Dear Me 2017

Dear Me,

         What if 2017 is the year? What if this is the year that you finally complete a book that satisfies you? What if you actually feel like it’s okay for someone else to read it? Would that be a kicker? Is that exciting to imagine? Or just scary? Not to publish, but just to get something to the point where you like it!

         You know it could happen, but only if you do something different. Keep doing the same old things and you’ll get the same results, right? You have made progress. You’ve made some changes. You reduced the hours you work. You got a computer and that really helped, but that was years ago. You joined WDC and that helped, but you’re still not where you want to be. You’ve taken baby steps.

         Each year you try a pep talk. You tried being gentler with yourself, the way you would with someone else. That was positive thinking. The John Tesh radio show says that women tell themselves negative messages something like 17 times a day. You know you’re guilty. You fuss at yourself all day long. You don’t like your driving, the way you look, the way you sound, your bad posture, your housekeeping, your menial job, etc. (You burnt the mushrooms, and you lost a notebook.)

         What if you work on your confidence more? Maybe it would show up in your stories. “I can finish that last chapter” instead of “I don’t know how to end it”. Pretend you have an interested publisher and a deadline, so that you edit something with urgency. You play pretend in your head all the time to create stories, so why not pretend you’re a professional writer with an impatient publisher? You can do that. When you exercise or stretch, tell yourself positive messages, like "I am strong", "I am smart", "I am creative", "I am powerful". You are the only audience, and you need strong reinforcement.

         Every day tell yourself you are creative. You are a story teller. People listen to you. You come from a family of story tellers. You’re just the first one to write them. Have confidence in yourself to get it done. Someone else can be the critic. You have a vision and a passion that needs to show up in print. The tone of your voice needs to transfer to your fingertips on the keyboard. You are a writer, so keep writing. It’s a priority over all those distractions.

         Try reviewing more regularly. You know it helps you look for the same things in your own writing. Enter more contests. You can write short pieces. They don’t all have to be long drawn out stories. Try a different genre, just to exercise your writing muscle. Do more research. That usually fuels you to write about something. And then go back to one of those older unfinished pieces and tackle it, like a teacher who doesn’t really like what she’s reading but has to get the job done.

         To reiterate, resolve to:
Give yourself positive messages daily. Criticize less.
Review others regularly. Maybe twice a month, every month.
Enter more contests, say at least 5 or more.
Give yourself deadlines.
Put more of your stories or family stories on paper, no matter how good or bad.
Edit or review your old poems and stories before the year is over.

         Remember, your ultimate goal is not to please someone else. You want to please yourself. After that, you can worry about others, but one goal at a time. Forgive yourself when it doesn’t please you. Don’t give up. This could be a very good year. Believe that you can do it.


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