starting to build

"There’s a fundamental difference between starting something and actually building it."  Jeff Goins

There's an interesting challenge today on Day 8 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers series.  It's something that I never really thought about before.

A few years ago I started this blog, but not until recently did I begin to build it. There's a difference.

Here's an excerpt from today's challenge - " 'Building' something creatively happens the same way it does in the “real” world - with a lot of sweat and pain and grunting. It’s not easy; if it is, you’re doing it wrong.  So what does this look like when it comes to writing? It means showing up and doing the work, day-in and day-out. If you’re not doing this already, you need to be."

I can honestly say I wasn't building.  I wasn't doing the daily gritty work.

But you can bet I will be now.

My father built our house one cinder block and stone at a time.  He bought the land, but didn't stop there.  He knew he had to continue on; he knew he had to build.  He needed to roll up his sleeves and do the daily, difficult work of building something out of nothing.

I sit in that same home today where I came back to live with my own family.  I often thank my dad for going beyond starting - for building this house. For it's in the building that he's reflected; where I can touch stones that he put into place, see the nails he hammered, sit on the wood floors that he laid.  His handiwork is all over this home, and that to me is a precious memory.

When you build what you've started, no matter what it is, you put your unique imprint on it.  That's what makes it stand out from the others, because it speaks of you.  If you've started, great.  Now go the next step.  Roll up your sleeves and build something out of it.


P.S.  - I'd love to hear about what you're building, so leave a comment and let me know!

ugly can wait

I'd love to write about something ugly, but.....

no time to blog today as my youngest graduates from high school in an hour.

And that's beautiful.

See you tomorrow!

I write, therefore I steal

Today's challenge is a completely new concept for me.  Stealing.

And I love it.

I've never actually stolen in real life. Unless hiding a cookie from the kitchen under your shirt when you're 5 and telling your mom you don't have a cookie under your shirt when she asks you is stealing.

But apparently this is an acceptable practice when it comes to art.  Our fearless leader Jeff tells us - "Give up on your pursuit of originality and genius and just find something that inspires you. Borrow from your friends and heroes and mash it all up into something that looks, feels, and sounds like you."

It's a community event. You don't want to steal from just one person, because that would get a bit obvious and maybe illegal.  So open up your options and steal from a large amount of sources. 

I say all this with a smile, because just taking others' stuff and saying it's ours isn't creative.  It's lazy.

It's the mashup part that makes this artistic stealing work.  The taking of all that comes into our life from a myriad of influences, experiences, memories, hobbies, passions and dreams and forming something new.  Just as human individuals we are the sum of our parents' DNA but not exact replicas of our parents themselves, so our stolen art will result in a wonderful expression of a combination of various inputs that suddenly becomes our own voice, our own contribution that is influenced by some but unlike any other. 

So go forth and steal.  Garner and glean.  Take what you like and leave the rest.

Because, as I've learned today, it's just like the hokey pokey.

That's what it's all about.

ship it

Today's challenge?

"Ship it. Put something out there, anything. Don’t wait; move something forward.
You don’t need to know everything, just the next step. If it’s a big project, you don’t have to finish the whole thing; just finish part of it. But for crying out loud, do something."

Oh how I adore this advice!  It can be so hard to get started - doing anything, really- but once you get rolling, it's a wonderful road.  No matter what road you're on.

Old habits are hard to break; new ones are tough to start.  It takes a little practice and patience, but it's worth it. Whatever you're looking to do - it's best to just do it.

If you remember nothing else from this blog post, please remember what Jeff so wisely said, because I've seen it work over and over again - you don't need to know everything, just the next step.

We often don't begin (anything) because we want to know "this" is going to work out the way we want it to.  (whatever our "this" is). We want to know how the story (literally or figuratively) is going to end.  Will our gym workouts helps us shed the unwanted 25 pounds?  Will all the time invested in my writing turn profitable and eventually get me somewhere besides here?  Will the interview I am about to go on produce a job offer?

We can't know the end. We must begin anyway.

