More Practice, Better Writing

I'm thirty thousand words into writing on two different book projects.  This morning I skimmed through the first chapter of my first book and discovered how much my writing has improved since I began.  Of course, I knew I'll be going over it and editing once I've done the first draft.  But it was funny to see what I'd written just a month ago and compare it to what I wrote yesterday.  The flow of my sentences and the words I chose have improved greatly. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what I think a year from now.  If I keep my pace of a thousand words a day I should be much improved by then.  I hope I don't look back and think, "What kind of hack wrote this mess?" 

Cross the Rubicon. Burn the Ships.

I like to have Plan B in my pocket.  I've got options if things don't work out.  It serves me well in lots of areas.  But sometimes I have to burn the ships.  Once I make the decision there's no going back and no other options.  Like Caesar crossing the Rubicon, either I conquer and survive or I fail. 

Today I'm burning ships.  I've been pecking away at being a Realtor and finally said to my self, "This is not my passion."   I'm pretty good at it, but I don't love it enough to go after it like there's no tomorrow.

Today I decided not to keep paying for my electronic key that gets me in to houses for sale.  And I'm not going to renew my license next month.  I'm going to do something I'm passionate about.

I've toyed with the idea of writing a book in the past.  One time I even came close to starting.  Fear and resistance beat me back.  I wasn't sure I could do it.  I didn't have the confidence to just sit down and do the work and trust the muse to visit.

But I've changed.  I know what I have to do.  I'm climbing in the ring with resistance and wrestling it to the ground each day.  I will make this work.  I'll keep at it until it does.

Can We Build It?

I know how to build a house.  I know the order in which things have to be done and I know a lot of common problems to look for and avoid.  But this week I thought back to the first house we built.  We knew a lot about construction, but we were far from experts.  We didn't even know how much we didn't know. 

I don't know how Brenda & I got to where we look at something we've never done before & say, "Sure we can do that!"  We built our house.  We built our business.  We've done projects for clients that were brand new processes for us.  God has blessed us with insight and revelation to figure out what we need to know as we go.

So here I am looking at something I've never done before and saying, "Sure, I can do that."

I've got a book inside of me that I'm bringing out and putting on paper.  Well, technically it only exists in my head and as ones and zeros on my computer.  I'm going to have to discover the things I don't know and then learn them.  My past attempts at constructing a book never got past kicking around a few clods of dirt, let alone digging a foundation.  But something is different in me.  I've got the footings placed and the framing is going up.  It's going to be lots of work.  But I think I'm ready.