Writers--Don't Limit Yourself

Have you ever thought about a big writing project, got enthused, and then scratched it completely thinking that maybe it was too big a project to take on? If so, you aren't alone. Take a look at the poster for today. The last two lines are of prime importance.

It says limits you place on your own thinking. If you never start that long-thought-about piece of writing, you have no one to blame but yourself. 

Suppose you want to write a memoir, not a short one but book-length. You know what should go into it. After all, you lived through whatever it is you want to write about. Maybe a devastating divorce, or the loss of a child, or an addiction problem, or a number of years spent in missionary work. You know in your heart what points you want to make. You're itching to tell your story. Then you start thinking that you've only written short pieces in the past. Nothing this big. Thoughts like Maybe this is too much for me to do. I've never written anything of book-length before. There are a lot of things I should learn before I tackle this. 

Think things like the above and you're drawing a line in the sand. It's a line you're afraid to step over. What if I bomb out? What happens if I get halfway through the project and get stuck? Face it. We all get stuck sometimes. When that happens, we can seek some help from other writers or from writing books. We can also take a break from the project and work on something else for a few days. When you get back to the original project, it may look better to you, might go more smoothly. 

If you think I can't..., guess what is going to happen. You'll convince yourself that it's true and your book draft, however much is done, is going to grow whiskers and never see publication. 

Remember the story of Pollyanna, the little girl who was always happy and played the 'glad' game? Maybe we writers should take a lesson from her and stop creating limits on what we can accomplish. Think you can, and it's probably going to happen unless you come to a halt and start believing you can't finish what you started. 

Once again, it's all up to you. So often, there is no one to blame but ourselves for problems we encounter. Stay positive and you'll move right along in whatever it is that you're writing.