Now It's Time to Say Goodbye

I started this blog in January, 2006!  I knew I'd been here a few years.  I didn't realize it was over six years.  I've learned so much about how all the technology works here, how to do links and add images, where to find images...I love this blog!  But it's still time to say "goodbye."

I'm not closing it down. I really do love it.  I've met so many wonderful people through the blog circles I've been in with this blog.  And I've posted some things I really like.  And there are comments that still make me smile.  So I'm leaving this up.  But I am making a shift.

I've been keeping this blog as my personal creativity blog.  And I was trying to keep my blog over at MuseCraft™ as more of a general or coaching-related creativity blog.  But the two things--my personal creativity and my coaching practice--are too closely related to separate them that way.  So one or the other of the blogs ended up languishing because I couldn't find a way to separate things enough to keep them both active without being redundant.

I hope you'll all come on over to MuseCraft™ and follow along, leave some comments, help me build that blog into a comfy, cozy home on the 'net the way this one has become.  And thank you so much for reading!

Edit: If you're looking for my blog posts at MuseCraft™, you can find them by clicking on the MuseCraft™ Blog link at the top of the page.  Or by clicking the link here, of course. :)

It's Late

But I wanted to get caught up on my 52 Stories.  Well, sort of caught up.  I finished last week's story. 

Week 7: Turncoat 

And that's it.  Shortest post ever?  Maybe so. 

This week's story is going to be done this week!  No more of this getting hung up on trying to make it good.  No more!  These are rough drafts, first drafts, meant to be terrible.  And I will let them be terrible and trickle off and have inconsistencies.  Because those can all be fixed later.  But not having anything written can only be fixed by getting words down.  So here they are.

Wishcasting Wednesday--Straight From the Heart

I haven't done a Wishcasting Wednesday in quite a while.  So much going on in my life--something had to give, and much as I love the wishes it was too hard to keep up.  This week is a week off from ROW80, though, and I'm struggling with feeling blocked and overwhelmed, so it seemed like a good time to come back to Wishcasting.

This week, Jamie asked, "What is your heart's wish?"

I feel overwhelmed and weepy and filled with this nameless longing when I read that.  I don't have an answer, and yet I'm feeling pulled to answer this.  Maybe it's something I need to answer in my journal.  This may be one of those things that I need to write about over and over again.  Maybe for now I will just wish to know what my heart's wish actually is.

I have visions, bits and pieces.  House and home beautiful, inviting, relaxing, welcoming.  Writing happening regularly.  Creative work happening regularly.  Healthy habits--movement and food all pleasurable and good.  Those are a lot of wishes, but somehow in my head--in my heart--it all blends into one thing.  So that's my heart's wish, even if it isn't clear.

And now I'm going back to last week's story for 52 Stories. Because I got behind, but I'm not givign up.  I'm going to catch up with last week's story, and then I'm going to keep going.  Maybe that's not quite exactly how the challenge is supposed to go, but my rules say that at the end of the year I will have 52 rough drafts, and that is going to be a success.

Whirlwind

Wow.  This round of ROW80 has gone by so quickly!  I can't believe this is the final check-in, but here it is.

These were my goals at the beginning of the round:

• Write* at least 15 minutes each weekday; weekends are optional
• Participate in the ROW80 Twitter discussions and use bookending techniques there to help me stay on task
• Read and comment on blogs each check-in, even if I only have time for one or two.

The writing part of this morphed, especially after I started doing 52 Stories. I have been getting writing done every week, so that's good, but I never hit the consistency I was looking for.  I'm still not sure what a good rhythm is for me.   But I'm writing!  So I'm happy.

I really bombed on participating in discussions and commenting on blogs.  I've had so much going on* since the beginning of the year, and I just didn't have the focus I needed to do this.  I also found that the bookending didn't do anything for me, so I stopped doing that, but that was a conscious decision so I don't consider that a negative at all.

*The quick summary  of "so much going on" is that I've been writing--at the end of this round I have six short story rough drafts posted (working on this week's now, but it isn't ready yet so can't be counted in this round).  I also finished my Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching (TM) class and am working on the final bits for my certification.  I've created and planned my first teleclass, Midsummer's Muse, which I'll be presenting tomorrow night (it's free, and you're all invited to sign up if you want to come play!).  I've been working on the planning for the Time Travelers' Ball and Exposition.  I've been participating in Lisa Sonora Beam's Creative + Practice and Liz Lamoreux's Inner Excavate-along.  It's been really busy around here since February, so I understand why I had trouble keeping up with checking blogs and such.  But I really hope to do better next round.

Stay tuned for this week's story to get posted either tomorrow or Friday (probably Friday).  Thanks so much for all the support!  See you all next round.

Once Upon a Time

I just wrote a cheesy little children's fairy tale for this week's 52 Stories.  Not at all what I intended to write, and definitely not what I usually write.  But yesterday everyone was passing around this article about "The 22 Rules of Storytelling According to Pixar." Of course I read it.  And #4 caught my attention.  Then this morning someone (darned if I can find that link now) sent around #4 as a writing prompt.  So I used it.

Here's #4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

Anyhow, here's this week's story, only a day behind which I am please with considering last week's story didn't get posted until Saturday.

Week 6:  Out of the Woods

Crashing Waves

My ROW80 check-in.  Not much to report again...

The past two weeks have been too hectic, and I am feeling swamped.  I'm going under! 

Okay, it's not quite that drastic, at least not anymore.  Finally, today, I feel like things have slowed down, but I still have things to do yet I am feeling wrung out and exhausted.  Last week was crazy, so my 52 Stories piece got pushed to the weekend, and the weekend was busy, and now I'm not finished with this week's story... And then the (finally resolved) e-mail fiasco that took two full days to straighten out. Eek!  I need to breathe! 

I have to remind myself--balance is an activity.  It is something you do.  So there will be swings from one direction to the other, and sometimes they are big swings and take me too far into chaos or stagnation.  But I always get to move out of those places and back toward that center.  Now, today, is a day for me to do some of that.  Some breathing.  Some playing.  Some setting things aside for later, when I have a bit more focus and clarity for them.  They will be better and things will go more smoothly if I take this time.

I actually do have a story started for this week.  It's one I started at the beginning of my 52 Stories journey, and I am finally feeling like working on it.  I think I know what to do with it.  We'll see.  I may work on that later, but there's a good chance I won't touch it until tomorrow.

Today, I need something a little more introspective and meditative.  This is what I want to work on today:

• Reading and taking a photo for the Inner Excavate-along
• Reading and maybe adding some journal images for Creative + Practice
• Putting gesso on the pages of the travel journal I made for my vacation next month

I think I will also drink some tea and watch NCIS reruns while I work.  Because for some reason, NCIS in the background relaxes me and makes me feel like I'm safe with friends--it's like comfort food for my brain!

That's my check-in and my plan.  I think I'm going to go work on those journal pages right now.

In Briefs

Or in brief.  Whichever you prefer.  I'm very tired today, so there's no promise that I'm actually going to be sensible.  But I didn't want to miss my ROW80 check-in, so here I am.

My real check-in was in a post I wrote yesterday.  I had a lot to say, so I wrote it all down then.  I had some big aha! moments this past week, and I had to get it all down.  Basically, this is what I learned this week:

1. I can write even when life is rough and I'm unmotivated and resistant.
2. Practice is built from perseverance, not perfection and sticking exactly to a schedule.
3. I am a writer, and I don't work well in the early morning; I work best in the afternoon and early evening.

A major accomplishment this week: even though it was a rough week, and even though it was later than I normally like, I finished my short story and got it posted.  This is huge, because in the past a week like this one (nothing big happened, but there were a lot of smaller bumps and thumps in the road) would have made me quit.  This week, I was slow, and I struggled, but I still got it done!

A few links to things I'm participating in right now or getting ready to jump in on.  These are what led me to my breakthroughs this week:

• Jeff Goins' 15 Habits of Great Writers 
• Lisa Sonora Beam's Creative + Practice
• Liz Lamoreux's Inner Excavate-along

This week, I will check in on more than two blogs (which seems to be where I've stalled out over the last several check-ins).  And I will get another story done.  Because I am a writer, and that's what I do.

Potpourri

This post is a little of this and a little of that.  Lots of stuff on my mind.  But as I think about what I want to write about, I think I'm seeing a theme...

I finally finished my 52 Stories piece for this week. I really struggled.  But I got it done!  I am feeling very proud right now, not because of the story but because I was having a really rough week--lots going on, some heavy emotions, a yucky spring cold.  I didn't want to write.  I just wanted to hide out and read and play games.  But I got it done!  That feels so good, sitting down and doing the work even when everything was really rough.  This feels like a breakthrough.

I've had a couple of big mind shifts this week. First, as I mentioned back in mid-May, I'm participating in  Lisa Sonora Beam's Creative + Practice course.  I am behind.  I'm struggling to sink into the work, I keep letting things get in the way, and I keep getting annoyed with myself for not doing it.  And then, yesterday, I had a realization.  This work isn't a one time thing.  I will be going through many of these lessons and activities over and over again.  And, as with any practice, the beginning is rough, filled with skipped days and skimped-on work.  But some days the work is happening.  And I'm thinking about it, thinking of how to make it easier to show up for the work every day.  And this is how I am building a practice.  By returning to it, moving forward, keeping at it.  It's not about doing it perfectly, especially not right out of the gate.  It's about doing it and doing it again, and coming back to it over and over again.  I don't have to be perfect, and I don't have to keep up with the weekly schedule for this to be working and helping me build a creative practice!

My second big realization this week came because I jumped in on Jeff Goins' 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.  On the third day, the activity was to get up two hours early to write.  I read that, and I became argumentative, angry, agitated.  I have done that get up early to write thing before, and it's been awful every time.  My body clock doesn't adjust to it--I'm not a morning person, and I never have been, and I never will be.  But in the past I really tried to follow all those programs that tell you that you can reset your body clock and so on.  I've also done Julia Cameron's morning pages.  I just end up cranky, exhausted, usually end up sick because I'm run down from lack of sleep, and I start to resent my writing.  I don't want to resent my writing!  I want to love it.

And then came the breakthrough.  I've done this part of the work already.  I have given it a try to see what happens, and I know that getting up at 4:30 a.m. doesn't work for me.  I don't need to do this again; I've done it already.  I'm already enough of a writer to know that the early morning time slot doesn't help my writing, it hurts it.  I am a writer, and I know this about my own process!

So yeah, it's been a big week, and now I know three new things:

1. I can write even when life is rough and I'm unmotivated and resistant.
2. Practice is built from perseverance, not perfection and sticking exactly to a schedule.
3. I am a writer, and I don't work well in the early morning; I work best in the afternoon and early evening.

This has been a really good week!

Week 5: And So It Begins