Thursday, February 16, 2012

Small Steps To The Bigger Picture

Today was one of those days that was perfect for staying in your sweats or jammas, curling up with a good book or movie and generally taking it easy. Add to that the aches and pains that come with fighting off a cold and you've got me avoiding the computer and this blog for a better part of the day. I checked my emails and social medias but my heart wasn't in it. I wasn't the only one, hubby has worked odd, alternating hours this week so he was relaxing and I think my 3 year old may be battling off the same cold as me because he mostly wanted to snuggle.


I read more than one book today and I will confess I most likely will read one more before I got to bed. I was not thinking I had anything to write about today and sat staring at the blank screen for longer than I'll admit. I finally worked this post backwards, starting with my lessons learned bullet points. Sometimes small steps can get us moving in bigger ways.


That's how my novel manuscript came into being. I had an idea for a short story, I was going to try to write it up to submit for publication in an e-Mag. Next thing I knew I have 21 chapters and over 50,000 words. And I haven't really set the scene as much as I ought to, to help my readers really feel like they are in the story with my main characters so I am hopeful it will end up closer to 80,000 by the time I am finished with all my revisions.


Relaxing in your sweats or jammas can seem like a small little downtime. The danger lies in letting it consume all our "free" time. We can't let ourselves fall into a pattern of relaxing all day everyday because the temptation will turn into a lazy habit that can't easily be undone. I learned this the first month I was home with my son. He won't let me have a lazy day everyday, he's 3, but there were many days that I would read a book while he napped when I should have been cleaning! We need to use the small steps in our life to move towards positive and challenging directions! I think it will surprise us how much we can do when we break each bigger picture (like a full blog post!) into smaller pieces and take it one at a time.


What small steps will you use to get to your next goal?


Lessons Learned:
*Rest when your body tells you to...but don't confuse a cold with a blue mood or you'll never get out of your pj's
*For me, reading is as addicting as delicious food...I pick up a book, finish it in a few hours and almost instantly am drawn to pick up another. 
*I can cook and read at the same time but I can't read while folding/hanging the laundry
*Reading and resting go very well together...unless you need sleep...I haven't yet figured out how to read while I sleep ;o)
*Reading is essential for good writing. Seeing what works and does not work in other authors' published materials gives great opportunity to take notes and apply them to my own manuscript.

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