Dancing, bulls and God's tattoo's

A few years ago I wrote a letter to one of my favourite authors. I told him about my writing, never expecting him to respond, but hoping he would.

He did! Now years later his words still haunt me.

"As for your writing, I hope you continue to dance with the bulls."

These words speak of something I've let go, something I need to remember.

In the last month one of my favorite things has fallen into the background, lying under a layer of dust, forgotten.

My love for writing.

Excuses are like cancer

I've let my writing drift to the back burner. I've also stopped working out. I'm frustrated until I remember, it's not hard to see why these things have slipped into the background.

I am currently in the middle of production on an independent feature film. My roles on set so far have included Producer, Casting Director and 1<sup>st Assistant Director.

My plate is pretty full.

However, what I'm realizing is this is becoming an excuse.

When was Excuses invited?

Yes, life is busy. Good busy. I love my life, but I don't want all these wonderful things I'm doing to be shaded with the color of excuses.

If I continue choosing to let the busyness of life become an excuse then I will never get a book published, I will never reach my goal weight & I will never reach any other goal I set for myself.
Why? Because Excuses will rule my life & before I know it, I'll be 50 & wonder what happened.

New goal.

STOP making excuses. There will always be one. "Oh I'm too tired." "I'm sick." "I tried, but it never worked out." "I'll do it later, or tomorrow, or next week."

Excuses are endless and they seek to devour our life, but I don't want to let it anymore.

God has tattooed our hearts

When I read Divergent by Veronica Roth I was inspired to be like the main character Tris, who gets a tattoo of a bird to remind herself of the fears she's choosing to overcome.

I'm not gonna lie, after reading the book I wanted to go out and get a tattoo.

Like now.

Something that would be there for life to remind me of God's call, the one He put deep in my soul & tells me I am created for so much more than this.

That will inspire me when I'm tempted by excuses.

I already know what it will look like. A girl dancing with bulls. Even though those big, ferocious animals scare the crummy out of me, I'm going to choose to dance with them instead of letting my fear get the better of me.

Excuses aren't allowed, only dancing with bulls is welcome.

We can try to silence the call God has placed in us & we can throw every excuse in the book at it, but it'll still be there like a persistent badger, because He's already tattooed it on our hearts.

A forever mark of how we are meant to live.

It's His call to adventure, whispering "I've got bigger plans for you." The moment we let this call to adventure free the more God can show us how limitless we are when He's leading our lives.

With God, nothing is impossible. Especially when we choose to toss Excuses out the door.

New challenge.

Kick Excuses out. Choose the limitless adventure of God's call. Let Him remind me of the dreams & stories he's got me to tell. Put pen to paper. Get my running shoes on & get out the door.

Life is full of tomorrows that will never come.

It's time to run.

The Blog Tour - My Process and Work in Progress

Welcome to the Blog Tour. A virtual tour of writers and their writing. 

Lynne Stringer at www.lynnestringer.com tagged me as part of a blog tour. Be sure to check her blog out if you're just joining the tour. 

Here's a glimpse of what I've been up to with my current WIP. 

1. WHAT YOU'RE WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT? 
I am currently working on my first novel. I've got about 1500 more words to write to complete the first draft and then the edits begin. I'm really excited about this project. It's a fantasy about a girl learning how to grow up essentially and she's got some tough decisions to make, including finding out she's the heir to a forgotten kingdom. The story follows her as she decides what must be done and all the adventures and misadventures she comes across in the process.

2. HOW DOES YOUR WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS IN YOUR GENRE? 
I'm hoping to stand out with having a strong female lead. I also think the world I've created is different from any I've read so far. The cast of characters I have help too.

3. WHY DO YOU WRITE OR CREATE WHAT YOU DO? 
C.S. Lewis and Tolkien wrote their novels because they wanted to read more stories they would like. For me it's the same. I love the fantasy genre and how many stories can be told and how unique the characters are portrayed. A lot of time, I feel like they are filled with allegory and often the characters teach me valuable lessons. I think this translates in my writing as well. I like to tell stories of the things I've learned and in processing that through my stories, I learn more as well.

4. HOW DOES YOUR WRITING/CREATIVE PROCESS WORK? 
 I'm very chaotic when it comes to my process. I've spent years asking different writers what their style is, what they've found that works and doesn't work and I feel like I've actually tried it all too. I've read books and taken courses on it, but for me, I start with a basic storyline. I may write out a short paragraph of the overall story and then I start writing. I let the scenes come as I write, all the while keeping in the back of my mind where I need to get them and what they need to learn and how they need to change. 

Along the way I may write out biographies for specific characters and I'll start building from there what the different places in the world I'm creating look like. As the story progresses I come up with more ideas and implement them into the story to flesh it out a bit more.

It is a very chaotic way to write and won't work for everyone, but I've discovered that even if I do plan out a detailed plot I still go off on tangents that actually have more impact on my test audience. 

Once I've written out a full draft of the story, then I send it to a select few for feedback. I also live with a great bunch of friends who enjoy hearing my stories, so I'll read my story out loud. They're pretty vocal about what they like and when they stop me to ask questions, it gives me more of an idea of the plot holes I need to fix. Reading it out loud also helps me see where things are flowing and where they aren't. 

Over all it's a fun process, but if I could encourage any aspiring author it would be to find the discipline to just sit down and write. Don't wait for inspiration. Schedule out a time to write and do it every single day.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and now to continue your blog tour, head over to Sandi Rog's page next week (10 August) to hear about her work and process. Also next week head over to Adam Colling's blog to hear about his as well.