Rod Raglin
This blog will touch on the experiences I have as a writer (not to be mistaken for my experience as a writer, i.e. how many books I've written, etc); the pleasure and the pain, the joy and the grief, the satisfaction and the frustration, the magic and the reality - have I left anything out, oh yeah, the rejection, rejection and more rejection, the humiliation and the embarrassment, the jealousy and the resentment - that pretty much covers it, except for why I do it which perhaps I'll realize along the way. Are you totally confused? Good, let's begin.
Writing goals? Don't bother
Do you set writing goals?
Do you structure your day to make time for writing?
Do you feel guilty about not writing?
Why?
Two things. First. Life is about choices. If you’re not writing then you’ve made a choice to do something else; have kids, a successful career, maybe a loving relationship. Sure, sometimes we make a mistake and it might take some time to dig ourselves out from under it. But there’s no reason for not getting back on track. It’s about priorities.
Second. Don’t set writing goals or establish times to write because you’ll only feel miserable when you can’t attain them.
For years I lived a structured life. I executed my days like a general commanding troops going into battle beginning the night before with setting out the clothes I was going to wear and triple checking my over booked daytimer to find efficiencies that would allow me more time to fulfill my mission.
I was ambitious, I was aggressive, I got results, but than it wasn’t what you’d call a creative endeavor.
When I was able to commit more time to doing what I love, that’s writing, I decided I couldn’t approach it the same way – like an enemy that had to be defeated. I’d have to come to it willingly and with an open heart and mind.
I wanted to enjoy what I did and enjoy it all the time, forever. I didn’t want to feel guilty. I didn’t want to feel pressured. I wanted writing to be my one true thing, unsullied by deadlines, production schedules, other people’s expectations.
Early in the new year I was at a dinner party and someone asked what goals I had for 2015. I no longer set goals, I said. My companions seemed taken aback. Well how then, they asked, do you stay motivated? How do you measure your achievements?
What better motivation is there than to be doing what you love, I told them. As for my achievements, they seem only to matter to others. Writing is not a problem with a solution, a journey with a destination. I breathe, I think, I write.
The rest seems to look after itself.
My new novels, FOREST – Love, Loss, Legend and The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic (now in paperback) are available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU and at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/raglin
Read Reviews https://readersfavorite.com:book-review:39014
Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. http://www.devinedestinies.com/?route=product%2Fauthor&author_id=92
More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin
View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/
Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA
