Measured Steps

     

This week I thought a lot about measured steps, progress, forward motion. Most likely because it’s November and oodles of my online friends (and several real life friends) are NaNo-ing. (I am not.) With so many people focusing an entire month on meeting word counts each day, it got me thinking of production output. For some, the NaNoWriMo challenge sparks creativity. For me it does the opposite. I get to feeling like a machine – spitting out a set number of words in a day, a week, a month, but losing the enjoyment of it in the process.

I am a slow writer. Ideas need to simmer in my subconscious before I can work them out on the page. If we’re measuring, maybe that means less rewrites later on, or maybe not. Who knows? In any case, that’s the way my brain works.

I’m all for setting goals, but for me, what works are goals that exist in the background. They keep me motivated to stretch myself and see what I’m capable of, but they aren’t burdensome.

Photo courtesy of Free Artistic Photos.

I spoke a few months ago about a book I was reading called The Art of Possibility, in which the authors propose that our focus doesn’t have to be on measured steps. It can be about embracing the fact that we are active participants – in life, in writing, in whatever.

                 

I love this quote from the book: “The life force for humankind is, perhaps, nothing more or less than the passionate energy to connect, express, and communicate. Enrollment is that life force at work, lighting sparks from person to person, scattering light in all directions. Sometimes the sparks ignite a blaze; sometimes they pass quietly, magically, almost imperceptibly, from one to another to another.”

Whether you find that spark through NaNoWriMo this month, through the friends you connect with via blogging, or any of a million other possible ways, I hope you find that passionate energy that keeps you going.                              

What is the spark that motivates you?

Something Like Sabotage

I’ve always been a color inside the lines, play by the rules kind of girl. But sometimes, with those lines we draw and those rules we decide to follow, we can actually sabotage ourselves. I realized recently that by labeling myself a short story writer I’d created my own limits. I’d boxed myself in and narrowed my world to a particular area that felt comfortable.

When I read a post on author Linda Urban's blog last month, where she talked about a book called "The Art of Possibility," I knew I had to read it for myself. In it, authors Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander introduce a different way of looking at the world and our relationships. It’s all about expanding our boundaries and opening ourselves up to unlimited possibilities.

In taking on writing a YA novel this year, I’ve stepped outside of the lines that I’d once drawn for myself and have entered the world of possibility.

On the days where I flounder, the temptation is to doubt myself, wonder if I’ve taken a misstep, debate going back to the comfort of shorter projects. But what this book reminds me is that I’ve embarked on new territory. The way may not be familiar, but that doesn’t mean I need to turn back. This is the world of possibility, and I think I’ll see where it leads me.

What world do you live in?