This is a look at the book in pictures:

I find that this book really sheds much light on the natural habits many of us give into on a daily basis in life…. ‘Do It!: Let’s Get off our Buts!‘ And it isn’t always easy to take that sometimes the reason our dreams die is because ‘I’ let them die and ‘I’ do not fight hard enough for these dreams to come true. This is often persuaded by the forces in our life, be it family, friends, bills, obligations, and but of course there’s always those nasty thoughts and comments of criticism thrown around which can be very destructive.

So if you are looking for some more insight and understanding of how it is our dreams can just slip right through our hands…this is a great read!

Peter McWilliams

For some reason the video of his presentation is not available but the audio is.  Just look at the picture of Seth Godin (provided) and turn on the audio — you will get the same effect.

My favorite quote from this video is:

The enemy of an author is not piracty, it’s obscurity.

This book is much like a little brainteaser type game to get your mind going. The nice aspect is that the author encourages users to throw worries of spelling, punctuation, and good content right out the window! What a treat! She actually says to let yourself write “junk”. Not too worry about how great or bad it is but to focus on just getting something out on the paper.

This sense of freedom is very empowering and allows for free roam of the mind’s thoughts. She encourages users to stick with the first thoughts popping into mind, not to be too critical, and to not second guess yourself. All of these elements combine to give the user a great creative boost.

If you are suffering from writers block, or possibly having a hurtle in plot or character development. Perhaps you are struggling to come up with your next idea, then give this book a shot! I promise it will get that pen going. Success often comes from several failures -so let go and have some fun!

Add some of these to your RSS reader… if you don’t have one, watch this video on setting up an RSS reader on my blog.

1. Copyblogger This site is the heavyweight champion of the world four years running (and one of the top blogs on the planet)! The brain-child of Brian Clark, his blog keeps winning because of its insightful articles.
2. Men With Pens: James Chartrand and Harry McLeod maintain the number two slot with their inspiring content and rich community discussion.
3. Write to Done: This blog nearly always delivers a home run with its excellent articles for all writers and is the product of top blogger Leo Babauta.
4. Editor Unleashed: Inspired by the former Editor-in-Chief of Writer’s Digest, Maria Schneider explores writing, social media and community on her excellent blog.
5. Freelance Writing Jobs: This site is the first stop for freelance writers seeking new work and great articles (and it remains a top winner since this contest began). Congrats Deb Ng!
6. Confident Writing: Joanna Young delivers rich and useful articles that will help you take your writing to the next level.
7. Urban Muse: Susan Johnston covers a wide range of excellent topics that all writers will enjoy.
8. WordCount: Journalist Michelle Vranizan Rafter explores the challenges freelance writers face on her excellent blog.
9. Quips & Tips for Successful Writers: A true cornucopia of ideas for writers, Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen provides endless content and freelancing tips.
10. Fuel Your Writing: This site will certainly fuel you! Michelle Krasniak Oxman and her huge team of contributors provide great content for writers.

This got me to thinking. There are great writers out there who have critics. There are poor writers who have fans. But the truth is just as art is subjective, so it is literature. I don’t care if it is a non fiction book, a comic book, or poem, writing is just as much a work of art as a song, a painting or a sculpture. And the beauty of art is very much in the eye of the beholder, the ear of the listener, the mind of the thinker, or the hands of the sculptor.

Have you have ever been in a class, workshop, or seminar, and have the teacher (or other appropriate instructional figure) say something along the lines of…”There are no stupid questions. Chances are if you have a question it is likely someone else may have the same or similar question.” That’s exactly what makes the arts in a broad sense of the word is. If I can think of a fantasy story and think it is neat or original or entertaining, chances are, someone else may happen to agree. And there’s never going to be one creation which please everyone. Dislike is not personal, it just is what it is. Somethings fit and some don’t.

So I write. I write and I write and I hope to reach some others out there on some level. I know there will be critics. I know there will be fans. And I know that the love and effort I put into each project will never fade and no matter how many critics are out there, they can’t take away the love I have for the written word.

“I know you must be overwhelmed.”  Wells says to me.  “Just take a breath.  And there are many who believe 2012 is not the end of the world or even of the human race.  Rather there are many who suspect it is the end of life as we know it, but not the end of life.  You’ve heard of the theories suggesting that whatever ‘catastrophic event’ takes place may just be a way to bring humanity to a new level of enlightenment, right?”  I nod.  I’ve heard this.  But I’ve also heard the theories about the end of the world.  Man being punished for all of our sinful ways.  At this very moment I began to regret every bad thing I may have ever done.  I used to think I was never a ‘bad’ person.  But I did steal once, a candy bar.  Granted I was only five and I thought I could have it.

I realize while I’m off in my thoughts that Wells and Ziggy have not been talking.  Rather, they are watching me.  I realize they are waiting for me to come back to reality, if this is actually reality, and join in the conversation on this grand plan of theirs.

“Sorry.  Right.  I’m not panicking.  I’m here.  Continue, what’s with this plan?”  Ziggy takes a breath before speaking.

“I know it seems like we have no shot here.  And perhaps we don’t.  Maybe the future is already set.  Perhaps the future is already based on the time machine and us traveling back and forth and tweeking little things.  Then again, maybe not.  How can we tell?  Once you begin time travel it is truly difficult to track all that happens and how each detail of each event will really play out.  You follow me?”

