Just Start

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I'll say it ad nauseam.

Don't wait until you're inspired to write. 

You're more likely to find inspiration once you sit down at the computer or open that notebook and put the pen to the page or fingers to the keyboard than you are maneuvering blindly about, waiting for that perfect "lightning" sentence or word or idea.

Don't wait for "the mood."

There is no mood. The mood doesn't exist.

(But if there is a "mood," again, you certainly won't find it until you sit down and begin to work.)

Put your current mood to work.

Don't know what to write? 

Start with a prompt. Start with a character. Start with a setting. Start with a list of words that you love. Start with "I don't know what to write." Fill the page if you must.

Just start.

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

On Making Time

I love what Dorothea Brande (Becoming a Writer) says about making time for Art:

"There is almost no wage slave so driven that he cannot snatch a quarter of an hour from a busy day if he is in earnest about it."

But Katie, Brande wrote this the early 1930s! Of course there was time to create. They didn't have television or Netflix or the internet. They didn't drive their kids to and from practices every night of the week. They didn't have news and information tossed at them from every angle from one day to the next.

Yes, dear reader, this is true, but Brande's generation dealt with its own struggles, and the point here is that if we have something worth saying (or writing) or something worth making or something worth inventing, then it's up to us to be good stewards of our time.

We can all find an extra 30 minutes in our day--it's probably just a matter of turning off Pinterest or Facebook and staying away from Netflix for a while, or even waking up a few minutes early. 

What it comes down to is our priorities. We make time for what matters most to us. If that priority is Netflix, then we should own it without lamenting there's "no time" to write down the story that's swimming in our heads.

Be Brilliant (especially when it comes to your time)!

~Katie~ 

On Being Unrealistic

What if you were completely unrealistic about a deadline for one of your creative projects?

What if, for instance, it's Monday, and you decide you want to write 5,000 words on your manuscript by Friday?

"That's crazy!" you say. "There are kids and meals and jobs and pets and houses to manage. . . ."

But what if? 

There's this thing called Parkinson's Law--this law of productivity that says "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

This means that whatever time we allow ourselves to complete a project, that's the time it will take to finish it. 

So if we allow fifteen minutes to check our email, it will take fifteen minutes, even if we could check it and be done in three minutes.

If we give ourselves a month to get 5,000 words on the page, it's going to take a month. If we give ourselves a week. . . .

Do you see where I'm going with this?

So set that unreasonable goal. Even if you don't quite meet your benchmark, I think you'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish. Hint: it's probably more than you think. 

Fact: a tight deadline makes us more focused and productive. 

Let this work to your advantage. 

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

On Time

This wasn't what I was planning on blogging about today, but it's too important not to share.

From Seth Godin in “The Difference Between Time and Money”:

“You can't save up time. You can't refuse to spend it. 

You can't set it aside. 

Either you're spending your time. Or your time is spending you.”

There are a lot of excuses floating around as to why we’re not getting our projects completed (or starting them in the first place). The biggest?

“I don’t have the time.”

But what if you made the time? What if you cut something from your schedule that wasn’t currently serving you or adding value to your life? What if you replaced that with genuine, focused work toward your goal or dream? What would your life look like then?

What if?

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

Source: "The Difference Between Time and Money"