Counting words
ten at a time
twenty
thirty
Aiming for word count
three
thousand
words
345 down
2655 to go
Why can’t I ever
start writing
before eleven
p.m.?
poem-great at eight (For Rachael) August 17, 2013
You’re eight
and in your mind you’re great
Your dreams are there within your grasp
You clasp them tight and know
that as you grow
You’ll meet each goal
Your soul desires
Until someone you admire says, “No!
You don’t have talent,
you can not do
what your dreams are telling you.”
If you believe these sorry words
If you accept this worry heard
If you allow your dreams to die
if you sigh, and don’t ask why
then I suppose you wield the sword
that kills your dreams.
The naysayers set it in your hand
but they can’t swing it.
So throw down the sword,
hold tight to dreams that stir you in the night!
Those dreams that feel so right,
that make you mighty, those dreams
to sing, to act, to write!
Practise each day, to hone your craft
in every way, no matter what the naysayers say!
Opportunity looks like hard work.
Luck is believing you are lucky.
Practice makes perfect.
You will move past eight, and if not yet great,
Just wait!
.
.
This poem grew out of a Twitter conversation. Diana Gabaldon said that she knew when she was 8 that she should be a novelist (she went on to earn a Masters in marine biology and a PhD in ecology before she got around to trying, though). I was 8 when I started writing stories, sharing them in school, and dreaming of being a writer. Rachael Hofford said that when she was 8 she was told by her teacher that she had no talent for writing and that she should give up that idea. As an English teacher, I know first hand that some of my students who dream of writing aren’t very good, but the only way for them to get better is to read and to write. Practicing their writing by emulating the best that they read will teach them the skills to become good writers. Maybe they lack a spark of genius, but it may come later with life experience. If it doesn’t, there are still many writers who do well telling a story. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. You may have to work very hard, and you’ll need some luck as well, but your dream is just as possible as anyone else’s.
poem- swimming against the current August 2, 2013
I dive into a dream
through sloughs of doubtful inheritance
with sure strokes I slice the pool
of the possibility.
Doubts ride the boat beside me
but I swim in imagination
toward the shore of a tomorrow
where anything
can be
Four years ago… October 9, 2012
The week before Thanksgiving in 2008, I was given Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga to read by one of my English students. That Thanksgiving weekend I bought my own copies of the books, read through the series again, and then poured over Stephenie Meyer’s website, reading everything I could about the genesis of the story, the process of writing, what she’d done to find an agent, and the adventure her life had become.
I was completely, totally, thoroughly inspired. An idea sparked. I’d had a story floating in my head for decades. I’d written it down in a couple of versions before, but it wasn’t right. I had known I needed a hook, but I just couldn’t figure out what it could be. Stephenie gave me the solution: mythology. Just as she had used vampires and werewolves, Greek mythology could be melded into the experience I wanted to share in order to provide the depth and conflict that had been missing in previous drafts.
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving (that is, this very day four years ago) I began writing Grace Awakening. That first day, I wrote about five double spaced pages. The second day I did the same. Then the third. By the end of three weeks I had 75 pages of writing. I set the goal to keep writing 25 pages a week. I met or exceeded that goal each subsequent week. Twenty three weeks later, the first draft was complete. It was the week before Easter, and I had 155,000 words.
A couple of weeks after Thanksgiving in 2009, I went to the Surrey International Writers Conference. I pitched the book to a small Vancouver publisher. She was interested and asked to see more.
A week before Thanksgiving in 2010 I signed the contracts with Gumboot Books.
In 2011, Gumboot Books went out of business, but Grace Awakening Dreams was released anyway through Lintusen Press in July. By Thanksgiving 2011, it had been in the list of Top iTunes Fantasy books in Canada over a hundred times.
In 10 days, I’ll be back to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference to pitch Grace Awakening Myth, a companion novel that tells Ben’s version of his battle for Grace.
It’s a lot to be thankful for: four years of creativity, empowerment, challenge, excitement, growth, and adventure. It’s been an amazing ride!
Four years ago, when I started typing, I would not have been brave enough to imagine that I’d be in this place today. But here I am. My friend Heather observed, “Where will you be in another 4 years? Do you not love the “wait and see”‘ of life?” The thought of it hit me in the gut. Where will I be? I can only dream where Grace will be, keep writing, and hope I’m holding tightly to her coat tails as she explores the world!
know what you’re looking for October 27, 2011
“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!”
-Jane Austen
Oh my. Poor Jane. I feel so sorry for her, writing these romantic books, setting herself up for trouble. What 18 or 19th century man could hope to live up to her unrealistic expectations. I wonder where she was looking, and what exactly was she looking for?
When I was a teen, I made a list of the characteristics and qualities that I thought were important in a husband. I wrote them down in my diary around the time I was fourteen, and promptly forgot them.
I didn’t have the diary for a few years, and when I got it back, it was a decade later, and I was married with two children. I remember finding that section and being stunned to be reading a very precise description of my husand.
Completely unconsciously I’d sought and found what I’d looked for. And here we are, years later, still happily married, and all those qualities that I valued, prove of even greater value as the years go by.