I eye him with a stare like “Oh sure I do.”  He gets my point.  Wells continues.  “You see there’s no limit to what we can do here with our ability to time travel.  The plan is not to go in the future rather travel to the past to find out more about what this prophecy really entails.  It is true that there are several theories and ideas but these are taken from person to person over the years.  With each translation something is going to be different.  Even without intent.  So, lets get it straight from the horses’ mouths.  So to speak.”  Wells smiles a bit seeming very proud of his plan.

“And then what?  So these ancient people tell us of their prophecies and then what?”  I try to calm my nerves and not to get snappy, but I can’t help it.

“Once we do some digging we can find out what the reasons are.  Is this really punishment for our sins?  Or is this just a natural process of evolution?  Consider for an instance how self destructive the human race has been over the centuries.  War, crime, murder.  And if we aren’t killing ourselves we are certainly busy in destroying the world around us.  Tearing down trees, killing animals, polluting the planet, building new things.  I mean, I can’t say I’m all against technology, obviously.  But it seems we are moving in a very distinct pattern.  To the end.  Whatever the end may be, is yet to be determined.”  Wells and Ziggy seem almost giddy.  They look at my while I take this all in. 

I wish I could sound as happy as they are but I’m feeling rather queasy.  Then Wells says to me.  “So, what I want to know is will you travel with us?  We could really use your expertise.”

Any time now alarm clock!  Any time you can wake me!

“This is Mr. Wells”, said Ziggy.

We shook hands, Mr. Wells got me a chair and we all sat down.

“I guess you thought I was deep in this fine Missouri dirt by now, didn’t you?” – continued  Ziggy. I was perplexed as I looked at Old Ziggy; he looked younger than I remembered.

“Professor, I have to ask; how did your time machine work out for you.”  I probed, just to calm myself. Instead, my brain was telling me something that I should have realized sooner:

“H.G. Wells for Heaven’s sake, only the original author of the Time Machine!”.

I was dizzy and almost fell off the chair. If only my Dad could be here, I thought.

Then, I started asking myself; is this real? Am I dreaming? Just what is going on?

The questions came like a huge tsunami, and my brain was nothing more than a sailboat ready to sink at any moment. I looked at Mr. Wells, and my mind short circuited when I remembered that he was born in the Nineteenth Century. Wait a minute, “That can’t be” I told my self.  He would be well over one hundred years old.  I must have looked stupefied because they both pulled up their chairs close to me.

Ziggy looked straight into my eyes.

“Please don’t try to understand all this at once-he said and squeezed my hand – We are here, because we may be able to save the World. Have you ever heard of the prophesies of  2012?”

I did hear about that. I even watched the History Channel’s presentation of the topic, with all the different prophesies from ancient civilizations. I found those interesting, but I also found the “2000 Millennium” end of the world scare interesting, and nothing happened. Right about this point I wished that my alarm clock would go off to wake up from this nightmare, but again I realized this was real. I couldn’t stop thinking and must have pretty well shut out the world around me, because Ziggy was talking to me but I didn’t hear anything he said. I shook my head to clear my mind and heard old Ziggy

“Now, here is the plan……”

-I don’t know who’s quote this is, but my blog was inspired by Russ’s entry “How I Formed The Writing Habit”

Twenty years ago, I wanted to write. My aunt told me that she thought it was a great idea…”when you write your first book, I will buy the first copy, and you can autograph it for me”, she said. My first fan! I thought I had plenty of material to work with until I sat down to write my book and found that it took so much time to organize my thoughts and put more than a page worth of words on paper at a session, that I so often felt uncreative and disappointed. I would say to myself, “I was hoping I had more talent than that, but it doesn’t really show up on paper”.

Sometimes it felt excruciating, and I often had what I know identify as writer’s block. So I found myself over the following years spending less and less time at the thing that I wanted so much to do. Just because I didn’t write didn’t mean that I didn’t want to. I just couldn’t find the time, and I didn’t think that I possessed the talent. I thought that when I came up with my next brilliant idea that I would find the time to sit and write it all down.

Later, I joined the military. I was in graduate school during this same time. I was forced to write papers for school. One of my instructors told me that I ought to consider writing professionally. I said “Oh, I’ve considered it before, but it didn’t work out for me.” She helped me publish my first article for a journal. I was absolutely thrilled when I got a check in the mail. I actually wasn’t even expecting it. But it gave me validation that I could write something and other people could possibly be interested in what I had to say. I was successful the second time because I did in the second attempt what I didn’t do in the first. I set aside a time that I would write and I stuck to it. This to me is one of the most important first steps to writing.

If you are serious about writing, you should set aside a designated time for it. “If you leave it catch-as-catch-can, it will become all too easy to catch nothing.”

Sometimes you have to force yourself and sometimes you even have to force the other people in your life to stick to the schedule. (That can be tricky sometimes ; ) I read once that it is actually more important to stick to the schedule than it is to write something brilliant at these writing sessions. Eventually the progress will be made. You will develop a discipline that will become one of your greatest strengths.

A person doesn’t become a concert pianist in a few weeks, but by setting aside time to practice and develop.

Find a place where you feel comfortable creating. If you need solitude, make it a quiet place. Or take a pen and paper to a place that you find inspiring. The trick is to find what works best for you, and don’t get defeated! I believe that everyone has a story worth telling.

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