I hope you’re not looking to me for the answers to these questions. The reasons for negativity stretch into endless debate. The experiences of persecution, recrimination, religious teachings, as well as nearly countless other forms of input, shape our life views.

One of the most common experiences I’ve witnessed in my lifetime are the people who must reduce the stature of others followed by an immediate building up of their own. Most of these people perform this act of character assassination and personal build up in a practiced, unthinking manner. They often show themselves to be clueless as to what they are doing.

I’m not speaking of ‘big-ticket’ life items here, either. These people nitpick the smallest, most innocuous of statements a person in their presence may make. They make a quick, judgmental comment on the statement, then follow with their point of view on the matter.

This low-level brow beating beats a positive perspective person down over time. The sad part of this equation becomes the destruction of a positive, upbeat view of the world. With all the persecution and recrimination in the world, it is little wonder negativity holds so much sway. Yet, even more so, the negativity within the world’s religions runs rampant through a world not simply littered with negativity, but plastered with it.

I understand that positives exist in the plethora of world religions.  However, often these intended positives are mired in fiefdom protection which is one form of self preservation and personal elevation. Again, I reiterate that I hope you are not looking to me in this post to hand out any answers. My goal here is to state something people appear fearful to state; negativity permeates everything we touch and experience, most everyone recognizes it, but few are willing to change, to step away from negativity, mostly because their inner ‘eye’ does not even recognize how they tear others down.

After 53 years of observation, I have come to at least one major conclusion: this negative dominance appears in every relationship paradigm imaginable – families, churches, work places, playground, sports teams, civic groups, non profits, corporations – the list goes on and on and on.

My observations on life at this point, again, 53 years in, and again, my observations, are that the most gratifying successes I’ve witnessed and experienced stemmed from positivity in some form. Whether individual positive determination, group teamwork, corporate teamwork, or simple smiles and appreciations of life, positivity remains key to progressive success.

Those who opt for the negative, domineering, destruction driven formulas to further their agendas deliver misery. The larger the undertaking, the larger the misery. A collective of people all working for the good of others and for positive results do not rule this world.

Sad, isn’t it? We possess such a tiny snippet of time to live and breathe and so much of this precious life struggles to persevere through the negativities that surround us, permeate us, infect us, and in the end, destroy us.

Possibilities. Each of us have nearly infinite opportunities to explore. We close off so many of them because of negative voices from without and/or within. We allow ourselves to crumble with the weight of someone else’s thumb on our soul, or we struggle to shrug off past criticisms that told us we were unworthy of moving forward.

What would a world look like where people looked for the best in others? What if we could wake up each day excited about the new discovery we would make about this life? What if we could love without fear of pain and rejection?

Yes, as soon as the questions go that direction, you felt it, right? Somewhere, deep inside, you see no hope for that for this world. Yes, some religions offer this hope either after our death or in one gestalt historical event to come. Yet what issues forth from these religions? Finger-pointing? Judgmentalism? An ‘I’m-right-and-all-others-are-mistaken’ mentality? The answers are in how we vote? The answers are in what brand of religion we partake of? The answers are in atheism?

Have you ever stopped to ponder the millions if not billions of differing ideologies and perspectives on this planet? Each touts they have “the answer” in some way, shape, or form. But even within the confines of philosophies and religions, the fragmented and fractured coalitions appear to hold a tenuous if not desperate allegiance to those within their tenets.

I find it difficult to look at this whole world-ball-of-wax disparity with positive thought. Our increased communication technology only rains more tsunamis of negativity on our psyches rather than positive possibilities. Or focus in news has been negativity from the outset. Positive news does not “appeal” to the masses, except in few-and-far-between snippets.

Possibilities. Positive news that shapes communities and people with only a few-and-far-between negative? Positive news that inspires and excites people to achieve higher and greater things for the good of all? Positive statements that lift others up minute by minute, day by day. Becoming aware of people’s struggles and selflessly taking a moment to invest in their short trek on this planet?

What a shame we tend to want that which we do not possess. What a shame greed and maliciousness pervades our thoughts and motivations. Come on – you don’t think those voices have contaminated your heart, your brain?

