Writers: Trust Yourself and Keep Writing!

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Hello to all of the writers who read this blog.

I have a simple message for you.

Trust in your abilities.

Have faith in your stories.

Keep dreaming.

Keep working.

Keep writing.

Never give up on your dreams.

Never give up on your writing.

You can do it.

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Quotations on Hope

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“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

Barack Obama

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“Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Stephen King

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Quotations On Change

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“A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.”

Barack Obama

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“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

Mother Teresa

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“In this time of repeated gun horrors, in a time when most Americans want gun control, remember to make your voices heard, to pressure politicians, and to vote.”

Charles F. French

Progress On A First Draft

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I made a breakthrough in terms of plot with the first draft of the political thriller I am currently working on! I have been continuing to work on it with discipline, doing about 1000 words a day, 5 days a week, but I had recently come up against a bit of a roadblock. It looked like a large tree had fallen across the writing path I was journeying on.

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I woke up early this morning, which is unusual for me–I am far more of a night person than a morning person. Additionally, I saw a way around the obstacle on the writing road–and it involves simply going off that particular path and trailblazing a new way! Perhaps my dreaming mind worked out the problem, and I came to understand how two plots, not one intertwine in the book. And that has made all the difference.

Now I know the direction to take the rest of the book. I am sure now that, except for any kind of unusual circumstances, I will complete this first draft by the end of August.

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Then it will be time for revisions and to begin another first draft!

Quotations on Hope: Revisited

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“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”

John Lennon

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“Hold fast to dreams,

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird,

That cannot fly.”

Langston Hughes

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“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank

Oppose Racism

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No matter the political party to which you might belong, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, racism is completely unacceptable in the United States of America.

Donald Trump, who has a history of racist tweets and behavior recently attacked Congressman Elijah Cummings in a way that can only be racist. “As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place” (Donald Trump July 27, 2019). Anyone who is familiar with racist terminology can see this for what it is, and this bigotry must be opposed. If you have any doubt, look at the support Trump receives from people like David Duke and the alt-right.

The Baltimore Sun, in its op-ed piece, wrote a blistering rebuttal of Trump. “It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream . . . Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one” (https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0728-trump-baltimore-20190727-k6ac4yvnpvcczlaexdfglifada-story.html).

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Martin Luther King Jr. said “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” This must be a time to speak out.

All writers must speak out. Racism is never acceptable, and it must not be allowed to be spoken in the name of the United States Of America.

What Are Your Works In Progress?

To all the writers out there: I hope your work is going well, that you are continuing to write as often as you can, and that your works in progress are, indeed, progressing.

I recently complete draft 3 of a fantasy novel, but it will need at least 2 more drafts, especially because I have overloaded expository information in the opening chapters. So, I will work on including that information in the plot and not simply give it. That will be the focus of the 4th draft.

I am also a little more than halfway through the 1st draft of a political thriller, which I am hoping will be done by the end of August.

So, to all the writers who read this: