Monday, January 16, 2017

TRUSTING YOUR GUT...



 
 
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To all my current and future #DCSPeeps (DECIDE, COMMIT, SUCCEED), welcome to my new series in my continuing effort to inspire, amuse, and entertain you! Each Monday I will select a new word to analyze how it might apply to our writing lives and also give you a peek into my childhood growing up in the swamps of southern Louisiana, so kick back, put your feet up, and check out my story about TODAY'S WORD:
   
TRUST
 
The summer after I graduated high school I decided to visit my brother in San Diego. He was in the Navy, stationed on the USS Enterprise and 6 years older than me. Remember, I am an extreme introvert, so when one of his Navy buddies invited me to go out with him one Saturday, I trusted my instincts and said yes.

At almost eighteen, this was my first date ever and I kinda expected a meal and a movie.

I was mistaken.

What I got was an all day hike up the side of a mountain to a place called the Devil’s Punch Bowl. 

Did I mention I was terrified of open heights?

Or that I later found out a group of climbers fell to their deaths a few weeks before off the very trail I was on?

Ignorance is bliss and the young blindly trusting as I was that day as I climbed like a mountain goat to the peak so I could gaze at the beautiful, if not dangerous, bowl shaped vista below me.

A once in a lifetime moment and it comes to my mind as vividly as if it happened yesterday. Trust is a powerful thing my DCSPeeps and can lead you to great moments waiting for you in the not too distant future:

Trust the rightness of beginning your writing journey if you have been hesitant before now to take the leap of faith.

Trust and follow blogs of writers who have been where you are right now and have writerly wisdom to share. Like these great blogs:

           https://janefriedman.com
            
           http://www.thecreativepenn.com

           http://writersinthestormblog.com/

           http://writerunboxed.com

           http://www.kidlit411.com

           http://www.booksandsuch.com/blog/

           https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/

           http://www.taralazar.com/

           http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents


Trust that you have people in this writing community who will offer loving support to help lift you up when you are struggling with self-doubt.

And finally, trust there is a happy writer version of you just waiting on some mountain peak to greet you with open arms.

All you have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and start climbing!

Have an awesome day today because you deserve it!




Children's book author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a 'ninja' writer of children’s picture books, middle grade chapter books and young adult novels by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books. She is also a book reviewer for Harper Collins, and a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. Donna is a lover of dark chocolate, good stories, and an adoptive mom to 20-pound guard kitty in Knoxville, Tennesse
 

6 comments:

  1. Trust. Huge for such a short word. Great post.

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    1. Thanks Pam! There are things and people I have come to TRUST over the years and then there are still people and things I will probably never come to fully TRUST...;~)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  2. Thanks, Donna. This very issue came up with a new novel length work I've been wrestling with recently. I've been stuck on a certain idea that my gut told me was right, but I've been unable to make it work. I decided to trust the instinct and stick with the idea as unproductive weeks passed. I was finally rewarded yesterday when the perfect solution came to me like a bolt out of the blue. Glad I decided to trust and wait.

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    1. Hi Robert and welcome to my blog! We writers are sometimes too impatient with ourselves. All we want is to be creative and do it RIGHT NOW...;~)

      Thanks for stopping by. Good luck with your story and come back any time!

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  3. I wish someone would have filmed you then. I'd love to see the video.

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    1. Yeah, Janet, me clinging to the side of that mountain like a goat...THAT could have earned me a buck or two...;~)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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