It's All About the Baby Steps

My Road to Publication has not been a simple, straight line.  And neither has my road to weight loss.  As you know these are my two goals.

But today, in the spirit of celebrating all the small victories on the way to dreams,  I present the link to my first published piece.

http://www.guardian-angel-kids.com/aug011-pg6-story.htm

Even though it is only a magazine.  Online.  And for kids.  I was paid!

As was stressed in the movie  What About Bob  it's all about the baby steps.  So hopefully this is the first  of many successful baby steps on the way to my publication goal.

I owe it all to what I've learned through RWA, FFNP, Savvy Authors, Children's Writers, Just Write and the many, many blogs, links, chats and forums I've visited.

So thank you everyone.  Have a glass of bubbly with me.

Mine will be diet soda.  After all I'm still working on my other goal, getting to my wedding weight.

Feel free to comment on your baby steps, your small victories, and even how you celebrate.

Rebel With or Without a Cause?

I have a closet rebel living inside me.  I was a good kid, you know the type, plays by the rules, does her homework, boring.  Of course it’s much more exciting to be a rebel.   And lately there’s a rebel that’s been sticking her nose in the way of my two goals, to become a published author and to get to my wedding weight.  Doesn’t she want to be a thin, published rebel?

As I get closer to my goals, it gets harder and I have to  command myself to do a lot of things my little rebel would rather not.  Like...

I have to write each day, and 1000 words.  

I have to exercise.  

I have to drink lots of water.

I have to stay away from empty carbs. 

But in reading Linda Spangle’s 100 Days of Weight Loss I found out that when I say those three little words  “I have to”  I am inviting in my rebel, who shows up and wants to do the opposite.  

It’s easy to recognize my rebel.  She's the one that wants to have a Carmel Frappacino instead of decaf coffee with skim milk.  The one that wants to check emails instead of writing.  The one that wants to watch The Biggest Loser instead of exercising.

So how do I deal with the rebel?  I get tough.  I bully her.  I chastise her.  But lately that hasn’t been working.  She digs in her heels.  Then I try and be nicer, offer rewards.  But she is a rebel and when I say apple she says pie. 

Spangle offers a different approach, change the words.   Instead of I have, I choose to.

Seems small but my warped rebel brain couldn’t argue too much with this.

Spangle says, “I choose to puts you in charge and affirms that you want to see results. It eliminates the harsh, parental self-talk that makes you feel oppressed or rebellious.

So I intend to try it out... 

I choose to write 1000 words first.

I choose to walk 45minutes on the treadmill.

I choose to submit my short story to three suitable publications.

So what do you choose to do with your rebel?

Multi-tasking - Good or Evil?

I’ve been trained as I’m sure many of you have to be the consummate multi-tasker.  

For me it started in my teens doing homework while watching TV.  Then as a wife and mother, multi-tasking became a necessity and took on epic proportions.  But lately, much has been blogged about multi-tasking and writing.  Most contend it is not a good idea, to surf the internet, check emails, facebook, read and comment on blogs while sitting with your WIP (work in process) open.

And then, of course, multi-tasking and eating, is a big No No.  Many diet gurus expound on the virtues of focusing only on your food while eating.  I’ve heard, I should set the table with my best china, put flowers in a vase, soft, instrumental music in the background, and preferably eat alone.   

So my two current goals of being published and getting to my wedding weight do not seem to support multi-tasking. 

Instead, I should - Be present.  Be aware.  Concentrate on only one thing at a time.

Nice life if I was on vacation, or lived in a monastery. 

But I recently found Linda Spangle and her books.  

In 100 Days of Weight Loss she says,   

“You don’t have to completely avoid doing anything else in order to stay conscious around food.  But you do have to pay attention to your actions.”  

She goes on to say  “If you choose to eat while you’re watching movies or TV,  just don’t become oblivious to your food.  Instead, learn to divide your attention between the TV and your plate.”

She calls it awareness training.  

So if I can do this with food and eating, can it be done with my WIP and writing?

I think it can.  And when I analyzed what I was doing at the computer while attempting to work on my WIP,  what I found was surprising.  I would check my email, or look up a website, usually unrelated, when I was at a small stuck point in my writing.  My muse, my brain, my creativity needed a little percolating time.  Then I would go back to my WIP and continue to write until I would get stuck again.  I would percolate by checking blogs, commenting, and then go back to my WIP and writing.

Before, instead of computer searches, I use to get up and usually search for something to eat or drink to get unstuck.  Not good for the diet, or the writing.  So I realized I am actually being more productive and eating less as a result of staying in my chair, and at the computer. 

And as long as I don’t become oblivious to my WIP sitting open and waiting, I think I can safely divide my time between internet and writing, just like I can divide my attention between conversation with family and the food on my plate.