Yet, despite these voices that appear to taint everyone on some level, there are those people who contemplate the possibilities. I have no answers for you. But I do have a suggestion. Explore the possibility that the kind word, smile, or even thought you manifest today is an underdog blow against the norm. I suggest you examine your motivation before you speak. I suggest you consider whether your words lift up or tear down at the very basic levels of communication. I suggest you consider the look on your face and your posture as to what they communicate. Positivity or negativity?

I suggest you take the time to consider possibilities and look at them from a progressive, positive view. Nothing will change in our world until we change ourselves. This is why I have no answers. All I can change is myself.

When I accomplish this, the possibilities become endless, until my exit from this world…

I give you those numbers not to boast but to let you know my writing life has not always been this productive. Over the past decade, my writing consistency has sputtered. I’ve hit periods of high output then low to nonexistent output. Usually during the high output times, I’m in the throes of writing a book. Once the manuscript finds completion, my productivity falls off.

What I’m about to give you most likely sounds very familiar to your inner ear. Your mind. Your heart. That is, if you are anything like me. I am a walking testimony to the saying “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

I’ve been listening to the advice I’m about to deliver to you for years, but I never applied this knowledge to my heart until this year. Please do yourself a favor, open your mind, your heart, your will, and consider taking this advice:

1) When you say you have no time to write, realize what you are saying to yourself. The truth is, writing 750 words takes around 15 to 25 minutes of your time. Realize you are selling yourself short. Realize the truth. You have 15 to 25 minutes each day. You simply DO NOT CHOOSE TO USE THESE MINUTES TO WRITE!

I am not aiming to be harsh, just honest. The FIRST thing you must to to increase your writing volume is to create a shift in your thinking. All change begins in your thoughts. First and foremost, stop the thoughts that say “I need to…, I have to…, I should do…” and replace the phrasing to simply. “I desire to…”.

Catch yourself when you think, write or speak these words I call “pressure words”. Have to, need to, should do – all beat you down before you begin. In order to get to the next of the three steps, YOU MUST CHANGE YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES! Otherwise, you will stay mired in the same rut of ‘no time’.

We’re all busy. Yet some of us write loads of words and others complain of no time. Often, the folk writing tons of words appear busier than those who don’t. Everything begins with your thoughts. Change your mindset.

2) Commit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you’ve heard this before. That does not change the validity of the statement. Commit to your writing like a lover. Come on! You know you love writing! But you treat writing like some vagabond streetwalker. Treat your writing like a lover. Commit to her/him. Breathe life and passion back into your heart.

When you commit yourself in this manner to your writing, combined with the change in mindset that says “I am doing this!”, you will find you go directly to the third step.

3) Action. Yes, there will be voices inside your head that still attempt to derail you. Voices that say you should wash the dishes or do this chore or that. Voices that will tell you how poor your writing is. These voices need to be disregarded. Remember the first step. CHANGE YOUR THOUGH PATTERNS. Don’t allow these inner voices to thwart you. If you must (and I have had to do this on many occasions), tell those voices, “Yes, I am writing crap – but I’m writing and it will get better.”

If you think those nearly 50,000 words I wrote in February were all pristine and perfect, I have loads of swampland I’d like to sell you. As you exercise your body, your muscles tone and improve. So too, your writing skills. Take action. Grab a pen, pencil, crayon, computer, smart-phone, anything that will assist you in your act of writing.

There are loads of other tools you can use to help you write, but successfully adopting these three will have you well on your way to increasing your writing output. Change your thought process to first-person-present-tense (I desire…), commit to your lovely writing as a lover, and take action – WRITE!

Please consider liking my Facebook Pages:

ClearView Press Inc

Author Page

Loves Lost and Found

New Novel Page – The Method Writers

My latest books:

Rock Your Business! Your Book as YOUR Business Card!

Poetry in Black and White

As writers, we do not truly live under a writing curse, we actually create the curse ourselves. In these past few months of writing diligently, I have noted the actual writing time required is minimal. In four hours time, if I truly wrote a solid four hours, I could knock out 6000 to 8000 words a day. I still have twenty hours to sleep and handle all the other chores on the business list.

