Write to Done

How to Boost Your Writing Confidence so You CAN Hit Publish

By James Chartrand of Men with Pens

Confidence is key to effortless writing. You know that; I know that.

And yet, sadly, writers tell me all the time that confidence is one of their biggest struggles. They’re unsure of their skills. Is the work good enough? They hesitate and get stuck in the editing process. They can’t hit publish.

Some stop writing completely. Lack of confidence is almost a disease, insidiously striking writers down, one by one.

The Internet isn’t helping. It’s opened up worlds of opportunity for writers around the globe, but it’s only made this lack of confidence worse. Anyone can publish anything they want.

This creates some pretty big obstacles for writers.

You know how it goes. You surf around the web and read all kinds of great writing, all sorts of blog posts that went viral, and all the stellar material of successful blogs and online magazines.

Then you look at what you just wrote. And a seed of doubt blooms. You think, “Is this good enough? Who am I to publish this? I’m no one. How can I ever measure up to that writer? I’m just me.”

Comparison is a confidence killer, believe me.

It gets worse. You read some of the comments on blogs. Most are nice; some are nasty. Flamers, trolls, grammar-nazis, dissenters, English majors… all waiting to take writers DOWN. Which reminds you that if you hit publish – if you dare to put your writing out there – you might face their criticism as well.

More doubts. What if people don’t like what you wrote? What if they laugh? What if they hate it? What if it’s just not good enough…??

One nasty comment when you tried so hard to get the writing perfect? Horrific.

It doesn’t stop there. Remember I said that the Internet lets anyone publish anything? That’s not always a good thing. With no gatekeepers in place, writers completely avoid the approval process. There’s no one to say when the work just isn’t up to snuff. There isn’t any proofreading. There isn’t any editing.

All you need is a blog. Voila, you’re a writer.

So if anyone can publish anything, and there isn’t anyone to monitor quality control, how do to you know that what you just wrote is up to par? What if it’s terrible? What if readers snicker at you behind their back? What if you proudly publish something… and end up embarrassing yourself?

No wonder writers constantly tell me they lack confidence. I don’t blame them. The situation’s enough to make anyone want to retire their pen.

But you shouldn’t. You can build up confidence. You can feel proud about your work. You can post and publish and share your writing with the world… stress-free.

In fact, you can quickly and easily build up enough confidence to keep you writing and keep improving until all the doubts you ever had are a thing of the past.

And it starts right here:

Get an Editor

Most smart writers still go through an intensive editing process. (Surprising, but true.) Not only does editing keep the quality of your writing at a higher level, but it gives you a good dose of confidence.

You don’t have to worry: Someone’s got your back and can catch little mistakes. And as they do, you can see what they corrected, learn why and improve your skills so you begin to eliminate these mistakes until there aren’t any left.

Knowledge brings confidence, every single time. The more skills you have, the less you stress.

Editors bring an extra perk to confidence levels: Someone else thought your work was worth reading. And sometimes that’s the boost you need to get past your fears.

Let me explain: You might think an editor only reads your writing because that’s his or her job. You might also think that an editor takes on any old crap in exchange for cash.

But an editor’s job is editing, not writing. And that means any editor worth his salt would turn down work that’s so bad it needs to be scrapped and completely rewritten from scratch.

Honestly? Your writing isn’t that bad, and you know it. In fact, it’s probably pretty darned good. You just need someone to remind you.

So get an editor for an extra boost of confidence. Don’t have one? No money? That’s fine. Ask a trusted friend or a colleague to read over what you’ve written and give you feedback.

(And if all your friend has to say is, “Yeah, it was good,” do yourself a favour: find someone else to edit for you.)

Pre-Editing

Getting an editor helps, but there’s plenty you can do on your own to help kick your confidence back up to where it should be.

