While searching for a Reason to Write....Writing can save your life!

There. I said it. And by save, I mean… take it any way you want. Rescue. Liberate. Preserve. Protect. Redeem. Redo. Re-write.
 
Recently, a friend declared that she needed to “Redo Her Life.” Kids grown, divorced, stuck in memories and habits, unhappy with her current situation, old job, unproductive life.
 
“What do you want?” I asked.
 
“I don’t know. Change,” she answered.
 
“What’s keeping you from it?”
 
As we talked, I realized these are questions I ask my characters. In a book, a goal has to involve change, something we naturally resist. And you can’t blame others. You have to claim it and fix it. That’s the most satisfying way to write a story – or change a life. Your life.
 
Every movie, every book, every life has these elements:
 

1. Identify what you want. – That's the Goal. Change something. Achieve something. Escape from something.
2. What's stopping you? – Conflict is constant. Often it involves money. More often, blame. But get real. Own it. See that it’s something doable, something to overcome for your story and life to be more interesting.
3. Why do you want this? – Motivation can be simply because "I want or need…" Or it could be something huge and life changing, “I must…” What drives you to want to change?

 
In case you haven’t guessed by now, this is my Note to self: Get busy, get committed, get going!
 
Think it, write it, speak it, DO it! (if you write it and speak it, you're committed to doing it) Take up journaling. Write that book! Take that trip. Make that move. Create your new life! Finish what you started.

Now on sale, Claire's Embrace, for 99cents! This is the first book in my Irish Hearts Series and the introduction to Ireland, its green fields, stone fences and the many reasons to love the emerald island. You can follow Claire and her daughters through my four Irish stories starting with Claire's Embrace, Embraceable You, Secret Embrace, and Mystique. See the front page of my website for more details.  www.marytateengels.com