Motivational Monday



In life we don’t get what we want, we get in life what we are. If we want more we have to be able to be more, in order to be more you have to face rejection.

Farrah Gray

Motivation Monday

Oh man, I have a lot to do this week. Better get paddlin'.

Sami

Motivation Monday

This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night of the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. - William Shakespeare

Sami

Motivational Monday

One who fears failure limits his activities. 

Failure is only the opportunity to more

intelligently begin again.

Henry Ford

Motivational Monday

This is how I feel about going to work today :(. Would rather be home working out the snag I've discovered in WIP.

Sami

Motivation Monday

Sami

Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they've had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people."

Steve Jobs

Motivational Monday

The 'I've just resubbed the most rewritten manuscript of my entire rewriting career' edition :)

"Unless you're willing to have a go, fail miserably, and have another go, success won't happen."

Phillip Adams

 

Sami

Motivational Monday

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

Booker T. Washington

Weekend wrap up

Oh wow, what a weekend. Luckily for me it’s a public holiday up here in Queensland so I have a day to recover before heading back to work, because the Claytons Conference activities utterly fried my brain. My session on Saturday seemed to go really well and I had a blast. So much more participation than I expected—here I was thinking people might be shy about discussing sex! I should have known better. All the participants rocked. Thank you to all who attended and made it such a fun and busy session.

Thank you as well to the organisers, Anne, Mel and Neely. I don’t envy you girls your job, I could never be organised enough to do it! The usual family commitments prevented me from joining in the other sessions in ‘live time’, and my computer didn’t like the RWA chat room so I wasn’t able to jump in on the social stuff. Bummer. But I have many many notes to catch up on, starting with Natalie Anderson’s plot and structure workshop. Plot and structure, you are ever my arch nemises, the Lex to my Superman (delusions of grandeur I have, yes indeed).

I may post the stuff I find useful throughout the week. First of all I have to get back to my writing, or more specifically to rewriting a scene that’s been bugging me. Let me just don my cape…

Sami

Motivational Monday

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.

Albert Einstein

Sami

Motivation Monday - Office Space Edition

Watched Office Space again the other weekend, reminding myself what a funny movie it is. Even funnier if you've ever worked in grey cubicle yourself.

Bob: So I see you've been missing a lot of work lately, Peter.

Peter: I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob.

He he.

Hope you have a good week.

Sami

What is Motivation?

Anyone who hasn't yet seen Maya Banks' frank Q&A session at Dear Author should check it out. It's fascinating reading, and all kudos to Maya for willing to open up about her financial stats, which are MASSIVE by the way. 600k per year massive, which has my mind absolutely reeling.

Maya assures all aspiring bestsellers that she’s not special. Anyone willing to put in the time and effort can achieve her level of success, i.e. her income. She’s probably right. If you want to achieve a good income from writing just use how many hours she puts in, the type of books she writes, as a template and go for your life. You might just do it.

This all got me thinking about motivation. Where does it come from? What makes a writer, write?

Maya states frankly in the Q&A that she’s motivated by money. In that endeavour she’s succeeded ten times over. All kudos to her. But me? I’ve never been motivated by cash. The most I’ve ever dreamt of having is enough to give up my day job to write full time, because I love to write and want to do it as often as I can. Maya calls herself a ‘one draft writer’, who tweaks as she goes but doesn’t indulge in manuscript overhauls. She writes it: she sells it. That’s it. But a big part of what I love about writing is the quest for perfection, which can only be achieved, at least for me, through much navel gazing and copious manuscript rewrites.

Oh I know, there’s no such thing as perfect. All perfectionists know this, yet they persist in the pursuit of it for reasons even they don't understand. I write because I'm looking for something I can't identify until I’ve found it. That perfect word, the best possible sentence structure, the scene that shows every emotion without me having to tell anything. I want to know my characters inside out and by extension comprehend a little more about human psychology. I can’t achieve this depth of understanding on the first draft, which for me leaves the book feeling unfinished. I couldn’t submit anything that felt unfinished, I don’t think it’s in me (Geez even this blog got 2 drafts :)).

I know, this all sounds very lofty for someone who’s ‘just a romance writer’, one who pens dirty books at that. I’m not trying to sound self important, merely trying to understand and explain myself, much in the way I try to understand and explain my characters. I write because I love it, and I love it precisely because it is difficult (which incidently is also the reason I hate it at least three times a week. Oh yeah I’m messed up). If anyone could do it what would be so darned special about it? I write romance in particular not because it sells, but because it provides the best opportunity to delve into the full gamut of human emotions from euphoria to despair, and still lets you give your characters a happy ending. I write the ‘dirty’ books because so much of human emotion rises to the surface before, during or after sex, which makes it very fertile ground for the likes of me.

None of this is to say I wouldn’t like to make more money from my writing, I would. But I’m not jealous of Maya’s earning figures. Like I said, all I’ve ever wanted is enough to make writing my full-time job. That’s the dream, but it’s a catch 22. The time to write is hard to find when you do have a day job and a family underfoot, and giving up that regular income is not an option until you make enough from writing to replace it. 600k per year is not something I envisage ever making, not at my writing speed. Even a tenth of that would be nice, but it’s still a long way off.

In the meantime I’m going to keep plugging away at my love/hate relationship with writing while trying to produce more books than I have been. My kids are getting older and don’t need the kind of constant attention they once did. The motivation that crumbled away for me a couple of years ago is back. I want to write again. I'm not forcing out every painful word like I'm passing a gall stone. Time and energy are still at a premium but I’m working on that. I’m confident for the first time in a while that I will have more books coming out in future.

Books that will be as perfect as I can make them, even if it takes five drafts.

So what's your motivation? Whatever it is, I wish you an abundance of it this week.

Sami

Monday Again

How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy. ~Paul Sweeney

Happy 4th July to all those in the US. I'll listen to this one just for you while I'm sorting through my back catalogue in preparation for my big 40th bash on Saturday.

Have a great day and an even better week.

Sami

Motivational Monday

Sami

Motivational Tip -- It Could be Worse

No matter what kind of week you've had, always remember you could have been this guy's kid. The American father claims that the costumes he wears to wave his teenaged son onto the school bus are his way of showing his love.

I fail to see the logic, myself.

“People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.”

Zig Ziglar

Sami

Kicking the Habit

Tomorrow is World Tobacco Day. Good luck to anyone who's going to use the date as motivation to quit smoking. As I have a mother who kicked the habit after 40 years, and a brother who quits every single year :), I know it can be done. Go for it!

Painted roof in a smoking room--cool!

It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

- Fletcher Knebel, Reader's Digest, December 1961
 
I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It cost a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive. And there's a fantastic brand loyalty.

- Warren Buffett, Investment Guru
 
Sami

Reviews - The Ultimate Motivation

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Samuel Johnson

I received a fantastic review from a friend recently. Paraphrased it went something like this:

I’m glad I finally decided to read your book—the characterisation and sex were great. I might even have teared up once or twice… but I just got my period too, so I was emotionally challenged.

This is probably my most favourite review ever! There's nothing like a good writing buddy to lend their full  support... while keeping your ego in check :). It's all about balance, people.

Meanwhile I got a few lovely (unqualified lovely) reviews over at Amazon. I don't usually post such things or even go looking for them, but I was checking my book links etc. the other day and was so pleased with a couple of quotes in particular I thought I'd share them:

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I was expecting a bit of fluff book to pass the evening hours.....this book was great,and one I may reread on a cold winters night!

(as I know I only keep my absolute favourite books on hand for cold winter nights, I take this as a special kind of compliment! Thanks Karen)

and

I really enjoyed this author and I loved the way she wrote the sex scenes. You really felt what the characters were experiencing and the emotions of the scene came through loud and clear. Write some more books Sami!

(I'm trying, really I am, zzrole).

I do get the occasional thumbs down on Amazon and other such places, but I find comments like this buoy my writer's spirit so much the occasional bad review doesn't have the kind of power it could have. So today's lesson for any readers out there is this: if you read a book and truly love it, or even have anything positive to say about it and you have the time to say it, please do. It does wonders for a writer's motivation to know someone is going to keep your book as a cold winter's night reread, let me tell you. This is a big part of what keeps us writing.

Thanks to all those who take the time.

Sami

Motivation Monday

Wow! Blogger is up! Go Blogger, you are awesome! No sarcasm intended--really.

May your writing adventures this week be as thrilling as all The Captain's away missions combined. Write long and prosper.

Sami