And you’ve probably heard these writing tips a million times already, but that’s because they’re worth your attention – they work:

Practice, practice, practice. The more you write, the more you improve your skills – that is, if you’re actively practicing a specific technique so you can master it. “Write every day,” isn’t really good advice if all you’re doing is repeating the same old mistakes. Be proactive about your practice sessions and work on improving your skills. That’s the difference between good writers and great ones.
Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. This isn’t the same as “practice, practice, practice”. Rewriting means taking what you wrote and writing it again, only making it better. Cut out unnecessary words. Try different adjectives or nouns. Shorten sentences. Lengthen them with more descriptive language. Eventually you’ll be able to tell the difference between what’s garbage and what’s really good.
Get some fresh eyes. Fools who write on the fly and hit publish 20 minutes later are doing a disservice to readers and to themselves. And since you’re no fool, you know better than that: Setting your work aside for a day and coming back to it with fresh eyes reveals all sorts of nasty discoveries. I promise that 24 hours lets you see what you couldn’t see before… and gives you the chance to fix it.
Read aloud. Print out your writing in a nice, large font and read it at normal speech speed. You’ll hear all the awkward sentences, the strange wordings and the trippy spots easily. (And yep, you’ll be able to fix them right away.) The first few times you try reading your work aloud, you’ll probably feel like an idiot and the cat might look at you funny. That’s okay; do it anyways.

Check Your Mental Chatter

After all this, you still might be thinking, “That’s all well and good, James, but I’m no pro. I’m not an expert. Who am I to write about this topic?”

Stubborn, aren’t you? Which brings me to the biggest confidence killer out there: your mental chatter.

Mental chatter is the conversation you carry out with yourself in your mind. We all do it. Some chatter is positive and helpful, like, “Okay, I can handle this.” Some holds us back and prevents us from overcoming our fears.

The mental chatter that tends to happen in a writer’s head is often incredibly amazing – and completely disabling. I’ve seen perfectly brilliant writers talk themselves down so far that they come to believe they’re utter failures and all they can produce is crap.

Some even stop writing completely. Forever.

Think of it this way: Would you let someone smash down your child’s self-confidence with bitter condescension? Would you let someone say nasty, hurtful things to your significant other? Would you let a stranger walk up to you, lace into you and absolutely tear you apart?

Of course not. So why, for the love of Pete, do you allow this to happen in your own mind? Even worse, you’re the one doing it to yourself!

Take control of your mind. Start talking back to yourself. Challenge negative comments and recognize them as self-imposed obstacles. Replace them immediately with positive, healthy thoughts and stand up for yourself.

If you think, “Who am I to write about this?” immediately challenge the thought: Who are you NOT to write about this? If you start to think, “But I’m not an expert,” then challenge that thought too: How do you know you’re not an expert? At one point you believed you could write about this topic. You still can.

And if it really bothers you that you’re not an expert? Become one. Learn what you need to know. Gather the missing skills. Get the knowledge you feel you don’t have.

You won’t be an expert at anything until you try.

Do What’s Already Been Done

Speaking of experts, I hear plenty of writers say, “This topic has already been written about 100 times. What more could I possibly add?”

The answer is plenty – and in this case, the Internet is your friend.

So many people publish on the Internet today that some measure of repetition is almost impossible to avoid. So what? Why would you want to avoid it? If you can improve upon the topic, or if you can write a better article, or if you see a different angle, or if you have an opinion, then you have brilliant reasons to write.

The important thing to ask is, “Can I write something better than what’s out there? Does my argument add value to the topic? Do my thoughts present a different view or a new angle?”

I’m betting you’ll say yes. But if you answered no, then scrap the idea and move on. It’s not the end of the world. Write something else. Discarding ideas can be a liberating experience and a concept that every writer should embrace without regrets.

Remember your mental chatter check, though – don’t toss out every single idea you come up with in some unhealthy form of self-censorship. If you catch yourself doing this, grab any topic at all and just start writing. Break the cycle immediately.

You’ll quickly find your unique view on the subject shining through… probably mid-sentence, too.

What Else Helps?