When it comes to writing, I've shipped a few things - blog posts, query letters, picture book manuscripts, and most recently an unsolicited letter to a famous author asking if they need help in their writing empire. (I'll let you know how well that one works out for me if it ever does.)

The more you do it, the easier and more fun it becomes.  Just take that first step. Get creative. Think of it like an invitation list to a party - if you want twenty to attend, you're going to need to invite at least fifty or sixty.  Your first opportunity might not come through so go on to number two.  Just don't quit! Ship a lot.  Be bold!  Don't hold back.  You have nothing to lose and a lot you could possibly gain.

Choose yourself, get out there, and ship it!

in training

My daugher and I just joined the gym.  It's a great place with lots of bells and whistles and weights and things that move and move us.  Upon joining, the director told us we needed to make an appointment to find out how all the different machines worked.  That sounded simple enough.

We were so wrong.

Our appointment with the ever muscular, personal-trainer-for-the-evening Ryan was this past Friday night.  My daugher and I arrived looking all Nike and Reebok and wearing a lot of black that stretched.  He put us on treadmills first, and as we were leisurely strolling on the moving belt, he stood between our two machines and told us about heartrate, strength limits, muscle fatigue, and getting the most out of our workout. We chatted and smiled and listened and took a sip of water from our filtered water bottles, never sweating a drop and thinking how easy this whole fitness thing was.

Soon that became a distant memory.

As he spoke, Ryan worked with what looks like the cockpit of a 747 at the front of our treadmills.  There were numbers flashing, electronic red hearts beating and numbers escalating.  With the touch of an evil finger, he pushed up the incline and increased the resistance.  As my calves and thighs started to notice, my smile began to fade a little as I now needed to concentrate on just staying on said treadmill.  There would be no more conversation.

The more I walked uphill, the more I realized my towel and water bottle were now lifesaving devices instead of accessories.

He pushed another button and started us on a program that involved what he called "an upper body workout".  I prefer to call it "pushing a cement block through a brick wall".   And Ryan decided that while I'm pushing this block through the wall, I should be walking on even more of an incline to maximize my efforts.

I'm thinking I should clobber Ryan with my efforts before I pass out.

As I started to balk against these life-threatening changes he was making to my initially flat, slow walk on the treadmill, he just looked at me and said, "Well, you want to see change, don't you?"

He had me there.  He was right.  Yes, I do want to see change, and I guess sometimes it can take a little pain to get there.

Your path may get steep, my friend.  And as you begin going uphill, you may be handed a concrete block along the way to push through a brick wall that is now right in front of you.  But it's all right.  Welcome these things.  They are not your enemy.  They are your trainer.  It's all about change, and God always uses it for your good- to make you more like Him.

And that's always worth it.

pleasantry

May your Saturday take you down pleasant paths.

And when it does - write about it!

public practice



And....it's Friday. Time flies when you've committed to write about something every day.

But it's a whole lot more fun than time dragging on.

When it comes to the practice of writing, the great thing is that it all counts. If you want to be a writer, then write.  The more you do it, the better you become.  You can handwrite in a journal, dot every i and cross every t in an important email, or work on the next best seller on a Word document on your laptop in front of the fire.  It's all good.  It's just important that you and I write - over and over and over again.

Today's challenge was to take your writing one step further than you currently have been doing.  Jeff calls it practicing in public. This step will look different for different writers, depending on where you are with your craft.  For some, it may be sitting down for the first time and writing what you're thinking in your head you'd like to write. 

Or, if you usually take pen in hand and privately journal most of the time, you might want to take a leap and start a blog and share your writing with a small corner of the world. (It's simple to set up and it can be free.  So... there's no excuse.)

If you're already comfortable with blogging, you might want to see if you can guest post on blogs and challenge yourself to write to other writer's guidelines and submission policies. Then again, if you have some killer stuff already written, you might want to see if you can start submitting those items to a magazine, a publishing house, or an editor.

The goal here is to stretch yourself - and your faith in yourself - and push a little higher and futher than you usually do.

Don't let fear hold you back- the only way to start is to just start. 

Now.

And then leave a comment below and let me know where your leap of faith took you- I can't wait to hear.  We're better together and we can encourage each other!