfamiliar with Goodreads.com please check it out and friend me! Goodreads.com is a social networking site for bibliophiles. You can find books, review them, even swap them. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to see what your friends are reading and what they think of what they’re reading. Many well known authors also have their own pages are some are very active with blog posts, etc.

Incidentally, Goodreads just scored a deal with True Ventures and will be updating their site and expanding soon. Click here to read the article.

Another great site, again brought to me by my friend Ann, is Dailylit.com.  It’s free, it’s online and it can be delivered right to your inbox. It doesn’t get much more convenient than that. You can read whole books (fiction and non-fiction), short stories, and more. Great for those midday coffee breaks. Or tea if you prefer.

And I feel fine? Hmmm…not sure.

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers recently posted a blog article entitled “The End of Book Publishing As We Know It” in which he discusses how the publishing industry is going to have to completely rethink how it does business. He was prompted to write the article after seeing a demo for the “SI Tablet.” (The demo is posted in his article.)

He brings up some fascinating points including that standard “books” as we know them will go away, just like 8 tracks and the like. I believe at some point, that’s probably true. They may not go away completely, but just like iPods replaced Walkman’s and CD players, so will the E-Reader replace standard books. That’s just the way of things, and in a lot of ways, it’s very exciting.

There was one point that bothered me though. Mr. Hyatt states that, “These new technologies promise to create reading experiences (if we can call them that) that are more sensual, more imaginative, and more compelling than simple text alone can provide.”

Ok, I have to admit, I like a lot of the new technology. I love my Netbook, my iPod, and I enter every Kindle contest I can find, but the above statement disturbed me because what are books, if not a way to expand our OWN imaginations and sensory images?

I have a hard time getting through a book where an author tries to think for me, example: “He turned his eyes to the floor, because he was ashamed.”  What’s the fun in a device that will spoon serve the book to me, sensory images and all? The E-Readers that are out now, you still have to READ them, so I don’t feel like the traditional ‘book’ is as threatened by them as they are by something that promises to turn a reading experience into something more.

Granted, his statement is a little vague. He doesn’t state specifically that these new devices will eventually have crazy things like sound effects and smell effects that will trigger at certain points and “enhance” the reading experience, but it does make me wonder what DOES he mean? At what point is this technology too much?

What are your thoughts?

Lately, I’ve noticed that there is never enough time. It seems like there’s never enough time for ANYTHING let alone the fun stuff you really WANT to do, that always gets pushed to the bottom of the pile under the stuff you HAVE to do.

By the time I get home from work, spend time with the family and put the little one to bed, I have about enough energy to open a book and fall asleep thirty seconds later. Sometimes sixty seconds. My husband can vouch for this.

Lately, it’s the season. My body always wants to go into hibernation mode right now, even though I keep telling it, it’s not a bear or a squirrel. Somehow, it doesn’t get the message.

So how do other people do it, short of carrying around one of those awesome little time bender thingies like in Harry Potter? On her blog, Author Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz, has asked the same question and gotten a few great answers. Some of her guest authors are full-time authors, but most of them are not, so it’s very encouraging to see how people with full-time jobs and families are still getting their writing done.

Here’s a link to her blog. Scroll to the bottom to start with the first post in the series.

What are some of your tips and tricks? Do you find you write better in the morning or afternoon? Do you have any little rituals you do to get yourself in your ‘writing mind’ and away from everything else?

…a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop…

Creativity-Portal.com!

You thought I was going to say the Twilight Zone, right? Actually, just  writing that made me want to go watch a few episodes.

Anyway…I found a fun new website for Fun Friday! Creativity-Portal.com is the brainchild of Chris Dunmire, who founded the site in 2000. I’ve just started poking around, but I’ve found everything from writing prompts to craft ideas to interview with artists of all stripes. This site has a little something for a variety of creative types.

So, without further ado…check it out and have FUN!

A few months back, I saw a link for an independent film called “Lemonade.”

Here’s the synopsis: More than 130,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this “Great Recession.” Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.

I was really inspired by the trailer for this movie (below) because here are these people that had one of those ‘big time bummers’ happen to them. They lost their job. For most people, that’s a pretty crushing defeat, and for these people it was too, but it’s what they chose to do with it that’s inspiring.

I know several who have lost their jobs recently and have seen varying degrees of coping skills. That’s to be expected, everybody is different. But another thing that I though about when I saw the trailer was, #1 I hope I don’t lose my job and #2, I hope it wouldn’t take me losing my job to try and get creative with my life. Obviously, I’d love to make my living at writing, but I’m not there yet. Who knows what will happen. I have a job, a family, etc. It’s all part of the journey. Even if I never make a living with my writing, it helps me on the journey and makes it a richer more exciting ride. I’d wager that most artistic types would agree.

Anyway, I wanted to call attention to this movie, which had its premier this past week, because of the inspiring stories contained within. Whether we’ve lost our jobs or not, I think it’s important that we all try to make the best out of everyday.

Lemonade Movie Trailer