Taking Risks - Row80 Check in 5

From having to take time off from wordmongering with my writing group and the pace I had set for myself, I began to evaluate where I was in my writing and where I wanted to go with it. I discovered that I had forgotten some of the basics that I had learned long ago.
As the week progressed and I realized I had more time to write again, I found myself looking for my writing books after reading Mental Mosaics Inner Critic Smackdown - Bird By Bird and Tweet by Tweet (Thanks Tui!). It reminded me of my favorite writing book, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and her rules for writing:

• Keep your hand moving. (I am good with this piece)
• Lose control. (Not so good with this one)
• Be specific. (Usually good with this one)
• Don't think—get below discursive thought to the place where your mind is original, fresh. (completely forgot about this one)
• Don't worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar. (Good with this while doing wordmongering or my morning pages)
• You are free to write the worst junk in America. (This is a hard one for me)
• Go for the jugular. (I hesitate to even comment on this one I obviously have trouble with it)

I love how encouraging Natalie is in her books; how she reminds us to be gentle with ourselves but just keep writing.

While looking at my writing books and remembering which ones had good or great advice to keep in mind while writing, I found my Tarot for Writers by Corrine Kenner. Though the book itself I was never able to get that much into, for whatever reason, it inspired me to get out my tarot and oracle cards (which I have many). The idea from the book is that you can create characters around the cards and you can also create stories around them. This intrigued and inspired me so I will be experimenting with that this week.

During this past week was the ninth of the month. The ninth is the day of the month that I was born and I read in one of my many books to do something new or take a risk every month on that day. My risk this week was contacting a friend that had a connection with an editor to pitch an idea. She made the introductions and I was able to pitch my idea. Though the best results didn't happen the editor did have some good advice for me and I got over the fear of putting myself out there. It won't be as hard to contact the next editor when I am ready.

I also took a risk by writing the short short story Essence of Life late Friday night and posting it to this blog. (which now I realize was Flash Fiction that I plan on doing every Friday) That isn't something I normally do either.

The wonderful person that is going to share The Writing Experiment with me is...

Shan Jeniah Burton - You can find her writing journey at Shanjeniah I love what we have done so far and look forward to how it progresses and what fun adventures we travel together.

During this past week I realized I am pretty determined to be published by the end of this year and everything I do from here out will be to accomplish that goal. I will be doing as Natalie Goldberg and so many others suggest... write, write, and write some more until all the pieces come together.

I am still looking for someone to guest blog for Shadow Rhythms. If you like to write about creativity and/or how you use creativity in your life, Shamanic Astrology, planetary retrogrades, Get Moving Monday or your experiences with any of these, I would love to hear from you. I am also going to be adding book and blog reviews on Writer's Universe and if you have a book or blog you would like for me to review let me know. If you would like for me to do a guest blog for your blog contact me so that we can discuss it further.

Thank you so much for traveling this journey with me. It makes it so much, well maybe not easier, but I definitely feel supported taking this journey with all of you.

Peace and Blessings,
Morgan

Check out the other blogs on this journey.