There are tons of ways to boost writer confidence and get yourself back to hitting publish. I’ve covered a few strategies here, but I want to hear about your favourite ways to get your writing mojo going on. Let’s compile as many as we can!

Want to learn all the skills you need to unleash effortless writing? Check out the Damn Fine Words, brought to you by professional copywriter James Chartrand. Coming your way May 7, it’s the only writing course geared for business owners who could use a huge confidence boost… and effective writing skills.

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Categories: Blogging, Copywriting

4 Rewards from Creative Writing Immersion

A guest post by Patrick Ross of The Artist’s Road

Several thousand creative writers accompanied me this New Year’s to Montpelier, Vermont. The readers of The Artist’s Road joined me as I engaged in the winter residency for my MFA in Writing with the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Each day I would post what I called an “MFA Nugget” from the residency: a word of wisdom learned in a lecture, a personal reaction to a lecturer’s perspective, even a video I filmed of a New Year’s lantern ceremony.

I did not share the residency’s overall impact on me as a creative writer. I was detailing the trees, but was too close to the bark to paint the forest. I welcome this opportunity to apply the broad brush, and perhaps the takeaways I gained at my residency can be yours in a similar environment. Perhaps you could sign up for a writer’s retreat, or a local one-day workshop. You can also go DIY; plan a meet-up at a coffee shop or local park with fellow writers, or set up a hashtag conversation on Twitter.

If you do seek to give yourself the gift of a creative-writing immersion, I have some thoughts on what you might discover.

This was my second residency, so I knew what to expect. There would be a series of tantalizing lectures offered throughout the day, starting as early as 8:45 am or as late as 3:45 pm. Faculty and graduating-student readings would scattered amongst those lectures as well as after dinner. I’d be participating in daily, two-hour workshops with a dozen other creative writers and two instructors. There would be five nights of student readings, 15 students a night, starting as late as 10 pm. I knew I’d be attending every student reading, because veteran that I was, I had volunteered to serve as moderator. But the real gifts of an MFA residency aren’t printed on a schedule.

I’m still tapping into the creative gifts I gained at this residency, and I’m a bit saddened that I’ll only experience three more residencies before I graduate. (Maybe VCFA will bring me back in the future as a graduate assistant… Hint, hint to any VCFA instructors or administrators reading this!) I also find myself wondering how I can recapture some of the magic in my own daily life. As I said above, I believe it’s possible, and the rewards are great:

Energy. When your entire day centers around creativity, and you know the next day will as well, the creative energy is palpable. You quickly realize at an MFA residency that you don’t need to seek out your muse; she’s embracing you. Even when you don’t sense her, she’s there. She knows she doesn’t have to compete with your daily routine. So seek ways to insulate yourself, even if it’s just for a day, from the drama of daily life. If she knows you’re sincere in your commitment, she’ll fill you with creative energy.
Discipline. Thirteen hours a day of tempting lectures and readings, multiplied by ten days, equals a potential for overload. As an MFA residency student, you quickly learn how to balance your time. You seek out lectures that you suspect will provide value, whether that means targeting an area you struggle with, building on an area of strength, or exposing yourself to the unknown. But you also learn when to take a break. Any creative writer needs to balance dates with her muse with life’s other obligations; surviving the boot-camp of an MFA residency makes other scheduling seem easy.
Dialogue. I loved learning how “excessive detail” can improve my writing. But I also valued participating in a late-night debate over the relative importance of metaphor. An MFA residency is a safe zone for a creative writer. Over your tray of cafeteria glop you can launch an attack on the decline in use of the Oxford comma, and while you may receive pushback on your thesis, no one will think you odd for raising it. There are many ways creative writers can engage in such conversations, which can be energizing and informative. Join a writer’s group, take a local class, or participate in comment fields on blogs like this one.
Inspiration. Before my first MFA residency last summer, I received one-paragraph summaries of all of the scheduled faculty and graduating-student lectures. I felt fortunate to have so many stimulating choices before me. But my greatest joy at that residency came from the student readings. That’s why I volunteered to moderate them this time, because I knew I’d be attending each one. Hearing my classmates read their own creative words–sharing that gift of themselves in such an intimate way–is inspiring beyond words. Whether it is listening or reading, savoring a creative peer’s creative output can inspire more creativity from you.