So I will continue to work on my awareness training because I don’t plan on checking into a monastery anytime soon.  

Feel free to weigh in.  Do you split your attention?  And if so, is it good or evil?

That Dreaded P Word

No, not Plagiarism... Plateau

I have two ever-elusive goals, mostly because I have yet to embrace the Zen of Just Being.  They involve writing and weight loss.  And after months, okay years, of pursuing the goal to be published, and to see the scale at my wedding weight, I now find myself facing the dreaded P word.

Plateau, as a noun, has a rather serene definition:  an area of relatively level high ground.   Okay, I could tell myself that’s where I am.  On a beautiful vista looking over the landscape of my accomplishments thus far.  

But since I am on a pursuit toward an end, the P word, as it applies to me works more as a verb.  And that definition is not as serene.  

To plateau:  to reach a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress.  Yeah.  That’s more like it.  

The scale won’t budge and the words won’t flow.  I’m plateauing.

Which leads to the even bigger F word... 

Frustration.

Of course,  country and western wisdom says that I should just keep trucking even though the digital number on my scale refuses to move, for weeks now.  And my new words have shrunk to zero, as I revise the first chapter of my WIP for the umpteenth time.  But instead, I rant, rave, curse.  

Why, oh why is this happening?  

I am still exercising, dieting, writing, taking on-line classes, so why has my forward motion ground to a shrieking halt?

It’s inevitable and there are explanations.  So I reassess and really look at what I’m actually doing.  Looking to see if I have loosened my grip on the effort it really takes to accomplish my goals? 

A nibble here, a taste there.  A glass of wine on the 4th.  Reading blogs and surfing the internet in the name of research, instead of actually writing on my WIP.  And listening to that ever present, nay-saying critic in my head, instead of the wise guru on my shoulder.

I need to adopt a strategy to deal with plateauing.  So I vow to shake things up.  Relieve some of the monotony and boredom in my diet with new low-cal vegetables and foods.  Increase my exercise intensity, with short bursts of running on the treadmill.  And to write first thing in the morning before checking emails, blogs, websites, and even my classes.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to see my way through this stage of plateauing so that it doesn’t lead to an avalanche.

And I’d love to hear how you deal with your plateaus, or plateauing.

The New Three Rs

In my quest to be published, and the pursuit of my wedding weight, (stop shaking your head), it’s good to have big dreams.  I have stumbled, okay crashed into a new set of the three R’s.  

Write, Resist, Run.

Writing, although not exactly an R, but having been used by our education system for years, I borrowed it.  Anyway, the first R, writing means, 

Every day I must write.  Something.  Anything.  Preferably new, creative, wonderful, and with perfect grammar.  There are those big dreams again. 

As luck would have it, I am taking a workshop with Devon Ellington, Write in Company with Savvy Authors, which I would highly recommend by the way, not just the workshop but any of Devon’s workshops.  Anyway, the main premise, of Write in Company, along with many other jewels of knowledge, is to write 1000 words each and everyday, no matter what.  

I thought, that’s nothing.  I can do that with my eyes closed.  I have taken Candace Havens, Fast Draft, done May Bootcamp, how hard could a simple 1000 words be? Ha.  It had to be on one project only!  And new words!  And there’s the rub.  I like to flit around, revising, writing, revising, and of course stalling.  I was stuck about 2/3 through my current WIP.  So sitting down to get those 1000 words I crashed into the second R.

Resistance. 

As luck would have it, I had just finished reading a fantastic book recommended by another wonderful, successful author and workshop leader, Shirley Jump.  

The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield.

I love that title.  Most people who aren’t artists think art is so cozy and creative, and comes down on fairy dust.  Steven Pressfield knows better.  It’s a war.  A battle.  And he calls the enemy, guess what, Resistance. 

As luck would have it, in my weekly yoga class, the theme was,  yes you guessed it --  Resistance.    We had to hold a pose, longer than usual, okay really long,  until our muscles and mind let go. 

Which brings me to the third R - Run.

My typical response.  Just get the hell out and never come back, to the yoga class, to the workshop, to my WIP.  But the coincidences were piling up.  I’d paid for the workshop, the yoga class with my teenage daughter beside me, oh yes, and there was that almost finished WIP. 

So I squirmed and wormed and pushed back against the resistance, like the yoga instructor, Devon, and Steven Pressfield said I would.  In the end I just had to acknowledge that second R, and like Nike says, Just Do It.  So I did.  Wrote the words each day no matter what, held the pose, ate the vegetables steamed... 

I’d love to say that miraculously the resistance went away.  No such luck Resistance is a tricky devil.  It circles around, comes up with new strategies, hits when I’m weak.  So each day, I name it for what it is, the enemy and come up with my own battle plans.  And sometimes that is simply to name it, ignore it, or breathe through. 