Those numbers stare at me like some gaudy Christmas tree bauble. Heck, at those numbers what could I accomplish in a week? Amazing flights of fancy, insightful blogs, crafted short stories, poems to toy with readers’ hearts? Absolutely. That finicky entity we call time, though, sneaks around and loses itself in emails, Facebook, contemplation, household chores, distractions, and numerous other venues that take me away from what I desire to accomplish with respect to writing.

Writing absolutely requires time to think, to mull over ideas and concepts, sometimes simply to recharge. My observation, and I won’t accuse you, dear reader, but myself, my observation reveals I waste a ton of time. I need a balance between actual writing time and thinking time and leisure time and house time. This calls for that nasty word to many of us – discipline.

Writing will trap you into thinking you have no time. I have learned that I have time for those activities on which I place a high priority. Too often as writers we belittle our calling and allow other activities to take precedence. When we take writing on as a vocation, we must understand we have entered a business environment. This fact dictates a certain level of discipline.

For this blog I gave myself 15 minutes to complete. I received a call from my business coach (I highly recommend you get one if you are serious about writing…) at the thirteen minute mark. The call lasted three minutes. I now set the ‘stopwatch’ feature running on my iPhone to determine how long it takes me to kick out my blogs. My fifteen minute guesstimate fell short, so now I have a better idea of how long it takes for me to compose my blog.

As I wind this down, I would like you to consider doing the same thing. Begin timing your actual writing to get a good feel for how long it takes to knock out a particular activity. Once I finish with the text here, I still must set up links, add a pic (virtually a must for blogs these days), and promote the post on my social media. At this point, not counting the phone call, I have put twenty minutes into this writing.

I estimate another five minutes to handle the links and pic and promo stuff. From this point forward, I will allow myself thirty minutes to complete my blogs. I will allow twenty-five minutes to write and five minutes for the links, pics, and promo. One small step on the way to good writing time management.

Loves Lost and Found

(Unfortunately, a bathroom break and a thirty five minute search for a pic caused this blog to go way over the time limits I set. Fortunately, my next project, a post to my serial fiction story on Fiction’s Footsteps only took me nineteen minutes to complete…)

At my last mastermind meeting with five other entrepreneurs, I learned that Henry Ford didn’t know how to create much of what his company dreamed up in the early days. He simply surrounded himself with go-getter type people of high knowledge who could take his ideas and make them into reality. In effect, he assembled a mastermind group.

These groups benefit everyone in  the group. The idea is to take the strengths of each person to forge a collective momentum in a positive direction. Too often we are told we need to work on our weaknesses, forsaking our strengths. When we focus on shoring up our weak points, too often our highest level of achievement is mediocrity. Why not take our strengths and run with them and find people whose strength is our weakness and partner with them?

United States society has fallen too far into a selfish mode. We do not want to partner with others because we fear they will take advantage of our weaknesses. While this undoubtedly has occurred, I would say most of the time the betrayal happened the root cause was that a relationship was not created and fostered. Mastermind groups call for honesty and integrity.

I’ve been running a writing mastermind group for 5 years – the Rogues Gallery Writers. I do not so much ‘run’ the group, as much as I came up with the idea, sold the idea to a number of outstanding writers, and we meet every single week to go over how we’re doing in our individual projects as well as working on group projects. We’ve now created four, FOUR, books together as a group. Individually, we all have seen success as writers to a certain level, and our horizon looks pretty good right now.

The synergy created in a mastermind group can elevate members to accomplish tasks they may never have dreamed about on their own, nor attempted without, at the minimum, simple moral support. In this day of hectic, digitized media and changing formats, specialized expertise coming together for a common goal only makes perfect sense.

The beauty of creating such a group today with all the digital tools at our disposal is we do not have to meet in person. Yes, physically meeting together is optimum, but with Skype and my favorite, Oovoo, we can at least meet face to face and hear each others’ voices. The Rogues have used this while one of our members went to Michigan for three months. We did not miss a beat. Sure, once she came back, we were elated to meet in person again, but our meetings online still produced a ton of results both tangible – like completed projects, and intangible – like helping each other through some emotionally grinding times.

