I’m sure that in the last seven days, you set several goals. Some of those you feel confident you can achieve. Others appear to be quite a stretch. It’s like trying to run a marathon on hot coals with no shoes. No way in blazes you’ll finish that race. Don’t worry. There is hope, so keep reading. Now comes the fun part. You get to throw each of those goals on the chopping block and whack away. The intent is not to destroy those goals you worked so hard last week to set, but rather to chop them up into manageable pieces. You wouldn’t think of putting an entire tree trunk in the fireplace all at once. Neither should you think of doing that with your goals. You have to […]
Read the RestTag Archives | Motivation
Make 2012 Count, Part 1: Take Time to Set Goals!
Are you planning what you want to accomplish in 2012 yet? If not, you should be. Want to get published? Plan for it. Want to write that knockout novel? Great. What are you setting in place that will insure you get there? Over these next three weekends, I’ll walk you through what you need to do to make 2012 a banner year of accomplishment, satisfaction and fulfillment. How will you know where to go and what to do if you don’t take time to mentally MapQuest your year? That just wouldn’t be right. You owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and your future readers to set yourself up for success. Ready to build your stellar year? Let’s get started.
Read the RestSeven Things Every Writer Must Do, Part Three: Remove Roadblocks
I’ve worked helping people maneuver past obstacles for most of my adult life. I’ve heard thousands of stories from men and women whose journeys came to halt because obstacles blocked their path. Over the years I learned many things about these roadblocks that will help you as a writer to remove them from your life. Here are a few of them. Roadblocks are rarely insurmountable. It’s true. Even those precision positioning of police cruisers to stop fleeing crooks. In fact, one reasons cops don’t use roadblocks much anymore is because the bad guy can maneuver past them. The same applies to your writing journey. When a roadblock shows up in the middle of your path, remember there is a way around it, over it, or through it. Remember that […]
Read the RestHow to Craft the Motivation for a Noble Quest
How do you build a powerful Noble Quest for your character, launching him off into his Second Act Journey with enough motivation, yet enough reward waiting at the end? This section of your story is pivotal because you must have built enough Want for your character to propel him through all the obstacles and disappointments of Act 2, all the way to the Black Moment. Often, when we don’t believe in a character, if they seem “too stupid to live,” it’s because we haven’t built enough WANT. This can be solved by using the Push-Pull Technique. I’ve heard them called MRU – Motivation, Reaction Units. This technique is more about building a solid motivation to convince us of the Reaction and can easily be added to the MRU technique. Again, […]
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