I’d love to hear how you handle the 3 Rs.

Feeding the Muse -- Literally

Most days you can find me happily clicking on over to my fellow writer’s blogs.  Partly a delay tactic, not wanting to face the scene, or the character that won’t tow the line, or even worse, the blank page.  But usually I bounce on over for any ounce of inspiration, knowledge, or camaraderie I can glean.  

But lately,  too many of you have been talking about feeding your muses, literally.   

As you may know, my two current goals are simple - to lose weight and be published.  Okay, you can stop laughing now.  But for the very same reason I cannot watch the Food Network, I am having trouble reading your blogs.  

Brownie blondies, red velvet cupcakes, and Godiva chocolates seem to be the  decadent delicacies your muses crave of late.  

My mouth waters.  My stomach grumbles.   

Sure some of you expound poetic about going out into the world, your travels, your shopping expeditions,  trips to art galleries, or browsing quilt shops, to fill your creative well.  But too many times I’ve come away from the screen chomping at the bit.  Not to get back to my work in progress, as I’d hoped, but to get to the kitchen to find anything chocolate, even the years old canister of unsweetened cocoa.

And then low and behold one of you, Christine, has a whole Friday blog devoted to my biggest vice of all -- wine.  And affordable wines.  How cunning.  

And another batch of you ply your muses with equally sinful margaritas, cosmos, and appletinis.

What is a starving (I mean, dieting) writer to do.

I’ll tell you.  I bite the bullet -- with  sugarless gum.  

There’s a new one called Dessert Delights.  My current weight loss center, swears by the stuff.  So I armed myself with every flavor -- Strawberry Shortcake, Mint Chocolate Chip, Key Lime Pie and Orange Creamsicle before I even opened my work in progress.

I popped four of the mint chocolate chip sticks, never mind that I’m only allowed three per day, and that one barely registers on my taste buds.  I figured, even if I chew the whole pack, it’s better than going out to Winn Dixie and buying the half gallon of the real mint chocolate chip that I knew my muse really needed.

So I opened the page to that stuck scene.  I chewed and sucked every flavorful taste I could from the wad of gum.   I  blew countless bubbles with the feeble attempt at dessert, and thirty minutes later, with the flavor all gone, I’d typed two full pages.  Somehow I’d managed to feed, or trick my muse, for the time being.

So until I hit that magical goal weight in the sky, Dessert Delights is all my muse is getting.  I may have to mix it up, have all four flavors at once.  And I plan on emailing those Extra folks, the makers of Dessert Delights and asking them to please hurry and market a margarita flavor, or a nice Merlot.

So feel free to comment on how you feed your muse, as long as you don’t mention food or alcohol.  

Next time:  Calorie counts and word counts

Writing and Dieting -- Wishes and Dreams, or Goals?

I only ask because currently my two main personal goals involve these two activities, that at times seem particularly mutually exclusive.  

Goal number one or two, really it wouldn’t matter which I achieved first -- is to lose weight.   Get back to my svelte, but ever elusive wedding weight.  I know sounds more like a wish or a dream rather than a goal.   Believe me, I’ve been calling on the dispenser of wishes, rubbing every lamp, urn and tea kettle I can find.   But that genie hasn’t shown up yet.  So I continue to work on it in other more taxing ways.

Then there’s my other goal -- to be published.  I know, now you’re thinking I’m likely delusional.  So you can see why I rub pottery, or stainless steel.  I need that genie and those three wishes he doles out.  Even though I mention only two wishes, I mean goals, I need the last genie wish to insure the more wishes clause.  Because, let’s face it, even if I lose the weight and get published, I’ll likely need to do it again.

But I do tend toward practicality at times, so besides rubbing coffeepots in antique stores I've been writing down these two goals.  Over and over and over.  Every morning.  

Wayne Dyer, and all those other “Secret” gurus say this guarantees my success.  I’m not sure how.  I hope it’s not just the calories I burn writing “I am a slim, trim successful, published author.”  That couldn’t be many calories, and only adds eight words to my daily word count. 

But seriously, I know I have to do more than just write the goals down.  And I do.  

I post these wishes, I mean goals, all over my life.  You know the drill -- sticky notes on the car dashboard, the mirror, the fridge, the cupboard, computer, in my wallet, on the toilet seat.  Because,  each time I see one it's supposed to reinforce my commitment to the universe.   I just wish someone would reinforce the glue on those sticky notes.  I’ve found those less-than sticky notes on my shoe, in my hair and once in my bra, don’t ask.

So far the universe hasn’t noticed my commitment.  In the meantime, I’ll keep rubbing the teakettle,  and for good measure I keep putting out the word count, learning the craft, walking on that treadmill and avoiding all things delicious.

I’d love to hear what you think?  

Next time:  Feeding the Muse, literally.