Critical to a mastermind group’s success is the dedication to help each other out as much as possible with ideas and brainstorming and support. Each member of the group walks into a meeting knowing they will receive honest feedback on whatever issue is brought forward. For issues of hurdles to overcome, each member knows the group will percolate ideas that hopefully will set them on the path to solution.

Please consider finding a group of four to six people you know who might meet once a week for an hour to brainstorm and lend a hand to a fellow entrepreneur. I believe you will find the mastermind group not only beneficial, as I have, but also a necessity.

As an author, I know the following books would not have come into being without the help of my mastermind group.

Fatherhood 101: Bonding Tips for Building Loving Relationships

Loves Lost and Found

Writing is Easy

More Writing is Easy

Poetry in Black and White

Rock Your Business! – Your Book as YOUR Business Card (Available March 5, 2012)

Poetry typically is not an easy sell when it comes to books. I learned this with my first book of poetry, Loves Lost and Found. From a layout and content standpoint, the book works very well. Loves Lost and Found comes loaded with colorful full-page pics of acrylic paintings by artist Tracy McDurmon. Her paintings depict her interpretation of the poems within the book.

Personally, I love the book. For twenty-eight years my dream for the poetry I wrote in the early 1980′s was to find an artist to interpret my written works through visual art. When Tracy and I teamed up on this project, we determined it would be a ‘labor of love’ in that we committed to producing the absolute best product possible. We understood making money on the book was a long shot. As a publisher, I contracted with an awesome printer in Michigan, 360 Digital, to produce a limited run of 30 softcover and 30 hardcover books, in full, vibrant color, on 100# high gloss paper, and in an 8.5×11 trim size.

Since I insisted on such high quality paper and the vibrant color on 8.5×11 sizing, the cost of these books came in a bit high. In order to simply recoup the investment in the books, we would have to sell through the first print run and order a second, sell through all of them, and finally the book would be profitable.

ClearView Press Inc. only has a few copies of the original print run left. Last year, I decided CVP would make Loves Lost and Found accessible on a lower ‘price point’ basis, so I released the book printed on regular 55# normal paper. To my surprise, the colors remain vibrant and I was able to reduce print costs enough to get the softcover price down to a more reasonable $16.95. So far, the book has not sold in the new paper format, but as I get out and participate in poetry book signings, my hope is to create an interest in the book.

The new poetry book, Poetry in Black and White, borrows the same premise of artistic interpretation of my poetry, this time through the lens of photographer Ella Forest. Originally, I intended the interior art to come from sketch artists. I desired pencil and charcoal art interpretations to adorn the new book. Also, the poetry in this book comes from more recent work.

Unfortunately, the three artists I requested to work on the project could not produce the work. Just when I thought the project would fade into a memory, my office manager came across a photographer who really wanted to take on the task. Skepticism ran high on my part. I could not connect the creative dots that would allow a photographer to interpret my poetry through black and white photos.

My gut told me to give it a whirl. The project basically lay dead on the floor at that point anyway. Ella came across enthusiastic and with a can-do attitude.  Within six weeks, I was astounded at her eye for interpretive photography. I ‘got it’. I am amazed at how she went about depicting the poetic messages through photography. Ella does masterful work, and I am now a believer.

One last snafu snarled up the Poetry in Black and White project. When we uploaded the book to the printer, we accidentally put it on cream paper instead of the more flattering white, and some of the photos were not at the proper resolution. I felt Ella’s photos deserved better, so publication of the book was delayed nearly two months. I believe the end product is well worth the wait.

One of my other books I will be signing is my book on fatherhood titled: Fatherhood 101 – Bonding Tips for Building Loving Relationships. I wrote this book because I felt I had some credentials, namely, six children. Writing this book, my first, entailed me documenting everything I did to bond with my new baby pre-birth through 18 months. We offer this book through CVP’s website $1.50 off what Amazon and Barnes and Noble charge. Plus you get it autographed…

So now, Friday March 2, 2012, I get to unveil the new poetry book at the Flagler Beach First Friday event. I must give a huge shout out to Nadine King (no relation) at Christmas Come True for sponsoring the event signing at A Frame of Mind. Nadine does awesome work for underprivileged families with her 501(c)3 – Christmas Come True. If you happen to be looking for a worthwhile charity, please check out her organization. I’ve known Nadine for a couple of years now, and I have watched her dream of getting Christmas Come True off the ground, materialize.

