Opening an old notebook…
…I found this quote, written down when I was in New York at my retreat:
“If you treat people the way they are, you make them worse. If you treat them the way they ought to be, you make them capable of becoming what they ought to be.” –Goethe
I know who I was no doubt thinking of when I jotted this down. But what if we treated OURSELVES as the people we ought to be, the people we know we are capable of becoming? Today I’m going to treat myself as the happy genius of my household, the famously productive writer, Bethany Reid.
Thank you and goodbye…to the boot
Since breaking my ankle on March 9, I have been wearing an orthopedic boot. Today, I was allowed to take the damn thing off — for good! The break in the fibula is healed. The injury to the talus (or talar dome) is healing and doesn’t need the boot any longer. I’m supposed to take it easy, put my foot up when I can, take Ibuprofen and use ice at the end of the day…oh, and go slow in getting back at the gym. Thank you, boot, for the help, but I will no longer be requiring your services.
On the novel, as of this morning, 6,619 words. (Thank you, broken ankle, for slowing me down and helping me to finish PEARL’S ALCHEMY and start something new. But I will no longer be requiring your services.)
Progress on all fronts.
Advice to Writers – You’re A Boxer
You’re a boxer. Your job is to get punched in the face and keep swinging. It’s easy for anybody to say, “I wrote five scripts. None of them sold. I gave it my best shot. I’m moving back to Chicago.” You can’t do that. If you want a career in Hollywood, you can’t fail. You can quit, which most people do when they don’t achieve success as quickly as they’d like, but you can’t fail. There are as many opportunities as you can create for yourself. You can write a script a day, every day, for your whole life, if you’re that motivated.
ADAM RIFKIN (Quote reblogged from AdviceToWriters – Advice to Writers – You’re A Boxer.)
stubborn little me, at three
This quote touched a nerve for me. Many years ago I wanted a child and had pretty much exhausted all attempts to have one the usual way. Then infertility treatment failed. At least, what we could afford to pursue failed. My husband is older than I am and we weren’t eligible for adoption agencies. Then I learned about private adoption. Then our first adoption failed, at the hospital. Devastating.
But this is what I realized: I couldn’t fail. I was not willing to give up being a mother. “Not in this lifetime maybe,” a friend counseled me. I got mad. Bullshit, I thought. In this lifetime! We put our hearts out there again, and our oldest daughters, twins, appeared. Six years later, their sister showed up.
My daughters may drive me crazy (some days), but I never regret being their mom.
That’s how I’m going to pursue this writing gig, this new, full-time writing gig. I can’t fail. “There are as many opportunities as you can create for yourself.”