I have a picture of myself along with three of my favourite and inspiring writers: Nora, because she's so prolific and has a great business, no nonsense attitude towards writing "the muse is a fickle bitch," SEP because I love her books and Debbie Macomber. I swear, everytime I hear Debbie talk about how she struggled in the beginning of her career, I cry. Do you know that she has dyslexia and didn't read until the 5th grade? That's perseverance and guts.
I have pictures of two of our recent success stories in our RWA chapter. Pam Callow, author of the Kate Lange series from Mira. Pam broke a few rules in her first published book but she believed in herself and had confidence in her work - two qualities I think are essential in achieving success in this business. The longer I write the more I realize if you don't believe in yourself and your work, no one else will.The other picture is Stella MacLean, who published with SuperRomance after writing for more years than I have (which is a lot) An example of determination but also an example of how to deal with the slings and arrows of this business while maintaining a sense of humour, grace and never giving up.
The RT cover is all about author Anne MacFarlane and in this page from the future, I'm debuting my "white hot" trilogy.
And finally I posted the first sale page from the RWR . And what do you know? My name is there. I have some scattered quotes and pictures of my home on the beach where I'll be writing these best sellers - because of course everyone knows writers are rich.(at least in my vision world)
So, do you do anything visual to motivate and/or inspire you to stick with your dreams of becoming a published writer? Or to move yourself forward to the next level of your publishing career?
And now I'm going to go do the one thing I must do to make these dreams come true.
Write
21 comments:
Wow, Anne, that inspires ME!!! I loved the RT cover and the NYT lists!! You know, I heard Debbie Macomber speak at RWA National several years ago and right after she sold, she had made a list of things she wanted to accomplish in the first five years, including bestseller lists, selling to audio, etc. Five years later, she checked every item off her list!
This is the way to do it, my friend, and I'm honoured to be on your Vision Board.
Pam
What a glorious Vision Board! I love the idea and you've gone to huge effort to achieve it. DId you get the idea from someone? I reckon having that in front of you while you type will be HUGELY inspiring :)
Thanks Pam.
Rachael, Oprah did a show on Vision Boards, visualizing the life you want. Since I'd need an entire wall for that, I thought a vision board for writing would be a less overwhelming task.
Ooh, I'm excited, Anne. This is fabulous and I want to do one!
A writer friend from back out west had her 'cover' made up by her son (photoshop/computer genius) and then she had it framed. It's on her wall in her 'office'. Again - vision and believing in yourself, eh?
And I love your final words - to get there, you must work. Happy writing, Anne - and thanks so much for sharing this with us :)
That is inspiring!! I should take a page from your book. Or board. It looks fantastic!!
Janet, I did up a cover for an older romantic suspense I'd written as a project in my photoshop class. I ran out of room on the board!
Thanks Kelly
Great vision board, Anne. What a fabulous future! Love it!
Thanks Tory. Hope it works.
Fantastic, Anne. Simply loved it:) I'm inspired and look forward to seeing you on the beach and your books on the bestseller list.
You ARE inspiring, Anne! Wow. So loved this post and the one before it. It's important to gather the tools to do the job. You have reminded me of what I need to do.
I love your blog.
Bev and Carolyn, thanks for stopping by the blog and taking a look.
This so cool! I'd heard of vision boards before but didn't know what they were. Now I get it and see how incredibly motivating they can be.
May all your visions come true!
That was great, Anne! Very creative and inspiring. I've never done a vision board, but I have one in my head :). Every night when I'm falling asleep, I fantasize about something I want to achieve and imagine it happening. (Anthony Robbins calls it Creative Visualization, but I just call it fantasizing. Either way, it's the same thing :)).
Awesome board, Anne! I'm a huge fan of vision boards. Used them all the time. And they do work. Yours will get you everything you visualize.
Thank you, Deb. My kids added their pictures to my Board when I wasn't looking.LOL. I'm sure Courtney will manage to put a pupply up there, too one of these days.
Julianne, I remember you talking about the visualization several years ago and it really stuck with me.
Cat, hope my Vision Board brings me the kind of success you've had over the past couple of months.
This is really late to be chiming in here, but that's me...late. Yes, writing and publishing are such fickle pursuits. First you have to practice BIC, then you have to have the patience of Job. Not an easy career choice, but in the end it's all about the love of writing.
Stella, it seems sometimes we can get so wrapped up in the business of writing we forget why we started in the first place. It's important we hold on to the joy that made us want to write in the first place.
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