A number of my readers at The Artist’s Road have asked me to blog again from the next VCFA residency, which begins at the end of June. I suspect that I will. Perhaps I will also attempt to capture not just inspiring moments but the totality of the experience, the complete magic that I know is awaiting me in Montpelier.

Patrick Ross is an award-winning journalist and creative writer. He blogs on the challenges and rewards of an art-committed life at The Artist’s Road, and struggles with a bacon addiction. The Artist’s Road is a winner of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers contest 2011.

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Categories: Art of Writing, Creativity

Reader to Writer: Hey Dude, Clear it up!

A Guest Post by Bill Polm of Keys to Writing

Challenges every writer faces

One of the biggest challenges we writers constantly face is making sure our readers will understand clearly what we write, the way we want them to.

Is it clear?

One challenge is that most of what we write is clear to us. But that doesn’t guarantee our readers will see it the way we do. We can have a blindside when we write, sometimes more than one. If we’re not careful, we write so that we get it, but our reader doesn’t, at least not as well as we hope she does.

Another challenge is to put together our sentences in a sequence that sticks together, so that our ideas flow in an interconnected way and make sense. In writing terminology, we want it to be coherent. Will my reader be able to follow my thinking—easily?

So how can we go about writing this well?

By actively thinking like we do when we outline or plan a piece of writing. Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly answering this question: What do I need to put next? A piece of writing is built sentence by sentence, and it makes a big deal of difference what you wind up adding next, and then next….

The best way to do this is to stay actively aware of the direction your writing is going at each point–while you are pre-planning and also when you are in the midst of writing your piece.

The key is remembering this: There are only three directions you can go, no matter where you are in your writing. Simply put:

(1) You can add more specific sentences,

(2) less specific sentences, or

(3) sentences that stay at the same level of “specific-ness.”

This is outline-thinking, but in a way that is less obvious than the common outlining approach.

So as I write I ask myself questions like these:

Will my reader get what I just wrote, or do I need to explain more, add an illustration, add some details? (That is, get more specific.)

Should I move now to another of the points I want to cover (That is, on the same level as a previous point)?

Or, am I done with this section? If so, then I need to change the subject to a degree (move in a less specific direction). Or am I all done with the writing project?

Such questions help me decide the direction I should go next. They also help me narrow down the many possibilities of what I can add. Here’s a simple illustration to make this approach clearer:

Building a coherent paragraph that keeps your reader in mind

Let’s say I’m putting together a magazine article about blogging and that my purpose for the article is to describe for my reader what I consider to be its important aspects. So I begin like this…

The internet has given birth to a whole new way of telling your story: Blogging.

That’s my topic sentence, informing my reader what my general subject is. Now do I need to get more specific with my next sentence? For sure. So I narrow down my subject to…

Blogging has a style all its own.

Now I ask, have I told my reader enough at this point? Certainly not. So again I need to get more specific with my next sentence.

It’s often personal.

That’s better. But does my reader know what I mean by “personal”? Maybe not.

So I add a specific example.

Bloggers often will share anecdotes from their daily lives.

Did that last sentence above give my reader enough detail? Maybe. But for this illustration, let’s say that it did. So I decide it’s time to move to another aspect of blogging style.

It’s paragraphs are usually short, with plenty of untouched white space between them, so that the content is easy to scan.

To a degree, that sentence above went in a less specific direction. So I’ve gone back to making my main points about blogging style.

One more sentence…

It’s sentences are mostly short too, making for easy reading.