Anyone local to the Flagler Beach, FL area, come on out to First Friday and make sure you stop by and see me at my poetry (and other) book signing!!! First Friday lasts from like 5:00pm until 8:00pm. Come on out!

To begin, make sure you have a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon account. There may be others you wish to include like Pinterest, but I use the above four most. In a WordPress.com blog, you can link your posts to only one Facebook account. I link my appropriate blog with a similarly matched Facebook page that has followers. Whenever I post, these Facebookers potentially see my blog post.

But what about those people on my personal page? After I post my blog, I go back and place the link on my personal Facebook page. This exposes my blog post to more people (at the moment) because my personal page currently has more followers than my specialized page.

StumbleUpon has led to outrageous (for me) exposure to a number of things I’ve written. Again, after I’ve written and posted my blog, I go out to StumbleUpon and present that particular blog post. I’ve learned that keywords are critical, both in the main post and the ‘advertisements’ of the post on other social media. In one recent post, I used keywords in the title, then used the same keywords a couple times each in the first three sentences of the first paragraph of my post. Then I sprinkled the keywords a few more times throughout the article. I used the keywords in my tags.

When I posted this article on StumbleUpon using the same tags and a brief three sentence description of the blog post (again using the keywords), I received 807 hits in 24 hours on my blog. Another article I wrote scarfed up a couple thousand hits off StumbleUpon. While most of the time I see much smaller numbers from StumbleUpon (like single digit), for the minute spent placing the post on the site, I feel there is worth to the time spent.

If you’re not Tweeting each blog whenever you post, you are missing out on a load of potential attention to your site. Granted your topic must be something people want to read, and your subject/title must grab with great keywords, but if you are handling all that properly, why are you not using the social media tools that will bring folks to your writing?

Look, no one is going to skewer you if you choose not to publicize your posts. My question, though, states, “Why are you writing if you don’t want people to come read?” Take the three or four minutes it takes after each post to make sure you ‘publicize’ your blog posts on all the appropriate social media.

I bring up appropriate because of LinkedIn. Be aware that LinkedIn is a professional community. You should absolutely post business related posts to this social media site. But if you are posting something not related to your business account on LinkedIn, I would recommend you refrain from posting that particular blog post on their site. You must determine whether your post is appropriate for the business community of LinkedIn or not.

Use keywords. Load these keywords into the first paragraph of your blog post and sprinkle them throughout your post. Use all the social media sites at your disposal to get word out about your post. Make sure your subject/title grab people’s attention. There are many, many other ways to pump up the volume on your blog. These are merely a few simple ones.

Check out my new book, Poetry in Black and White at BarnesandNoble.com! The book cover is not uploaded by B&N yet, but the book is available for sale! B&N is actually offering $1.00 off right now, which is pretty cool of them! They have the book online for $8.99. I’ll write a little about the new book in tomorrow’s blog… Here are a few of my other books:

Loves Lost and Found

Fatherhood 101: Bonding Tips for Building Loving Relationships

Writing is Easy

Have a great blogging day!

This blog, my author site, will be the second blog I get on board with consistency. The first is truly not a blog but a journal. I committed on January 1, 2012 to write a minimum of 750 words a day. I stumbled across 750Words.com last year and noted its brilliant simplicity. I’ve written Nanowrimo and completed a 50,000 word manuscript in 3 of the 5 years I’ve entered.

Why not write those numbers all year long? Why wait for November and Nanowrimo to motivate me? I did not make this commitment as part of any New Year’s Resolution. In fact, I purposefully wrote zero, nada, nothing, on New Year’s Day. I have written at least 750 words every day this year since, though. I must tell you, it feels good. I am in a groove.

This is that aspect of writing I was missing. I’ve always been serious about writing, but the commitment to roll my sleeves up all blue-collar-like has been hit and miss. Now, I see the light and wish to pass it on to you.

You hear it from many, many, many successful writers – write every day. Yes, I’ve played the game of, “oh, staring out the window setting up plot lines and characters is writing” statements. Yes, I agree, that is writing, but the discipline virtually required commitment to put words on something, your screen, your paper, your napkin, whatever.

I poo-pooed the necessity to physically write every day for years. “That’s not how I work,” I would say. “That may be good for that writer but for me…” another of my favorite cop outs. Look, as writers, I mean someone desiring to be a writer who supports themselves on their writing, we MUST create the desire to write every day.

I have achieved this now for 57 consecutive days. Here’s how I’ve done it. I purchased a 4′x5′ white board and mounted it across from my desk. I wrote across the top, “I DESIRE to do the following!!” Underneath, each day, I write what I desire to accomplish in my writing.

Too often we say to ourselves as writers, “I need to get this done by such-and-such time.” Or, “I have do get this project done.” Or, “I can’t seem to write my blogs, I don’t have time.”

I could attack each one of those in many ways, but a simple mind shift eliminates their debilitating power. I simply replace the critical verbs with the word DESIRE. AND I MEAN IT! “I desire to get this done by such-and-such time.” Or, I desire to get this project done.” Or, “I desire to write my blogs, I’ll make time.”

I have found it amazing what changing a simple word can mean to your writing life. I sincerely write these things down. As I write my 750 words each day, (most of them appear to be pure garbage and I do not care, they are assisting me in writing better words later), I will often catch myself and change the “need to” and the “have to” statements to “desire” statements.

Folks, you have to want this. I’ve painted myself into a financial corner by going all-in on writing. Writing for a living is my dream. You must pick yourself up at some point and make things happen. One of the wild things I’ve found is the more I write, the more attention my writing gets. Those who consistently stay at it make their dreams happen.

I heard this same preaching from writers for years, heck, a decade. Sometimes we just have to get there when we get there. Please, if you dream of being a writer, jump in. Don’t wait and wait and wait to fully commit yourself. If there is one piece of advise I can honestly give you, commit to writing tens of thousands of words a month. I wrote just shy of 40,000 words in January. This month, as of this writing, I over 45,000.

I key around 1500 to 2000 words an hour. Two hours a day = 3000 to 4000 words a day. Multiply those numbers by 30 days and the numbers are astounding. This blog is running a bit long on words because I have a lot to say today. If I’m writing 3000 words a day and my average blog is 500 words, I could easily write three blogs a day and still have 1500 to 2500 words for my books a day!

Do the math on that folks! 2000 words a day on a book over thirty days it 60,000 words! This is two hours a day people! A person could be working a full time job and do this! Yes, there is outlining to do and other writing tasks, but you get my drift by this point.

Blogging consistently takes commitment, but more important, from my experience, blogging consistently takes desire. One simple word. Change your attitude and change your life. Tomorrow I will go over some tricks you can use to get attention to your blog. How’s that for commitment!

Final notes. Combined with my 750 words I wrote first off today, I am now over 1700 words for the day.

As any writer knows, making money is tough in this business, so after each post, I will suggest you support your favorite writers. There are many ways to do this. One is to forward or reblog a post you like. Get the writer out in front of others. Another is to purchase a book written by your author. Folks, it is most often better for the author if you buy direct from them. Amazon and all these retailers are greedy, and depending on the publisher, the author may not get much of your dollar. Please consider helping out the folk who write the content you enjoy reading.

In my case, I prefer you buy from my company, ClearView Press Inc.com. That hyperlink takes you directly to our bookstore.

For those who prefer Barnes and Noble, the following are links to some good books, some mine, some authors I like.

Fatherhood 101:Bonding Tips for Building Loving Relationships

Loves Lost and Found

Writing is Easy

Flight From Fear

Earth Cell

Motherhood is Easy

The Accidental Diet – From Fugly to Fox

Amazing what we can do once we purpose to accomplish something. I thought I needed ten thousand words to finish up a small book I’m writing. I allowed the thought of the word count to keep me away from the project for three days. WHY? I wish I knew. I’ve been writing at a 3000 word per day clip lately. Three days and I would be done. But once I let the first two slip by, I decided I would sit down and kick in some serious words.

