I subscribe to Christina Katz’s new newsletter, The Prosperous Writer. She gives interesting assignments each week. They revolve around answering questions to put you on the path to finding prosperity in your writing. As my calendar has been, and still is, completely full, I’ve not had a chance to participate. So I thought I’d get caught up in this one blog. I’m not sure I’ll address all 52 of the blog assignments coming this year because I’ve decided to put MY work first and make things that are related but don’t create direct results lower on my priority list. Sorry Christina, I think your newsletter serves a great purpose, and I hope others will find it helpful, but I must pay attention to my priority list first.
The first issue asked “Who do you dedicate your writing to in 2010? “
I thought about this a long time. I write fiction and essays to spark discussion through the exploration of issues - social, political, interpersonal, cultural, etc. I write poetry mostly for my own self-expression but I’m finding my need to explore issues bleeds into my poetry more frequently lately. So when it comes right down to it, I dedicate my writing to anyone who is dedicated to making the world a better place for all of us. As generic as they may sound, it isn’t really. I admire people who are willing to help others. I think it’s something we don’t do enough. Sure we step up to the plate in a time of crisis, but what about the people who suffer on a daily basis. They deserve to be noticed as well.
The second week Christina wrote about self-respect. She asked some questions to spur her readers to examine their level of self-respect.
On a scale of one to ten, how’s your self-respect? Can you say no? Do you say yes to yield to social pressure and supposed-tos and then suffer for it? Are you catering to too many other people’s needs but burning out in the process? Do you listen to and trust your instincts about what is and isn’t the best way to proceed?
Generally, I rank my self-respect around an 8 if placed on a scale from one to ten. I still struggle with saying no to people but I’m getting better at it every day. No is a very powerful word. I’ve seen it stop people dead in their tracks. Last year I wrote about my struggle with the writers groups in which I have memberships. I now realize that blog entry was about self-respect. The question I asked was “Am I staying in these writers groups because they benefit me? If not, why am I staying?” I even discussed how the online listserv of one of the groups made me feel bad about myself based on the comments posted by group members. As for trusting my instincts, as a general rule, I do. There are only a few people in this world who can convince me to question my instincts. Even with them, I won’t abandon my instincts, but I will hear them out and see if their input affects my initial assessment.
The third week examined focus.
So, what does it feel like to be focused? Pause for a second and think about it, those of you who have felt focused before. Can you put being focused into words? And how does being focused create different results than a time in your life when you were unfocused?
Ah, this is a biggie for me. I tend to try to take on too much at at time leading to a lack of focus. I always think I can do more than humanly possible in a given amount of time. When I’m truly focused on my writing, the words flow from my mind to my fingers onto the paper/screen without effort. I can’t be pulled away from the work, and I’m almost always pleased with the outcome when I’m finished. To be focused is for the project I’m working on to be in tune with my body, my mind, and my soul. Yoga helps me to find that focus in other areas of my life like my writing because it requires such focus to hold the poses correctly and continue to breath. I often stop and take a few yoga breaths in the middle of unfocused moments to help me focus again. When I’m unfocused, I start a lot of projects and have a lot going on without reaching completion of anything. A lack of focus leaves me feeling unfulfilled and unsuccessful but busy nonetheless. Busy with focus produces results while busy without focus creates chaos in my mind, my body, my soul, and my life.
So, there, I’ve completed the questions for the first three issues. I feel like I’ve done an activity similar to this before but not in such a public manner…
If these exercises help me to focus on my work, accomplish results, and publish my work, they just may serve to be worth adding to my schedule though I’m still not going to promise to do every one or to do them on time. I’ve fallen into that trap with other things, and my work suffered for it. I can’t allow that to happen.
Writers, if you’d like to give Christina’s newsletter a try, go to her website to sign up.
Wow, it’s been a slow blog month for me. I’ve started 5 posts (this one makes 6) but have yet to finish one. I have a good reason. Or maybe you’ll think it’s an excuse. I’ve been working on my manuscript and getting to all those pesky to-do items still lingering on my list from 2009. Those are finally done. In addition, I’ve been working hard to not fall behind this year. Yes, I’m already behind and it’s only January 15th. I’ve come to the conclusion this happens because somewhere in the back of my mind I believe I’m allotted more hours in the day than everyone else. Hand in hand with that delusion is the one that says if I put it on my list for a day I can do it that day. Oh, I already have 20 1-hour items on the list, I can do 1 more. After all, if I try really hard, I can do some of them in 30 minutes instead of an hour. No, I don’t think I’m superwoman. I just think everything is my responsibility. There I said it. (Ha, Kelly, I beat you to it.)
I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist, so I have a hard time thinking anything is “perfect” enough to be considered complete. I’m learning to let that go. One day, hopefully soon, I’ll really let it go. I’m afraid to set a date because if I fail that would be… well, less than perfect.
So, as soon as I finish typing the changes to Red, I’ll get back to work on those blog entries.