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You want to become a romance
writer. The determination announced itself sometime between
birth and after reading a romance novel. You begin writing,
feeling like a professional after typing CHAPTER ONE on
the first page. Visions of adoring fans lined up at mega-sized
bookstores dance around in your imagination. Maybe, you
are sitting on stage in an auditorium filled with earnest
writers waiting for the crumbs of knowledge to drop from
your lips. Then there is the all-time favorite fantasy where
you are at your writing retreat, whether atop the craggy
cliffs of a European seaside or surrounded by the sounds
of the tropical birds on your Caribbean island. Writing
cannot exist on fantasy alone.
The
craft cannot survive on sheer determination. There has to
be respect for the power of storytelling that translates
into discipline, which then becomes your second skin. Where
to go? How to get there? Questions posed many times to experienced
authors with no one answer alike. Yet, the key to success
eludes you. Writing turns into a declaration of war between
yourself and yourself. Priorities tangle for the top rung.
Obligations pound on your conscience. Commitments threaten
to suck you under until the essence of your life moves onto
another plane of existence. On a thin thread of tenacity,
you still say that you want to become a writer. Your once
bold declaration now slightly weakened and battered spikes
and dives, riding your emotional rollercoaster.
First
things first, clean out the excess baggage. Purge yourself
of other writers' fantasies, successes, goals, and work
habits. You are in a constant state of learning, therefore,
you are a sponge soaking up the good, the bad, and yes,
even the ugly. The concoction churns into a goopy mess with
no clear lesson to be learned. Close your eyes. Calm your
thoughts (soothing music may achieve this state). Picture
an ocean with the waves rolling towards the shore and then
receding back into the ocean. Watch and feel that rhythm.
One by one, release each fear or doubt hampering your ability
to write. Let that wave take it out and away from you. Once
you have purged, recommit to your goal. Write it down on
paper. Treat this recommitment like nourishment for the
soul. Every day, you eat. Then every day, you recommit.
Whether in the morning hours or an hour before sleeping
at night, purge the fears and recommit to the goal.
Second
phase begins with an honest assessment of your commitment
level. How much time do you have to write? When can you
write? Where can you write? Only you can answer these questions.
Only you can determine the ranking of your commitment. Only
you can reap the rewards or, on the other hand, the consequences
of your selection. However, just because you ranked your
priorities, this does not constitute a seal for all eternity.
Periodically, shuffle your "to do" list to accommodate your
life. Guilty feelings will creep in, but keep a handle on
the difference between what would be nice to do and what
has to be done.
Finally,
the last step in your raised consciousness is also the biggest
test and may seem to be a contradiction to Step One. Go
ahead and listen to the motivational tapes, attend workshops,
and glean from your favorite authors. Remember you are in
a perpetual state of learning. BUT, instead of listening
and placing yourself in the speaker's shoes, sift through
her advice for the underlying message. In the best of times,
you would not wear someone's shoes because the heel may
be worn down to fit the way she walks; the size may be constricting
and narrow or loose; or the color and style leaves you cold.
Don't act like a co-dependent and get wrapped around the
messenger, forsaking the message. Instead focus on how she
developed her rhythm, how she nurtured her rhythm and how
she reconnects to her rhythm, as necessary. Then find your
rhythm, a state of mind and discipline uniquely your own.
No gold key to success exists for becoming a writer. It
is all within you, waiting.
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