Dream big, work harder

Girl At Play has more great advice in her post “Living well is more than organic fruit.”

Please go out there and do. Live. Don’t be the same as yesterday. Don’t live vicariously online. Don’t use language that has no meaning or talk ideas you don’t really live. Don’t hide. Don’t copy others or live their ideas or life. Don’t fear doing your thing. Don’t fear doing. Instead of reading a decorating magazine, paint that room. Instead of thinking of baking, do up a cake. Run, walk, bike. Put that self help book down and pick up yourself.

The whole thing is really motivating, but I didn’t want to just straight up copy & paste it here. Instead I’m trying to live it. I’ve reinstated my No Internet Till Noon rule, adding in Daily To Do Lists, and am finding success so far. I am DOING instead of just blogging about wanting to do. Imagine that!

For any writers out there, I also highly recommend “Typing Without a Clue,” an op-ed by Timothy Egan. (Thanks, Mary, for sending it to me!)

Most of the writers I know work every day, in obscurity and close to poverty, trying to say one thing well and true. Day in, day out, they labor to find their voice, to learn their trade, to understand nuance and pace. And then, facing a sea of rejections, they hear about something like Barbara Bush’s dog getting a book deal.

FOR REALZ. Anyway, sometimes it’s just nice to hear from someone on our side. Especially when that someone is funny.


9 responses to “Dream big, work harder”

  1. Les Avatar

    I like that quote at the end there haha. It’s astonishingly true. A lot of what you need to be a good writer nowadays is a good “hook.”
    All pun intended from your previous post.

    — Les’s last blog post: Puzzlement

  2. Marci Avatar

    That Timothy Egan article forgot to mention that Tila Tequila also has a published book. See, all you have to do is pose for playboy and you can get a book deal!

  3. Twenty Four At Heart Avatar

    Isn’t this the truth? I think I’ll write a book under my Golden Retriever’s name …

    — Twenty Four At Heart’s last blog post: Random Tidbits

  4. Mary Avatar

    Timothy Egan tends to write pretty good stuff. I wish he was still blogging regularly (I think he more or less stopped, at least for now, with the election).

  5. Liz Avatar

    So true. This made me feel better. I almost had a stroke when I heard about Tila Tequila’s book deal.

    — Liz’s last blog post: Sugar Cookies and a Nair-plosion

  6. Angie Avatar

    Don’t live vicariously online.

    Dang it, now I have to go out into the sunlight…well as soon as this paper is finished.

    Wow, I really like Alex Beauchamp.

    — Angie’s last blog post: After this post, I’m going to stud something

  7. Kristan Avatar

    Marci-
    She does? Oh boy… Actually Playboy used to host pretty respected fiction contests, dunno if they still do or not.

    TFAH-
    Haha, yeah, Riley’s about ready for his first book too.

    Mary-
    That’s a shame. I poked through some of his archives and they seemed good.

    Liz-
    Hehe. Luckily I was high on cookie dough, so the news (delivered by Marci above) could not affect me.

    Angie-
    Me too!

  8. Diane Avatar

    Esp. like that first anecdote. A while back, I used to read too many self-help books.