Inspiration and motivation

Sasha is talking about mantras for inspiration and motivation at Genreality.

Here are two of my favorite quotes:

“A genuinely creative act is always motivated by generosity.” – A.H. Almaas

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.” – George Washington Carver

If I read these quotes before I start working, it reminds me that if I approach my work with generosity and love, I’ll put myself in the right place. 

Generosity is a broad term. For instance, hanging onto something is not generous. It’s the miserly fear that if I discard these words, or this idea, I won’t get any more. But cutting words or scenes and discarding a weak idea in favor of a stronger one leads to better work. There is ALWAYS more. More ideas, more words, more scenes, more ways to solve a plot problem. There’s no need to be a miser.

Then there’s love. There isn’t anybody on the planet who always loves every minute of their job. Writers are no different. But there should be something in the core of the idea or the characters to love. When writing gets really hard, I look for something to love. If I can’t find anything I love in the scene, I write a list of some things I love and try to work in as many of them as I can. There’s a lovely verse in the Bible about love as faith (perfect love casts out fear), and if I’m focusing on love, I build faith in the work I’m doing instead of letting fear and doubt stall it. 

Check out Sasha’s mantras, and think about your own!

Packaging

I would just like to lodge a public complaint about packaging. It’s gotten ridiculous. Christmas? We threw away packaging equal to the mass of toys. This morning I opened Cheerio boxes to take out the Lego race cars inside, and found them not only separated from the cereal by the cereal’s plastic bag, but sealed TWICE inside their own plastic. So I threw away plastic packaging equal to the toy, again.

Manufacturers. This is insane. Landfills are already a problem. Not to mention, shouldn’t that plastic go to some useful purpose? Why did that race car need to be sealed at all, let alone twice? It was already separated by packaging from the cereal.

Stop the madness. Stop over-packaging.

Tuesday, and my to do list needs a to do list

I need to get my To Do list together. I have little lists pertaining to various tasks all over the place, but what I really need is The Big List. Because there is too much to keep in my brain.

Aside from that, I finished reading Dogs and Goddesses and enjoyed it very much. I loved the characters and the talking dogs, and I thought the ending was perfect.

I think I’m finished with synopsis tweaking. I’ve done a big batch of those suckers, and that’s a nice task to have behind me. Now I can just write some words. Won’t that be a nice change.

Monday, already?

It’s Monday and many balls are in the air. I’m about to finish a bunch of proposals. Waiting to hear back on some things. And kind of pleasantly surprised to be hearing from so many readers about Animal Attraction. I always get reader feedback, but not usually so much of it. So thank you.

The virtual school year is winding down, and I have a much better feel now for how much time and energy is involved and know how to plan my schedule around school. We’ve all made a lot of adjustments in the last year, and the commitment I made to doing this with the kids has really paid off in all sorts of ways. Next year will be a lot easier; the second half of this school year is already vastly easier than the first.

I’m taking advantage of the spring break to get a lot of writing underway (along with cleaning out closets) and the kids are going outside to run and play, and I can already tell this week is going to go by too fast. Which is why I’m planning now to do the things I care about getting done.

What’s on your weekly list?

Spring cleaning has begun

I assaulted the office yesterday. It’s far from done, but I made a lot of headway. Stuff piles up when we don’t have time to deal with it. I might go after the pantry or the coat closet next to get the instant gratification of a job I can finish in one morning.

Feng shui says to clean things out, even things you think you have plenty of space for like old computer files. Because clutter works against mental clarity.

Also, decluttering the desk means I can find a place to put my coffee cup. That brings me some mental clarity.