Now my final example sentence above makes another point about blogging style, doesn’t it? It’s on the same general level as the sentence that begins “It’s paragraphs are usually short…” It’s another point on my list of blogging style aspects that I want to discuss.

Did you recognize above the three directions: getting more specific, getting less specific, and staying on the same level?

As we outline or write, with each sentence we add, we will move in one of those directions. Staying aware of those directions and asking the reader-oriented questions like those I mentioned above can make for crystal clear writing.

Two key exercises:

1. The next time you read another writer’s work that you like, outline a paragraph or two. Figure out as best you can, why the author chose to add each successive sentence.

2. Then, the next blog post you compose or article you put together, try writing (or, re-writing) it using the outline-thinking I described above. Use indents if you wish, as you write, for your more specific moves to make the directions obvious.

Try this way of outline-thinking.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how it helps you write your content with clarity. You may also discover that it has an added benefit: It actually helps you come up with new ideas.

Bill Polm has been writing most of his adult life. He has written professionally as a ghostwriter. He is the blogger and founder of Keys to Writing.

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Categories: Art of Writing, Blogging, Creativity - Tags: outlining strategies, reader-friendly writing, think outlining as you write, writing clearly

Precise Client Attraction: Why the Framing of the Problem Matters

A guest post By Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics.com

I was at the doctor’s clinic one day for a routine check.

“You have to lose about 10 pounds,” he said. “Not that you have any health problem, but you’re kinda on the borderline. And if you lose weight and eat well, you won’t have to take medication for a long, long time.”

Do you recognise the problem in the doctor’s statement?

He didn’t say, ‘lose weight so you can impress everyone on the beach.’ Neither did he say ‘lose weight so you can run the marathon.’ He was specific. Stay away from the borderline and you can avoid having the bother of having to pop endless number of pills.

Most marketing messages aren’t this specific

And the reason why they’re not crystal clear is because the person giving out the message isn’t quite sure how to get the message across. So they put out a message, which soon looks like every other weight loss message. And it doing so, they miss out on the customers they most need to attract and work with.

So let’s take an example here

Christy wants to work with overweight women. But what’s the problem that Christy’s solving? She’s working with women who feel like they’re invisible. These women have put on some weight over the years, and now feel miserable. But more so, they feel invisible. No one seems to notice them as they walk down the street.

As Christy so eloquently puts it, “Women who are significantly overweight feel like social outcasts and are often treated by others as if they are stupid (or have below average intelligence). As a result of being overweight, they feel other people judge them and do not see them for who they really are. They are ignored.

They have to work harder to prove their abilities and overcome the prejudices of being overweight. They find that strangers will often pass right in front of them and not even make eye contact with them. They feel very alone. They are invisible.”

That’s kinda different from what the doc told me, eh?

And we can feel the difference, even though the eventual goal seems to be the same: lose weight. But it’s the framing of the problem that creates enormous intensity. Get the right problem and you’ve hit a home run. Get the wrong problem and you’re just another me-too product.

So how do you go about getting to the right problem?

We need three steps and let’s take this specific example of losing weight.

Step 1: Make a list of reasons why someone would want to lose weight.

Step 2: Pick the top three reasons.

Step 3: Pick one.

Step 1: The list of reasons.

List every single reason why someone would want to lose weight (or in your case, buy your product or service). But let’s stay with the example and let’s say these are the reasons below.

- to feel attractive/special to another

- to feel happier

- to feel in control

- to gain confidence

- to be more popular

- to love self more

- to feel more self-worth

- to avoid needing medication

- to avoid exacerbating a poor health condition

- to gain more self-worth

- to be able to perform activities they are no longer able to

- to feel more important

- to be treated better

- to avoid pain/inconvenience

- to avoid feeling bad anymore about self

- to avoid disappointed feelings that one can’t look how they want to look

- to avoid feelings of disappointment

- to feel loved

Notice how not many of the reasons overlap that much?

