Last week in the Warren household, we had what I call, “Warren Life-Planning Class.” It was mandatory attendance, taught by the parents to the four now-nearly-grown young adults. Who may or may not have some challenges with time management (a.k.a missing college classes) and financial planning (a.k.a an excess in pizza purchases). I didn’t expect perfection – I just wanted to overview HOW to manage your life and time. I started with making them write their obituaries. Probably not a great idea. Peter wrote: “Peter Warren died after taking the Warren Life-Planning Class.” Nice, real nice. But, it did get across one concept….everything they do now matters. Every choice they make feeds into the next one. Every habit they make embeds into the outcome of their life. And every decision […]
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Taking Stock of 2011
Time to belly up… how’d your writing goals fair in 2011? Did you set goals? Did you keep track? Did you succeed? Even a little bit? I bet you did. Come on now, if you wrote one page toward your writing goal of completing a novel, you’ve succeeded a little bit. A very little bit, but you did something. We have a tendency to stick our heads in the sand when we think we’ve failed at our goals. At attempting our dreams. Why confirm that silent but deep down fear: “I’m a failure.” By taking stock of our goals, our success and failures, enables us to move forward with a better grasp of where we are and why. Often when reviewing a goal, we find we didn’t fail as much […]
Read the RestGiving Thanks – The MBT Voices Ezine hits the stands!
A year ago, right now, I was flat on my back in bed, in terrible, unabating pain. I had slipped a disk in my neck while shoveling and within hours was in the fetal position. I stayed that way for three weeks, and I am still in weekly therapy to maintain healing. I remember, at one point of too many sleepless nights, just weeping with fatigue and crying out to the Lord for relief. It was then I remembered the testimony of a fellow author who had struggled with devastating life-altering pain and how she coped with it. She praised God. I’ll never forget her words as she told me how she turned her eyes upward in her darkest hour, and despite the absence of any relief before her, she […]
Read the RestCounting the cost of the writing life
We spend a lot of time here at My Book Therapy and in the writing industry talking about craft, networking, marketing, promoting, and the general way to write a book. Panster, plotter, planster (plotter and panster combination.) But what we don’t discuss much is the cost of giving your life to writing. Especially to writing fiction. There’s a price tag, and while I love what I do, there are days I “feel” the price I’ve paid. I have no co-workers. I sit in my lovely tower, which I adore, alone every single day. Sometimes the phone never rings for me. I may not get a personal email or friendly phone call for days. My family lives out of my state. I don’t have children. My life is carved out perfectly […]
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