Thinking with the Heart

Sometimes epiphanies come to you from the oddest places.  Mine came to me from researching, for a novel, the ancient Egyptian concept of soul, of which the heart is an important part.  The ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the source of both thoughts and feelings, unlike in our times where our heart symbolizes the seat of our emotions and our brain the seat of our reason.  In our world, thoughts and feelings are often in conflict with each other.  In the Egyptian world, they must have lived in harmony.  This realization lead to several ideas for my writing career and life in general.  You can read them by clicking the following links:

• Writing Career Post 1 at Happy Freelancer Blog
• Writing Career Post 2 at Fantasy Fiction Blog
• Happiness and Work Post at Happiness Spotter Blog

Enjoy reading them, and I hope through them, you too will be inspired to begin thinking with your Egyptian heart.

On Agent Revision Letters

I have been reading agency blogs today, something I used to rabidly peruse, now not so much. BookEnds blog recently posted this about revision letters to non-clients:

"Remember that revisions to a submission are only just the tip of the iceberg. Revision letters to my clients can be pages and pages long. I’m not going to spend that time on a submission. Therefore, you have to carefully read between the lines. Look at what I’m saying and then beyond that, and fix it all."  (bold is mine)

The above is best applied to all revision advice, except set-in-stone grammar. Why? Because, quite frankly, not everyone can teach. Teaching requires the ability to juggle two different mindsets, the expert's and the novice's.  So, don't expect your agent to be a teacher on top of it all. His primary job is dealing with the publishers and contracts, not to instruct you on how to write and revise. Your writing quality, before and after revisions from an agent, is up to you and you alone.

The Creativity Recovery Plan

What started out as a creativity recovery plan is going to become something more.  A whole life revitalization plan, of which creativity is still an important part of it.  I'll explain more about it as I finalize the details.

Title Change

Yes, there is yet another title change.  I am taking the Happiness Spotter to its own blog.  This blog will focus on any non-fiction that HS will not cover, although there may be some cross-posting from time to time too.  Please bear with me as I make this change--and others--to my blogs.

I am officially a Freelance Writer

The other day, I joined up at a couple of content writing sites and submitted my first article on July 31st to Associated Content.  I received an offer on my article yesterday August 6.  I'm so happy!  I'm officially a freelance writer.  The perfect solution to anger or bitterness, is success in a new venture.  Especially one you love.

To find out more about the site I am talking about click on the picture below.



   

How to Recover your Creativity when Unemployed, Day 19

Getting past your anger
Once the shock wears off, there is another emotion to combat that may take even longer to purge.

Anger.

Anger is draining and wasteful.  It puts you on the defensive and keeps you stuck in place, in the past, when you need to move on, move forward.  It is, in essence, an emotional--im-motional--block.  So, you have to find a way to get past your anger in healthful and positive ways and you need to include it your creativity recovery plan. 

Start by brainstorming interesting methods that engage your enthusiasm and pick one from your list.  The more you put into the method, the sooner the fire behind your anger will be guttering--and before long, put out entirely.

Some suggestions are:

• Exercise.  Take a walk by yourself or with a dog who will appreciate the attention.
• Write.  Writing can take any form as long as it releases your negativity instead of winding you up.  In fact, try something new just for the heck of it. 
• Find a new hobby.  Try out something you were interested in before.  You might really enjoy it.
• Educate yourself.  The best time to learn a new skill is when you are unemployed.  It shows industry and intelligence and will help you on your career path.
• Volunteer.  Besides looking good on a resume, volunteering gives back to your community.  And helpfulness always breeds good karma.

 
While you'll start seeing immediate benefits by this tactic, keep in mind that anger is a volatile emotion.  It can change form into bitterness, or reignite when you least expect it.  So, anger management is a long term part of your recovery plan, but with time and effort soon it will just be pages in your notebook and nothing more.  Try it yourself and let me know how it goes.

How to Recover your Creativity when Unemployed (Day 2)

Let's face it, being unemployed is hard. For creative folk it can bottle up your lifeline entirely. I know. I am there now. In fact, this is the second day of my unemployment and I am still so full of frustration and anger and at the same time so full of desire and need to use this time further my writing goals. But all I can do is feel.

So, what is the solution? To start simple. There is a lot going on. Everything is chaos, out of control. So take control by beginning with a form of control.

Create a plan. A plan to become more creative.

This plan will be unique to you and will not be built in one day, but the path to recovery begins with a single step. The recovery plan is your anchor in the storm.

My start, my plan, is this very series. While healing myself and blogging about my road to recovery, I hope to help others in the same boat. It is all we can do. Take it one day at a time. Starting now.

Try it yourself and let me know how it goes.