Being ‘popular’ isn’t quite the same as ‘being attractive to another person’. ‘Avoid needing medication’ isn’t quite the same as ‘losing your kidney function’. And to belabour the point, ‘being treated better’ isn’t at all the same as ‘gaining more self-worth’.

Every reason is different. And now that you’ve listed all the reasons, you can start cherry picking the ones that most appeal to you or your target profile.*

Step 2: Pick three from the list

So how do you pick three? You guess, I suppose. Or you could be more precise and actually speak to a customer and find out which one appeals to them the most—and why. And no matter how you come to the conclusion, you get three from the list.

And your list starts to look like this:

- to feel loved

- to avoid pain/inconvenience

- to avoid feelings of disappointment

Ah, now we have three, let’s move to the final step.

Step 3: Pick one.

Again you can hopelessly guess you’re right, or you can use your customer’s opinion. But no matter how you go about it, you now have one.

- to avoid feelings of disappointment

Notice how different that choice is from Christy’s choice?

Or from what the doc told me? ‘Avoiding feelings of disappointment’ cascades into ‘why the #%$%4% can’t I lose weight no matter how much I try? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just stick to one diet program and finally get over this problem once and for all? Why do some others succeed and I keep failing? Why do I get into this stuff and then fall flat on my face again? And surely, surely there must be a way so I don’t start, only to fail again.

Yes, we’re selling a weight-loss product or service

But unlike what they told you, a rose is not a rose, is not a rose. And neither is a weight-loss product. Even though the end result may appear to be the same for the oblivious onlooker, the result is completely different for the client. One client sees the benefit of never having to go near medication. Another starts to get the odd wolf-whistle. And a third feels that sense of disappointment slither away forever.

So there you have it

It’s a simple formula to send out a precise message and get a precise response from the customer. Frame the problem correctly and the customers flock to you. Frame it wrongly and be banished to me-too land forever.
Sean D’Souza is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. Read more by Sean on Psychotactics.com

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Categories: Copywriting

Creativity Blocked? Here’s the Solution…

A guest post by Noelle Sterne from Trust Your Life

When I scanned the mail the other day, one letter caught my eye with handwriting I couldn’t quite place. Curious, I tore open the letter and, to my shock, saw I’d written it to myself.

Maybe I should have recognized my own handwriting, but it was like seeing yourself reflected in a window. Even though certain aspects look familiar, there’s a gap. Most of us don’t have a clear picture of what we look like or write like.

Three weeks earlier, a particularly important professional writing project had been rejected. After I poured out my despondency to a friend, she suggested I write a letter to myself extolling my virtues and mail it without a second glance or draft. Desperate, I followed her advice.

When I saw the letter again, I remembered writing and mailing it. But the mind is a marvelous, perverse organ, often defying logic. And writer and reader are two different creatures. Now, as intended reader, I felt I was looking at the letter for the first time.

In the past, I’d occasionally fed myself words of praise, but they always got towed under by the persistent waves of doubt and whipped by the accusing winds of audacity. Only now, seeing the scrawled self-acclaiming phrases, did I begin to believe them and, amazingly, felt lifted.

Writing yourself a letter isn’t a new antidote in the writer’s self-help bag of tonics for depression, futility, blocks, redefining your purpose, or other occupational ills. The letter can be used by any creative individual to support, encourage, and affirm. In The Artist’s Way, my favorite book for “creatives,” as Julia Cameron calls us, she assigns such a letter. Anticipating objections, she knows that writing and mailing a letter to yourself “sounds silly” but, as I discovered, “feels very, very good to receive.” (1)

Why Bother?
“Jeez,” you’re saying, “With all I have to do, I can hardly squeeze in some real time for my writing, painting, music, dance, pottery . . . . Why should I fool with a letter to myself?”

Here are only a few reasons:
1. It makes you write about your blocks. If you’ve been having trouble, the letter pushes you, not unpleasantly, to get the flow, or the pots, going.

2. You can scold yourself or spill out your frustrations and betrayed hopes without suffering through anyone else’s well-meaning, superior advice.

