Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Writer's Wednesday: Thinking







What are you thinking?
Here's one that I am still yet to master. My thoughts. What have thoughts to do with writing, you ask? Everything.
I 100% believe that thoughts are a big indicator of future success or failure. Rotten thinking says, "I'll never make it, the things I write aren't important, what's the chance I'll find an editor/agent/publisher anyway?"
Show me any successful writer who accidentally arrived at their moment in the sun with a mind full of trashy thinking. There isn't one. Nope. Not one.
Many writers attribute failure or dark hours to their eventual success, but not a single author has ever said, "Oh just tell yourself you can't and you shouldn't and who the heck to do you think you are anyway and you'll achieve your goals."

Looking at a number of internationally successful writers including Stephanie Meyer, J.K Rowling or Stephen King and you'll find a thinking common to all of them.

BELIEF:
This is something you must have so deeply planted that not even a typhoon can rip it from the earth of your soul. Belief in your work cannot be an airy sort of thing. All writers must take time to think about exactly what and why they believe in their work. Even if that means talking to yourself out loud or eyeballing yourself in the mirror. Belief must survive. No. Matter. What. You do that by using your thoughts to tell yourself you believe in YOU.

Some of us will find ourselves in dead in end jobs supporting two kids on limited income while the car and rented apartment fall apart around us and still harboring the writing dream. If that IS you, you are in good company.

This was exactly Stephen King's situation when he started writing Carrie. He had an idea for what we now know as a best seller, but when the manuscript was finished he trashed it. He felt it was too far out of his league, Carrie being a girl and all, and the story was too long for the men's magazines that he wrote for at the time. His wife, Tabitha, found it and encouraged him to finish it properly. He did, of course and though he never liked the lead character he knew one thing, he could write. With that single thought and Tabitha's backing, Stephen sent the manuscript off to Double Day publishers. And forgot about the book. Not long after he got a call from that same publishing house. He had sold Carrie! The rest, as they say, is history.
Now tell me, if not for his thoughts of self belief would you even know who I mean when I say Stephen King?

HOPE
Hope is the twin sister of belief and it too exists in our thinking. Hope and belief must be born and raised together, for what good is belief if there is no hope in an end goal?
Now if you are out there tonight with an impossible dream then know this, hope is unbound by social class, race religion or anything else. All it cares about is if you know what you want and are willing to light the match at the end of that path with hope. You do that in your thoughts. Think on your goals. Think on the future, the possibilities, the stories that are still within you. This thinking builds hope.

J.K Rowlings has said publicly many times that failure was instrumental in her success. Why? because it caused her to refine what was worth hoping in. It refined her thinking.
Hope is not without effort and if one is stripped of all else and has no where to go but a place of their own future creating then hope becomes expensive. What should you hope in and what to hope for when there is so little of you left at the end of trauma or grief of failure? Yet if you are a writer then you must afford yourself hope. Such thoughts will be the best investment in your future that you will ever make.

There was once a time when JK Rowlings was as close to homeless as one gets without being on the streets. And she decided to hope. She had a single big idea for a big book. And she hoped. Tell me that cost nothing.
She began writing Harry Potter with the thought that if she did nothing else at least she would have completed the things she cared about. She says, "Any light at the end of the tunnel was hope."
And as we know it was all the light she needed.


PERSEVERANCE WITH JOY:

The road is long. So long. And I am not walking another step without trying to enjoy the way home. And joy too is born in our thoughts. It's near impossible to be joyous if you have negative thinking and also near impossible to be negative if your thoughts uplift you. If you aren't sure if you are truly joyful ask yourself what effect you have on those around you.

If you have decided to let them bury you with a pen in your hand then you know that dreams are not measured in inches or even miles. Some people reach their writing goals before others but all of us are waiting for something. The next idea. The first book to be published. An agent. Whatever it is, waiting will occur. Why not be joyful? Joy is a choice and so is perseverance. It's an attitude of the heart feed by thinking in the mind.

The book I am currently writing is a pure indulgence. I am entertaining myself. And I am in good company. Stephanie Meyer said that the first book she wrote was merely a story she was telling herself. She had a dream and she wanted to know what happened. So she wrote.



Writers our thoughts are powerful. Believe. Hope. Preserve with Joy. While we cannot control this life we can control our thinking. And while we cannot think our way to an agent's contract or publishing deal, we can refuse to let our thinking be an obstacle to these things.


PS- Sorry for the delay in visiting blogs. I will be around tomorrow.

19 comments:

  1. It's amazing how our own thoughts and attitude can put a positive spin on our days. So much of how we feel comes from how we choose to look at things ... Happy Wednesday :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, yes and yes! Faith, Hope, and Love all bring joy, imo. Wonderful post, Tabitha! I totally agree. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much, Tabitha. I really needed this. Normally my thinking is hopeful and positive, but I've slipped into a terrible slump lately and needed the reminders ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  4. Totally agree. Our thoughts can either lift us up or bring us down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks. I've been a bit short on optimism recently. This post is very helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tabitha, this is wonderful. Could you post this, say, every three months or so? It is such a perfect piece of encouragement! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's funny....I doubt all sorts of things about myself EXCEPT my writing. It's immune!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Excellent positive message, that you can use in all aspects of your life, not just writing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wonderful post, Tabitha! Thoughts are very powerful indeed. They take us where we should and should not go. With perseverance they can be controlled and used to our advantage. But it is a life-time process.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AWESOME post!! Just the read I needed today!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you Tabitha! Just what a revising fool needs to read. Now back to it and with joy. Your post and mine have something in common today and that is the joy factor.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you Tabitha! Just what a revising fool needs to read. Now back to it and with joy. Your post and mine have something in common today and that is the joy factor.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It is a long road. Step by step we get there. Keep at it. Found you through another blog on the Pay it Forward bloghop today. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you so much! I do sometimes wonder about my story, but always come back to believing in it. Sometimes I just need that extra bit of oomph, and this post did that and more.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you. I really needed this right now. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I couldn't agree more, Tabitha, and sometimes we just need a little reminder. We can be that reminder to others as you have done for us here. Let not one moment be wasted. Life is to be celebrated. My friends who have died too young but lived each day with exuberance have taught me that. I don't want to have missed the message. :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. '...try to enjoy the way home'. That is a GREAT piece of philosophy Tabitha. Thank you so much.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Love this post, Tabitha, and I agree with you 100%. It's funny, but I've been on a positive thinking kick--yet it's still hard for me. One thing I came across that I also believe to be true: when everything starts falling apart, we're almost there. Have you ever noticed that? 54 things go wrong and you want to throw yourself under the bed and a few days later--salvation appears! Weird. :)

    I noticed you haven't posted in a while. Hope everything is okay. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Tabitha,
    This post is as relevant on January28, 2012 as when first wrote it! You are GOOD!

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete