I Like, Lists
Mornings aren't my best time. Many of my journal entries reflect this. So this week I introduced a new way to finish my more challenged entries on a brighter note.
You may have heard of the Gratitude List. It's a personal growth practice where a list is written of
anything to be grateful for. The activity helps to invoke a positive outlook. Energetically, it charges up the solar plexus (sun) energy centre, raising power, confidence and creative potential.
There are occasions where my mind is not receptive to the word gratitude. The I Like List is simply a softer version of the Gratitude List. It is based on the same principles and has the same effect as a gratitude list. Both practices shine the light of our consciousness onto the aspects of our world that we feel positive about.
The first thing on two of my lists was, 'I like coffee.' It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you keep it positive. Lots of people in the media seem to be sharing freely about what they hate. But that kind of list won't help to improve my morning outlook.
Some mornings I wake full of positive intent. Those mornings don't require an I Like List because I will have already written about what I'm excited to do that day. The I Like List is a medicine to apply as needed.
It must have worked, because productivity is on the rise. Several weeks of creative drought are moving behind me. With the clarity of hindsight I can see that I needed to stop working for as long as it took for a new focus to emerge.
I rose from my creative chaos writing. The smell of a brand new notebook captured me and I wrote a dozen pages of novel planning, making sense of 50,000 words I had already typed into a draft some years ago. Writing the plan after the first draft is a bit backwards – I know. Art isn't always linear!
I hope to write a book that begins with a blank page some day. There's something annoyingly messy about beginning a new book with folders of sentences written on scraps of paper and a number of versions already begun.
But the writing day is enjoyable to me and I'm grateful to be back into a working groove again. I'm still a baby writer and there's lots to learn and no time to waste. I'm presenting my first author talk tomorrow at Seville Community House. Author Debra Marks and I will be discussing our experience with self-publishing over a cuppa and a bikkie. We welcome other new writers to join us.
After that, next week I well be back at editing my second book. Now that I know where I am headed after it's completion, I feel ready to continue this complex task. The thing I like about editing, is that the work is there in front of me as soon as I open the document. It's just a matter of working through my editors notes, one at a time.
Writing on the other hand is a different challenge. The challenge of wrangling the words and placing them on the page, raw and unpolished. It's more exciting for me to work in raw creative realms. But the reward of actually finishing and editing a complete book is a whole new level of exciting. I've learned a lot since writing The Love of the Universe. The tasks involved with creating and publishing my second book will be easier.
Wishing you a creative and productive week. X
Leanne Margaret © 2018
You may have heard of the Gratitude List. It's a personal growth practice where a list is written of
 |
| The I Like List |
There are occasions where my mind is not receptive to the word gratitude. The I Like List is simply a softer version of the Gratitude List. It is based on the same principles and has the same effect as a gratitude list. Both practices shine the light of our consciousness onto the aspects of our world that we feel positive about.
The first thing on two of my lists was, 'I like coffee.' It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you keep it positive. Lots of people in the media seem to be sharing freely about what they hate. But that kind of list won't help to improve my morning outlook.
Some mornings I wake full of positive intent. Those mornings don't require an I Like List because I will have already written about what I'm excited to do that day. The I Like List is a medicine to apply as needed.
 |
| Author Talk |
It must have worked, because productivity is on the rise. Several weeks of creative drought are moving behind me. With the clarity of hindsight I can see that I needed to stop working for as long as it took for a new focus to emerge.
I rose from my creative chaos writing. The smell of a brand new notebook captured me and I wrote a dozen pages of novel planning, making sense of 50,000 words I had already typed into a draft some years ago. Writing the plan after the first draft is a bit backwards – I know. Art isn't always linear!
I hope to write a book that begins with a blank page some day. There's something annoyingly messy about beginning a new book with folders of sentences written on scraps of paper and a number of versions already begun.
But the writing day is enjoyable to me and I'm grateful to be back into a working groove again. I'm still a baby writer and there's lots to learn and no time to waste. I'm presenting my first author talk tomorrow at Seville Community House. Author Debra Marks and I will be discussing our experience with self-publishing over a cuppa and a bikkie. We welcome other new writers to join us.
After that, next week I well be back at editing my second book. Now that I know where I am headed after it's completion, I feel ready to continue this complex task. The thing I like about editing, is that the work is there in front of me as soon as I open the document. It's just a matter of working through my editors notes, one at a time.
Writing on the other hand is a different challenge. The challenge of wrangling the words and placing them on the page, raw and unpolished. It's more exciting for me to work in raw creative realms. But the reward of actually finishing and editing a complete book is a whole new level of exciting. I've learned a lot since writing The Love of the Universe. The tasks involved with creating and publishing my second book will be easier.
Wishing you a creative and productive week. X
Leanne Margaret © 2018
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