How to get published

The New Year isn’t far. It’s right on your doorstep, beckoning your attention and your intention.

December presents you with a beautiful opportunity. A chance to cast your mind back over the past year and reflect on all that you created and made possible by showing up each day and saying yes. What has evolved? 12 months of learning and of course, unlearning.

December is the divine period of time nestled between the old and the new, offering you a whole month to express gratitude for bringing you here (and I mean exactly here, right to this moment) and also space to discover what it is you want to create in your life the next year.

In conversation with aspiring writers, 2015 is calling them to crank up their writing dream a notch. Yes they would like to write more regularly, express more creatively, and channel their voice and message, but they want to do all of this PUBLICLY.

No longer in their leather-bound journals on their bedside table, sitting among the plethora of word docs on their desktops, or existing in some corner of the web they haven’t told a soul it exists. No, this coming year is calling them to go bigger and to share their words with the world.

It’s time to get published.

Eeeek! Scary you say? Yes, it is. A little uncomfortable you say? Well, yes, it is that too. Exciting? Without a doubt.

How to connect with your muse

It's time to knuckle down and create that blog post, freelance article or the early drafts of that book. You have made the commitment - to others and to yourself - but the inspiration (and motivation) is just not there. The ideas are far and few between and time is slipping away.

This makes you feel anxious, and you know all too well from experience that your muse doesn’t dance hand-in-hand with apprehension. She’d rather move at her own pace, frolicking and twirling on an open ballroom all of her own.

This doesn’t change the fact that there is a deadline looming and white space where your story should be taking form (‘Should’ being used very loosely here).

So how do you connect with the muse when you need to most?

Firstly, it’s important to understand and accept that it’s normal.

It’s normal to be lost for ideas, frazzled and not sure where to go next. Wipe the shame and the judgement. The most prolific of writers experience times when the inspiration is at an all time low. That doesn’t stop them though. There are times when there is ease and flow, and others when whatever is happening in your life (or in your day for that matter), there just isn’t.

Some days the words and messages just arrive, delivered from your brain to your fingertips in a thoughtfully packaged parcel (why thank you!), and other times, there is nada. Zilch. Zippo. I’m the first to raise my hand to this experience.

Here are some tools to help awaken your silent muse, as shy as she may be.

How to write to have an impact

A conversation, a divinely worded paragraph in a book you are reading or perhaps a random act of kindness you were fortunate to witness has you excited. The sparks are flying, ideas are flowing and you’re feeling inspired to write a blog post, an article or a story to share with your readers; something that they will find value in.

You start typing, a little manically at first, afraid that you might lose your train of thought. Words, intrigue and thought bubbles spill onto the page.

Ok, it’s a tad scattered but you’re getting it down, translating for the muse so to speak.

The words aren’t exactly the words you want to be using to describe this message, but hey, you can always go back and make those edits.

On the tip of your tongue is the expression you are after, but you can’t seem to find it. The line which would capture the essence with such poetic grace, your readers would be nodding in uniform agreement.

Vague descriptions sit in place of fine-tuned statements. It feels… hollow. Something is missing. It’s lacking power; the juice that gets people’s heads turning.

Then you pause.

You ask yourself: Does this even make sense to anyone else who is not in my head?

Then that imposter strides on in.

Who wants to read about this anyway? Is it even any good?

The momentum is lost. That initial high of inspiration has fizzled along with your idea. The copy joins the folder of countless unfinished drafts and random musings that sits on your laptop, and you’re left feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.

Can you relate? Sounding a little too familiar? If you are a writer (or have dabbled with the world of words), I’m sure you have ridden this creative curve more than a few times. I certainly have.

Why I Write

This big question has been at the forefront of my brain the past week, bouncing around, finding its footing. Finding its grip.

I was nestled in the back corner of one of my many favourite cafes, head phones in and encircled by post-it notes with words and messages when, while tapping away at my laptop I was stopped mid-sentence. I thought: Why do I do this? Why do I write?

The big why.

And you would think the answer would be quite obvious. That it would roll off the tongue without a moment’s hesitation. With full clarity and certainty.

But this wasn’t the case.

I was stumped. Silenced even.

I left the question unanswered. I let it linger, and this is what evolved.

I write because…

* It is integral to my personal happiness and wellbeing

If I don’t write, I don’t feel whole. I feel off-centre and a little wobbly to tell you the truth. When life has gotten too busy, and finding time to write has been a stretch so I’ve ignored the pull, it hasn’t worked in my favour. Lesson here: There is always time to write.

Something sensational happens when ideas and thoughts move from my head and through my body to my fingers, and make their way to the blank canvas before me in the way of words.

Spaciousness is created. Queries and ambiguities become clear(er) when articulated into verses, and everything just makes a little more sense. Who I am, and my place in the world is more evident.

Why do we do many of the things we love? Because frankly, it feels good.

* Creativity is sacred

When I find my groove, each word flows and graciously supports the next word - effortlessly. There is no push. No pressure. Each word has a unique home on the page, and has been chosen because of its exclusive relevance to the message and the quality it expels. The sentences begin to sing. The punctuation emphasizes each. and. every. word.

It is my doorway to the creative realm. Where colours morph and shapes transform. Where smells are portrayed and places are reinvented. Where life is full of possibility.

When this happens, I feel a beat to my walk, and a hop to my skip. This kind of self-expression brings me happiness and reminds me to keep doing what lights me up from the inside out.

There is a yearning; a fire in my belly, and experience has taught me that those feelings cannot be ignored.

Blog-Hearted

I flick back to the pages of my diary, to April 2013, and read these words:

“I want to create a space for storytelling and exchange, with advocacy and human rights at its core. An online pocket for positivity, creative exploration, social inquiry, and community building.”

Then below, I read this note to myself:

“Remember Leah, to accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.”

More than one year on, it’s almost surreal to see these early ideas scribbled among the pages of my ear-bent, post-it tagged, leaflet holding, multi-highlighted diary, which is falling apart at its seams (held together by a large pink elastic band) that has been lugged from Australia and across Europe, northern Africa and into Asia. This very diary has been my comrade on late night bus trips, during flight delays and rocky voyages, on sun soaked beaches and during days in the park, and of course, while sipping on many a chai in cafes and restaurants.

This diary carries with it the very beginnings of what is unraveling day-by-day: my dream, my vision, my penultimate idea.

Photo by Jason Di-Candilo @billthebadger

To create an online space, which shares stories of people, groups and projects that are BEING THE CHANGE we want to see in the world (as an appropriation of the Gandhi quote). Stories which aim to augment people's understanding of the world, bolster greater connection, inspire and build opportunities for collective action, and ultimately, radically change the world.

And what do you know? That’s what I’ve created. A feat aided and supported by the Bright-Eyed and Blog-Hearted online 8-week course by Rachel MacDonald from In Spaces Between.

Dreams by Anne

“I finally realised that I must do my schoolwork to keep from being ignorant, to get on in life, to become a journalist, because that's what I want! I know I can write ..., but it remains to be seen whether I really have talent ...

And if I don't have the talent to write books or newspaper articles, I can always write for myself. But I want to achieve more than that. I can't imagine living like Mother, Mrs. van Daan and all the women who go about their work and are then forgotten. I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! ...

I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that's why I'm so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that's inside me!

When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that's a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?”

— Anne Frank

She most certainly did. 

Her compelling voice inspires, educates and moves people still to this day. Words she wrote during a time of great suffering and loss, when freedom of speech was an unspoken luxury.

In Amsterdam, you can't help be wrapped up in the history and story of Anne Frank - and if you're not - you need to be. A recent trip to the beautiful city taught me this.