My Mom Pushed Me to Write

If you read my blog you know that I  have set a goal for myself to get something published within a year. This is easier said than done. The challenge in front of me is not convincing an editor to read my work, but rather to actually write. Motivating myself can be a challenge especially when you live with 5 other people. Thanks to my mom I have found ways to get some writing done.2015-05-10 16.40.38

One day as I was trying to convince myself to do some writing I mentioned to my mom how hard it was to focus in my room. I said I was thinking of going else where but it was empty words. She had heard that all writers have a place they can go to write. So she suggested I go to the library, because it’s a quite place where I would be able to focus.

She made the idea more tangible. She quite literally told me to go that very day to the library. She made me feel accountable to someone. I felt like I needed to go to the library to get work done or I would be letting her down. So I went and I was able to write for almost two hours without getting distracted. This really works. So a few days later I found myself in a Barnes & Noble writing more. I had started making a habit out of going somewhere to write.

My mother gave me the push I needed to start writing regularly and I want to thank her. I also want to  encourage all writers to go write. Go find a place where you can let go of what’s happening and just write. Whether it’s a library, bookstore, restaurant, park, or coffee house. Go write, right now.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms who push us towards our goals!

My One Year Goal

After struggling to get noticed by New York Editors for a job as an editorial assistant (due to the fact that I live in Florida) I have decided to wait. I am now working as a receptionist so that I can save money and move to NY in one year and try again to get into publishing.Screenshot_2015-04-12-23-11-43-1

However my goal as a writer shouldn’t be paused for a year and there’s no reason it needs to be. Sooo…here’s my goal: To get published once. One story, one publication, one time.

I have constantly put this off saying I wasn’t ready or my stories still weren’t done or I didn’t know where to send them. The lie as evident on my face as the nose on Pinocchio.

I’m scared…terrified of rejection. That I’ll prove I’m not a real writer or not good enough. I’m afraid of exposing my writing to an experienced, critical eye. This is silly, because of course my stories have been seen by experienced critical eyes. It was hard to let them see it, but they always gave feedback that helped me and my stories to grow. And I survived the experience.

But still IScreenshot_2015-04-23-14-57-25-1 hesitate, because no matter what submitting your work for publication is a very real step towards becoming a writer and rejection is a very real part of that. So I set a goal for myself. I step closer towards the ravine. When I look to the other side I can see myself published. I glance down and choose to take a leap of faith that many before me have taken.

Although I am only twenty-three and am the baby at work I had a moment of panic because when I was little I imagined (unrealistically!) that I would have a bestseller by now. Of course reality is not born out of a little girl’s dreams.

So for now it is simply time to try.

The Book is Always Better……but!

100% of the time the book is always better than the movie. When you read a book you can do things with in your head that you can’t while watching a movie. A book engages yScreenshot_2015-04-12-17-20-04-1our imagination and gives you the ability to create the stage, cast the characters and even be the main character. When you open a book and begin reading everything around you fades away and you are truly, literally inside the book. You can picture anything the book is doing in your head with out the limitations of reality.

With that said not all book based movies are bad.  On their own a few of  them are pretty good (ex. the Lord of the Rings, & Narnia), not because of a super special effect because they told the whole story and did their best to stay true to what the book had written. Without coming down on specific book based movies I would like to say that a few left out bits of information, characters or scenes that seemed unimportant, but a few movies later the story line doesn’t make much sense, because that little bit of information would have snow balled explaining future events.

What if instead of trying to cram a series of books with plots, scenes, major and minor character development, plot twists, and resolutions into a movie (or movies) someone tried to spread it out into a television series? Wow! What an idea! This would allow the writers to include every bit of  the story and the character development that sometimes gets left out. Imagine an entire station dedicated to shows based on books.

If you are a fellow book nerd you will understand the pain of watching a movie cut out a part of a book you fell in love with. There are characters in the Harry Potter books that never made the cut into the movies, yet those of  us who read the books loved them and would have loved them on the big screen. Would they have made the cut onto a television series that  had the time to tell the whole story? I don’t know, but it’s certainly something to think about.

Book vs. Movies Discussion