Once I rolled into the project, I found that 3000 words were all that were necessary to complete the first draft. Too often we allow the mere thought of something to dissuade us from something we truly desire to accomplish. Or, maybe I’m the only writer this happens to.

I read a great quote from a wonderful writer today. Hope Clark posted this on Facebook: “It isn’t you don’t have time. It’s that you don’t want to make time. We all share the same 24 hours, just making different choices.”
I connect with this quote. I get it. I write a lot. I write every single day. I chose to go ‘all-in’ on my writing. I chose to go for broke, damn the torpedoes and all that gibberish.

This commitment is not without its trepidation. I struggle to make ends meet, but I am doing what I love. So, to have my wicked mind trick me into dreading a project becomes absurd. Just more proof of the quirkiness of writers. We balk at the most inopportune times. We dash off and write like crazed beings at times and in places many would find non-conducive to production.

I know I’ve been hitting this “write-every-day” mantra lately, but folks, it works. Don’t delude yourself that every day will produce incredible works of art. As I’ve noted in a couple previous posts, my first thirty days or so of this commitment produced writing I wouldn’t show my dog. Yet out of those same thirty days I’ve produced some pretty decent poetry, breathed life into five of my blogs, bumped my Hub Pages articles up a few notches and now completed another book.

What it takes is established committed desire to reach your goal. I’ve heard this for a dozen years. I’ve sporadically flirted with committed desire and produced four books. Now that I am truly in the groove of commitment, I see clearly I could have been doing this all along.

I know, I know. All things come in their time. My time still took a committed desire to get there. Making that choice to go for your dreams regardless of conventional wisdom yields results. The results may not pay my bills. I may not be able to sustain myself on what I write. All true. I have noted in my life, however, that those who aspire and achieve their dreams most often have histories of bankruptcy, destitution financially, and struggle to get by day to day.

This is not for everyone. The more we fight ourselves, the less we get done. Once you give yourself over to pursuing your dream, the simplicity reveals itself. The fear that precedes this decision cripples us – tells us we will fail – whispers how foolish we’re being in our ears.

Stand up to this inner demon/voice/spoilsport. As I wrote previously, write down the words “I desire to…” and place the names of your projects in the blank. Read this out loud. Allow yourself to truly desire the accomplishment. The moment you feel that desire kick in, let nothing distract you from beginning the task. Once you’re under way, wild editors couldn’t drag you away.

Completion of a first draft manuscript feels good, whatever length – short story, poem, novella, book. Feed off that success and go for more. I tell you in all honesty, if I can do this, so can you. Like Hope Clark’s quote said, “We all share the same 24 hours, just making different choices.” Step out and make your choices stick. If you don’t make the choice to pursue your dreams, someone else will choose to fill that time with their agendas.

If you feel so inclined, please check out my other books:

Fatherhood 101: Bonding Tips for Building Loving Relationships

Loves Lost and Found

The Robinsons Wished They Had A Ship Like This...

Dr. Zachary Smith from the television show Lost in Space, would lament that phrase over and over. You simply loved to hate his cowardice, laziness, and scheming ways. I never liked it when he came into a scene. A gut reaction sent a ‘repulse’ signal to my brain and I was always rewarded with dire consequences of his presence. I always wondered why they didn’t just kill the dude. I’m sure it was because this was a family show and they needed a constant adversary.

Over time though, I lost some of my respect for the Robinsons. After having dealt with this jerk all that time, you would think they would not trust him for a moment, yet invariably he would be put in charge of something significant.

Sometimes I feel this is what I do to myself. I am like the crew of a ‘writing ship’. I have multiple personalities. I can be Will Robinson. I can be his father. I can even be Will’s sister, Penny when I write from a female point of view. I can also be Dr. Zachary Smith. I’ll be honest. I get into doldrums that tell me writing is a foolhardy business and if I were smart, I’d bail out now and go work some corporate job the rest of my life.

The “woe is me” Dr. Smith attitude will eat a writer up. To maintain a positive, directional, intentional writing career, there are a number of things I feel a writer should incorporate in their endeavors. One is a writing regimen. I hear writers all the time say they cannot write every day or don’ t need to write every day. I also see many of these same writers struggling to produce. It is no secret that writing every day brings positive writing achievements.