3. The letter nudges you to face your unproductive behavior and self-indulgent attitudes—procrastinating, avoiding a commitment to stick to a creating schedule, yielding to childish grief that you’re not in a gallery or command huge sums for your paintings, even though you’ve done nowhere near enough work to get so much as a sniff of recognition.

4. With your soul clean, in the letter you can now commit, or recommit, to correction and new action.

5. Without inviting the muffled giggles or outright scorn of friends and family, you can enunciate on paper exactly what you want—the well-worn but still precious ideal day/life.

6. When you describe your perfect day on paper, you’re visualizing your ideal creating time and activities and affirming that you do indeed deserve them.

What Should You Tell Yourself in the Letter?
You’ve probably already thought of several things. Cameron suggests two. Your adult self can address “your inner artist” about the dreams you want to make real. Or you can write as a best friend suggesting “a few simple changes” in your life toward achieving your dream. (2) You know them: solid gym sessions, more (or less) sleep, tactful withdrawal from a friend who calls five times a day or the committee sucking all your energy, cooking fewer gourmet meals (your family/relatives/friends will still like you), or other adjustments that give you more time, creative space, and focus for the work your heart cries out to do.

You can also address yourself as if you’re 90 looking back. Or write your letter as an “artist’s prayer,” as Cameron does in a powerful poem. (3) Or write out unabashed declarations of your artistic pluses and accomplishments. How often do we really acknowledge ourselves for accomplishments, even those as small as setting up our easel or buying a new CD to choreograph? (4)

So, the purpose of the letter to yourself is to make you feel better, remind you of your all-important life vision, and conquer those teeming demons of self-doubt. The letter bolsters, motivates, heartens, inspires, and chides you into more work, better work, and more consistent and daring work.

What Others Have Told Themselves
Many types of letters to yourself will work. I asked a small writers’ group to write to themselves. To help you to your own letters and learnings, here, with permission, are excerpts that apply to any of us creatives.

 One author wrote to himself from a simulated advanced age:
Don’t make the daily excuses. They add up to a wasted life. Don’t do what I did and live each day only to get through it and for creature comforts. You still have time. Your yearnings to create won’t disappear, nor will your gifts. They’re waiting patiently for you and, with the least encouragement, will rush to express. Take hold and don’t lose your dream.

 Another writer instructed herself in the need for balance and self-nurturing:
Listen to music again. Read the books you like. Instead of stupid television flipping, you know how fulfilling a symphony or well-written paragraph can be. Take a course. Get outside and enjoy the air. Go play with your husband. Sit in a field and write. Breathe.

 A third underscored visualization of the ideal life:
Keep dreaming. Dream that you can be and are what you want to be. Dream you’re writing exactly what you want to NOW, and keep returning to this dream. Eventually it will become what you are.

 A fourth cheered on:
You’re on the right path. Keep seeing your path with passion and purpose. Whatever writing you’re doing, do it wholly. Whether you judge it “creative” or not, you’re developing and enriching your gift. Believe in it and yourself to do it.

Your Turn
Go on—give yourself this gift. Take about a half hour, settle into a spot you love, and begin. Once you finish, fold the letter into an envelope (somehow email isn’t as powerful), and mail it.

When, in a few days, you quizzically peer at the dimly familiar handwriting on the envelope, as I did, and then open and read your letter, I guarantee you’ll be astonished. You’ll also be bolstered and buoyed, moved and humbled. Your creative fires will flare and fuel your dedication. You’ll resolve on a schedule for your current project and stick to it.

And, more than ever before, you’ll accept and value the person who wrote that letter.

Author, editor, writing coach, and spiritual counselor, Noelle Sterne writes fiction and nonfiction and has published over 250 pieces in print and online venues. In her new book, Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams (Unity Books), she helps readers let go of regrets, relabel their past, and reach their lifelong yearnings. Visit Noelle at www.trustyourlifenow.com
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