Poor Jane.
keep walking August 13, 2011
If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. ~Buddhist Saying
It may take a while, but step by step, you get closer to your goal. Don’t give up. Don’t be discouraged. Just keep moving forward.
While I was going to university, I got married, had babies, and moved a dozen times. These were not activities that promoted speedy academic progress! It took me 8 years to get my first degree, step by step, course by course. Eventually the end arrives, if you keep moving toward your goal.
When I was writing Grace Awakening, I wrote 5 pages a day, 25 pages a week, for 6 months. 23 weeks later, there was a novel on my computer. Some people write 8 hours a day and do 20 or 30 pages a day. They speed through a novel in a month. My pace may seem like I’m a tortoise in comparison, but I got there. If I had gotten down on myself for not being a speedy hare, I might not have finished at all.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Onward!
Dream come true July 27, 2011
It’s an odd feeling when a dream comes true. After the initial euphoria of seeing what you may have wished for and worked for accomplished, there is a only a brief sense of completion and satisfaction.
While it’s fantastic that the dream has been achieved, one can’t just bask forever in achieving one dream, can one? And so, while it was heart stopping to suddenly see Awakening Dreams listed on Amazon’s Kindle store today, and to know that my work was now available to the world, already plans are at work on the next dream! Several books and miscellaneous other projects call.
Let the dreaming continue!
Optimism August 25, 2010
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
~Helen Keller
This was on the white board at Curves today. It made me think of all the people I know with clinical depression, and how they so rarely achieve the things that the rest of us think they are capable of. Depression steals optimism. Pessimism does not breed greatness.
If you have hope, then the pages you write, or the course you take, or the person you call up fit into a possible future that you are willing to trust will be a good one. A depressed person thinks, “Why write it down? It won’t be any good. No one will ever want to read it. No one would buy it.” Words of genius are lost to the world. A depressed person thinks, “I’ll probably fail the course. The prof won’t like me. It’ll probably be boring.” They miss the inspiration and enlightenment of education. A depressed person thinks, “Why call? She’s probably not home. She wouldn’t want to go out with me. I would probably embarrass her.” An opportunity for a new friend or a great romance is lost.
Optimism is just a glimmer of faith that not only will something be fine, but that it might be better than it is. Optimists fuel creativity, exploration, adventure, and thought.
I am optimistic by nature. When I envision a poem, a painting, a needlework, a knitting project, a sewing project, a story or a lesson, I am not expecting failure. This is not to say failure doesn’t happen. I have a lot of unfinished knitting projects around, in particular. However, that fact just makes it more exciting when one finally does get finished!
If I wasn’t optimistic, I couldn’t do the job I do, particularly in the environment I’m in. I have been teaching 18 years. When I started, I never imagined that I would have spent 18 years without belonging to one school, without knowing that the school district valued my labour and creativity enough to attach me to a single school where I could blossom forth brilliance that would make my class one parents encouraged their own kids to take, as the generations wrapped around. One that inspired kids to become teachers or writers. Instead, even after all this time, I can’t even plan a semester in advance. I can’t arrange a terrific field trip to Ashland Shakespeare Festival a year hence, because I don’t know where I’ll be in a year. I can’t invest in products or literature for my classroom, because next semester I might not be in that school. Keeping teachers ‘lean and hungry’ does not make for quality education. I miss the teacher I could be with security.
Still, I’m blessed, because I always find some place that needs my service, and I know even if the students are in different schools around the district, and even if I’m only a semester in a school, that I am inspiring some of those I teach. Just today I had an email from a former student wondering if she could switch into my English 12 class. Ironic, since I don’t know what school I’ll be at this year, let alone what I’ll be teaching. If I wasn’t optimistic I would have curled into a ball and given up a long time ago.
Optimism is the key to happiness and success.
Anti-depressants don’t hurt.
Shawn L. Bird 
greatness June 25, 2010
Tags: determination, goals, greatness, Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa, motivation, Pierre Trudeau, Terry Fox, vision
What makes a great person? The kindness and empathy of Mother Theresa working in the Indian slums? The determination of Mahatma Ghandi to forge peaceful change? The vision of Pierre Trudeau to repatriate Canada’s constitution? The inspiration of Terry Fox’s run across Canada for cancer research.
The common thread seems to be a desire to achieve a goal that is bigger than the individual. Those who achieve greatness touch many lives in striving for their goals. They are inspirational simply because of their focus. Others are drawn to believe in the cause simply because of the profound faith in it. Emulation is a natural by-product of a genuine, forthright effort toward a cause.
I’m not sure that many who achieve greatness aspire to it. They aspire to reach the goal they see and it is their success that brings admiration. Of course, along the way they must overcome obstacles, doubters, difficulties. Commitment to the vision is required. Many people have run across Canada without achieving the glory of Terry Fox. Many nuns labour among the poor of the world. Many politicians correct historical wrongs. Many lawyers end up in jail. None of these things makes anyone great.
Profound vision. Commitment. Success.
These are the hallmarks of greatness.
Do you have a single-minded vision that could change the world? Perhaps greatness is in your future as well.
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