To Write: Go Boldly Toward Your Dreams 

K. Wordbird Bate  The Writer's Life Coach

    A truth about the life of a professional writer: when someone pays you to write, you are forced every day to do exactly what you want to be doing.

     Case in point: today I "had" to go to the library to keep up with the new books, check some facts and look for information. Then I "had" to sit at the coffee shop to do my daily free writing, compose some lists and focus my goals. I then biked home in the glorious weather, because I "have" to have energy and health to do this work. I "must" see what's going on in town, and keep up social contacts. Once home, I pull out my own reference books on writing, which I "had" to buy. They help me write this Inspiration, which I "must" write. Then I deal with phone calls, emails, and Internet research on topics that fascinate me.

     It's terrible. Yet it has to be done.

     I did work hard and long to get to this place. I endure the usual stresses and pressures that accompany most any line of work. Yet, as my incredible writing mentor Larry Sutin often said, "NO whining. I don't want to hear whining. You spend all day doing the thing you most love. Many people spend their day filing papers, knocking on doors, or as a lawyer they no longer want to be. Let's hear GRATITUDE."  Larry was a fountain of forthright and golden advice.  Knowing him was something else I "had" to do:  Find someone skilled, and humble myself to learn and grow under their tutelage.

     Other things I sludge through in my writing career?  I must watch, read, and talk about the news. I work on vocabulary and editing skills. I stop by the bookstore to scope out who is writing what. I meet with people who think and speak well, because they force me to seriously hone my thinking and expression. I take classes and attend lectures to keep up my skills (for instance, MAC gives a free workshop on the new Apple computers. I just attended one of those). I make sure my Internet skills increase. I also have to actually make a living. I coach writing, tutor, design classes, edit the work of others, coordinate projects, ghost write and whatever else I'm offered to do. Finally, I need to keep up with small business tax and paperwork issues. (A true "have to.")

    The promise is if you follow your bliss, as the great Joseph Campbell says, your daily life becomes filled with things and people about which you are passionate. Then, no matter the difficulty or challenge, it's your passion, so you are happy to tackle it. When you go to sleep at night, your mind is busy sorting experiences with things and people you love. Life does not become simple or perfect. It does become blessed.

      Whether your passion is space exploration or baking bread, mechanics or the Peace Corp, follow your bliss. If you want to be a writer, a painter or a candlestick maker, go forth boldly in the direction of your dreams (Thoreau). One step at a time, build the life you want.

Let Yourself Bloom!

© Kimberly Bate                                                                            

Photo by Off my front porch