The best laid plans...

Well, I woke up and my throat was still really sore and I felt crummy. My plan didn't quite work out. I ended up taking care of some stuff for my trip to Austin, dropping off a resume at a local private school, and then getting to writing.

I got a few articles done on Helium and will post them here:

http://www.helium.com/items/1012732-critics-reason-lambast-night
* This is a review of Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water," which I liked. Read my reasons why!

http://www.helium.com/items/1012658-doesnt-crisp-delicious-cucumber
* I describe, in straightforward terms, how to grow cucumbers. It's easy and doesn't take much work.

http://www.helium.com/items/982817-summers-coming-summers-coming
*This is actually an article I wrote for the Marketplace a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't purchased and is now in my articles list. So here it is! I describe how to grow a salsa garden. It's easy.

And that's pretty much it. I also got working on the ChartedCourse newsletter, but it's nearly my bedtime and so I'll do it tomorrow. I WILL do at least 2000 words in The Cabin tomorrow as well.

I also want to add a post I placed on the Helium forums. I feel like it expresses where my mind and heart have been lately. Something's going on in me and it's a good thing.

Writing is more than work, more than art, more than an expression.

It is a bloodletting.

When you sit down to write, you open your truest self to the eyes of all who will see your words. Even if you are creating a persona that is not you, who you are and what makes you is exposed.

And written words are as permanent as that which they are printed on.

Imagine you are writing in blood, because that's what you are doing.

As your writing moves and manipulates people, you are a predator. As critics deride and praise your work, you are the prey.

No matter what you write, if you expose it to the public eye, you are involved in an emotional violence that is graphic in the truest sense of the word.

Now. Some have said they have lost motivation. Lost motivation to write. This is your work! This is your art! This is you! The only reason you lack motivation is because you haven't delved deeply enough. Get into yourself and discover whether you are truly willing to spill your blood. If you are, get back to writing and quit griping.

Nobody said writing wouldn't be hard. It's not as if the Steinbecks, the de Berniers, the Whitmans, and the Brownings throughout history have not sweated over the smallest of words. Writing is work!

Writing is sweat. Writing is power over yourself and others. Writing is sweet. Writing is the greatest therapy for inner pain. Writing is violence and peace.

Aren't you proud to be a writer?

So that's what I've come to. I am a writer. I have a dream. My dream will take work. I will do that work. I will reach my dream.

I will be a bestselling author.

carpe somnium