Day 9: #atozchallenge
Who doesn’t like a bit of fun inspiration once in a while? Here are a few of my favorites.
Do have favorite quotes that inspire you? Add them below in the comment section.
I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, and Contently
I have an attitude problem. How’s that for a Sunday morning confession?
No, I don’t have the bitchy attitude, although my husband might disagree and I’m not being haughty or arrogant.
Nope, the attitude problem I have, believe it or not, is one of discouragement and lack of faith. Not, the Faith, that’s another subject. Lack of faith in my ability to write.
My muse has left me high and dry, and the 40,000-word novel I’ve struggled with is taunting me each time I open the file. Prompts I used to enjoy doing are drawing a blank. It’s as if the words and thoughts in my brain have gone on vacation without me. An invite would’ve been nice.
I had the entire house to myself yesterday, and writing was on the agenda, but the ghost of my mother appeared. I ended up reorganizing my cabinets and scrubbing the surfaces clean till they sparkled. Yeah, those cabinets just had to be cleaned, three days before my housekeeper is due.
By the time I finished, the day was more than half gone, I was exhausted and had screwed up a knee. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening recuperating, bingeing on the Hallmark channel, and getting weepy over stupid stuff.
The truth is I didn’t want to write yesterday. And being a bit obsessive about my house, I welcomed the ghost of my mother. She’s the one I blame for that little personality trait. We learned early on; a clean house is a Southern woman’s obligation and an excuse to get out of anything.
Yep, right now, I have a piss-poor attitude about writing. And, to make matters worse, I’ve committed myself to the A-Z Blogging Challenge in April. Oh no, with my brain on vacation, I’m not feeling any pressure.
April is looming, and I needed to get out of this slump.
Self-help books of all kinds have always been a go-to resource for me. Over the years, I’ve saved encouraging and funny quotes for times just like these. So, this morning I searched out the old file out to get inspired. The first sheet I pulled from the folder had me wondering, but I persevered.
Really?
Then I discovered two of my all time favorites. A quote about Attitude, by Rev. Charles Swindoll and Faith (author unknown).
You can find the entire quote from Attitude by clicking on the link but here is an excerpt.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life…
It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill…
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have,
and that is our attitude.” Charles Swindoll
I encourage you to read the entire quote. It will give you an attitude adjustment. And as far as faith, well at some point we all have to believe.
Faith
When we walk to the edge of the light we have
And take that step into the darkness of the unknown;
We must believe that one of two things will happen –
There will be something solid for us to stand on
Or, God will teach us to fly!
I’ve always liked the idea of wings. What about you? Do you ever have doubts? I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilagood, and Contently.
I am honored, today, to be the featured blogger and winner of the contest, What Inspires Your Writing? I hope you will take the time to visit Timothy Pike’s blog, Dream Play Write. A writer, editor, and lover of words, Timothy is an inspiration.
You can find the link, “After Years of Hiding My Words From the World, I Have Found My Voice,” here.
If you’re wondering about the different looks my blog has had over the past week, it hasn’t been a mirage. And no, I don’t have multiple personalities. Although, based on, “I Write Like …” I’m not so sure. Having run samples of my writing through this intriguing site, the instant analysis I received said I wrote like HG Wells, Cory Doctorow, Kurt Vonnegut, HPLovecraft, David Foster Wallace, and most often like, Stephen King. You draw your own conclusions, but I digress.
My blog has and is still undergoing an overhaul. I am combining my blogger, of which I have multiple, and my WordPress accounts into one. It has not been an easy task and I ask for your indulgence. I had thought I was rather tech savvy until I nearly sent all blogs into the stratosphere never to return. Why bother? Well, plain and simple. I’m not getting any younger.
I am doing this for two main reasons. 1) For simplicity and organization. To clean house. And, 2) To get me back in the game of writing, something, anything. I have been out-of-pocket for a long time due to illness. You have heard from me with a post on occasion, but the truth is I had no focus or energy to write. Then the docs gave me a huge dose of prednisone; a medication I detest taking because of the side effects. However, with it came a renewed focus and the energizer bunny has nothing on me.
I began blogging in 2009 with Friendship of a Lifetime . It was for a different reason than why I blog today. I spent time this week reading through, Friendship, Morning Pages, my short stories, and other writings I’d completed since all this began in October of 2009. I discovered I’d come a long way as a writer, but still have much to learn. I’ve shared great writing tips along the way, as well as some heart-felt stories. Not to mention a few strong opinions and the occasional creepy flash fiction.
As time-consuming and exhausting as this process has been this week, it has reawakened my muse. Over the next week or so I will continue to re-vamp my blog. I am relocating my first blog, Friendship of a Lifetime and featuring it as a page. Written after the loss of my best friend of 37 years, the posts are a poignant reminder to value friends. I am putting it out there, as is. At the time I gave no thought to grammar or style, it was written from the heart and in a state of grief. So fair warning, you will find an abundant use of adverbs.
Also, I will be sharing more of my writing, and perhaps exerts from works in progress. I may continue to share tips or things of interest to fellow writers on this journey, but my Cow Pasture Chronicles will be more personal. You will see ME revealed in the things I write and share with from Cow Pasture. Or perhaps it will be, Cory, David, Kurt, HG, or Stephen…..
COW PASTURE CHRONICLES 