I began writing every day on the site 750words.com on January 2, 2012. I had played around with the site in 2011 with some success, so I set my sights on 2012 with intention. I will write 365 days in a row this year, at least 750 words. Since this is a leap year, I get the full compliment of days for a normal year.

The first 35 to 40 days of writing every day on 750 Words produced more garbage than anything. I basically used the site for ranting about things I cannot control. About a week ago, I broke out of that slump and hit stride. The feeling is like that of a distance runner. You get that horrible side stitch, but once you get past it, life is great!

My productivity is skyrocketing. I am seeing more writing, more stories and more desire creep up in me with these simple steps.

I determined to write 750 words every day and I have.

I started writing down each day what I DESIRE to do. These desires are basically all the writing tasks I kept putting off, just wrapped in a positive package. I have found the more I write things like, “I desire to write a short story”, the more prone I am to do so. I really do desire to do this, but often life gets in the way and disconnects me from that desire. As soon as I write the desire, my emotions come in line with what I write and I am ready to get started!

I’ve found positive energy feeds itself. There comes a point where you feel giddy (ok, at least I do…) about writing and your prospects when you stay focused. The first thing I do each day is target a time to write my 750 words.

Another thing I do to pump up the desire is I write 5 things each day that I am grateful for. These items do not need to be extraordinary, just simple people, places, or things that fill you with gratitude.

Like Will Robinson, the positive affirmations pay of in the end. Anyone who once watched Lost in Space remembers that Will always looked for the best in everyone, even Dr. Zachary Smith. There has been a ton of stuff written about affirmations. I agree that positive affirmations impact your life in beneficial ways. Look at your writing projects you’ve been putting off. Somewhere, you desire to do them. Make that statement to yourself IN WRITING.

Write the ‘desire’ you want to accomplish regarding writing tasks on a white board, a poster board, a piece of paper, a blog. The simple act of writing what you desire can inspire you to toss aside life and objections and interruptions in order to accomplish your goals.

Step up and be Will Robinson. Tell Dr. Zachary Smith to take a hike…

Yep, that's my pinky finger going the wrong way...

So, I’m on a writing roll these days, right? I’m keying around 2000 words per day. Once you hit a consistent groove like that, nothing stops you from writing – even a broken finger.

Yep, that finger to the right is mine, the result of ‘schooling’ my 6’2″ fifteen-year-old son and his sixteen-year-old friend in a game of basketball. Yeah, two against one, at my age, and I still beat them! I should have stopped after the first game, but their challenge for another struck a nerve. I’m not yet willing to be “as good once as I ever was…”. After all, my son has yet to beat me on the court (although he is getting dangerously close).

Back to the finger. leading 6 to 5 (going by 1′s), I raced my son’s friend to a loose ball and jammed my finger. It just so happens that 37 years ago (did I just key that?) I dislocated the same pinky finger in much the same manner. The problem this day is that the emergency room folk told me, after

My un-lovely bones...

attempting to reset (reduce) the finger, I had destroyed the ligaments in the finger and I would most likely need surgery to repair the damage.

This xray shows what my finger looked like after the ER doctor attempted to ‘pull’ the finger back into joint. Note I keep keying the word “attempt”. At the ‘specialist’s’ office this afternoon, he was able to replace the finger to its proper joint position. Painful as it was, I am now keying in far less pain than this morning.

Yes, I AM A WRITER! I keyed in agony this morning with a dislocated finger splinted to the finger beside it. Effectively, I only had 8 fingers to work with. I still knocked out 1000 words. I had to stop every 30 to 45 seconds because the pain escalated too high to key continuously. Tonight, now that my finger is back in one piece, I have nine effective digits and only low-level pain.

Tough to key with this mess, eh?

My two fingers will be ‘buddy-taped’ for a week or so, but my word count will not suffer. My biggest concern now is a retort for my son and his friend to their taunt that they “sent me to the hospital”. All I have for them at this point? “Maybe so, but I still took the two of you down!”

In competition, whether on the court or with my streak of 37 consecutive days of keying around 2000 words a day, there is nothing like determination…