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Saturday, January 5, 2013

2013 Resolutions: Susan Lute and the Literary life

 
 
Resolve 2013: Creating And Nurturing A Creative Life



Susan Lute
Dragon's Thief                                              
When you create a “literary” life you have to have an idea what you think that life looks like. This is true whether you're a writer, singer, or artist. When I first published ten years ago, my idea of the writing life was writing book after book, in my office, making enough money to quit the day job. And I fought hard for that dream, filled my arsenal with every weapon at my disposal. It was awhile before I realized creating a literary life wasn't the hard part. Nurturing it was...through the good times and bad, the rejections, burning the candle at both ends, rearranging writing time to fit with my “other” life, riding the changing marketplace. And while this sounds singularly unpleasant, I have to say, it's been a remarkable journey. Along the way my dream has meta-morphed from a caterpillar to a colorful butterfly.
One of the armaments in my arsenal is a workshop I love to present called “Storyboarding Your Career”. It's fun and tells you more about how to nurture your career than you'd think at first glance. Try this at home. You'll love it.
~ get a large poster board and cut it in two. Save the second half for another day.
~ you'll need scissors, a glue stick, and lots and lots of magazines.
~ don't plan, just cut out pictures that make your pulse pump and make you think … I want THAT in my literary life! And remember all the pictures are not going to have something to do with writing.
~ when you've got all the pictures, words, and numbers you want, begin to paste them onto the poster board in whatever order makes you feel good.
~ when you're all done you'll have a collage of what it will take to nurture your literary...or creative life.
Mine is framed and hanging in my office where I can look at it frequently. I'll bet yours will be beautiful.
Are there things you do to nurture your creative life?
Where you can find me :) Goodreads, My website, Facebook, Twitter and See Jane Publish. Sign up for my newsletter and have a chance to win a gift card to Amazon or BN. And don't forget to support your local authors by becoming a “fan” on Goodreads.

THE RESOLUTION TOUR - January 1 - 9, 2013


Maggie Jaimeson - Take a Vacation
Jessa Slade - Get Organized
Paty Jager - Volunteerism
Linda Mercury - Creating a Literary (or Creative) Life
Jenna Bayley-Burke - Eat Healthier
Cassiel Knight - No More Procrastination
Cathryn Cade - Take Time for those OTHER Creative Passions
Su Lute - Reduce Stress: Find and Follow Your Bliss
Jamie Brazil - Shrink My Closet

Friday, January 4, 2013

2013 Resolutions: Jamie Brazil and the Future Mrs. Elton John

Do sunglasses and the literary life have anything to do with one another? They do for me.

As a kid growing up on the Canadian prairies with no cable television and six-foot-high snow drifts surrounding our home in winter, I obsessed over Elton John, the writer of the greatest rock and roll song ever written, Crocodile Rock.

Elton always wore sparkly outfits and his trademark wild sunglasses. He was the man of my dreams, and at eleven-years-old I knew, and I mean KNEW in an absolute and certain way… in my hearts of hearts… in the very depth of my soul… that I would marry Elton John.

I was the future Mrs. Elton John.

You can imagine how devastated I was when he married Renate. When I saw the photo of her sitting on Elton’s lap I wept. I bawled like a baby.
He was supposed to be mine.
Turns out, he wasn’t Renate’s either.

Years later, I take solace in the fact that Sir Elton married fellow Canuck David Furnish and I wish them all the happiness in the world. Even if there’s now little chance of my childhood dream coming true. Some sunglasses, once removed, cannot be put back on.

My vision of creating a literary life has been permanently altered, too.

The writer I wanted to be when I began writing is not the writer I am today. I had some success with my Renate (nonfiction), but Renate was not my true love. 


Fiction was. Yet the world of million-dollar advances for first novels doesn’t exist anymore. A digital landscape exploding with possibilities took its place.

So what’s a girl to do when her old dreams bite the dust, when she accepts there is no going back to the way things were? I’m taking a lesson from Elton. I’m buying new sunglasses and reinventing myself. I want my new shades to have frames as large as my dreams, and rose-colored lenses to see the wave of digital opportunities in the best light.

And Crocodile Rock is still the best song ever written!








SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
http://facebook.com/BrazilBooks http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5281706.Jamie_Brazil

Maggie Jaimeson - Take a Vacation
Jessa Slade - Get Organized
Paty Jager - Volunteerism
Linda Mercury - Creating a Literary (or Creative) Life
Jenna Bayley-Burke - Eat Healthier
Cassiel Knight - No More Procrastination
Cathryn Cade - Take Time for those OTHER Creative Passions
Su Lute - Reduce Stress: Find and Follow Your Bliss
Jamie Brazil - Shrink My Closet