Show Up. Say Yes

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Heloise Jones

“80% of life is showing up”
~ Woody Allen

Woody Allen is famous for that quote. It was 1977, a dual interview with Marshall Brickman, the co-author of the oscar-winning screenplay Annie Hall. It’d morphed to 80% of ‘success’ is showing up when it came on my radar. The legend that he was talking about luck.

In a 1989 interview, Woody Allen reflected on it:

“I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up.
People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie,
they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it
were 80 percent of the way to having something happen.”

I admit I’m a purpose & wonder driven person. It carries me when it’s hard doing things that don’t make sense in the web of my known world. Or I have things to accomplish I don’t want to do. This doesn’t mean I need a reason for everything. It means I know what expands my Universe, gives me the Yes I need to move forward.

See for yourself what I mean. Take 30 seconds (really, that’s it!). You don’t need to go anywhere. Put on music, or turn the phone off. Just get present for 30 short seconds, and close your eyes if it feels easier.

Think of something you agreed to do that you didn’t want to do. A definite No if you felt you had a choice.

Where do you feel it inside your body?
How does it feel?
What about in your mind? What emotions come up?

Now, do the same thing with something you felt a Yes to.

How does that feel inside your body?
Where do you feel it?
What does your mind do with a Yes? What emotions are there?

Write down what you felt. Interesting, eh?

I write about doing what answers Yes in The Writer’s Block Myth because Yes expands everything about you. Your insides. Your experience. Your creativity. And No contracts.

In life, we constantly dancie with creativity, no matter what we’re doing. Expand the dance floor, and expand our definition of what creative means. Do what answers Yes.

The tulips in the picture above never opened like I wanted them to. But they’ve shown up perky and bright yellow every minute for a week. Haven’t faded or wilted. A vibrant reminder for so many things, including letting go of expectations. Another thing I write about, because it’s a biggie.

Show up to your writing, your art, your work, your life. Find the thing you respond to, that carries you thru the hard times. The thing that answers Yes when you’re in doubt. For me, it’s purpose & wonder. What is it for you?

And if you’re interested in the progression of the quote, here’s a great site, The Quote Investigator. I have it bookmarked for others.

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Perfection in Imperfection

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Heloise Jones

I didn’t get as much snow as Weather.com forecast. But it’s the mountains, and 4 miles away can have 4 times what I have. In fact, my bet is the 3 vacant seats in front of me last night at the Japanese taiko drum performance were probably the result of weather.

I thought about the many flowering trees as I looked out the window. How the blossoms were at their peak, and are most likely done for. That happens in the mountains, too, even when it’s not 15* ‘unseasonably’ warm with trees blooming a month early. Like the year the apple trees were hit and my heirloom roses died in Western North Carolina. WNC is one of the largest apple producers in the country (did you know that?), so it was a big deal.

Here’s what I also thought this morning. . .how perfect the pollen is tamped down. So many of us suffering with allergies. That I don’t have to water trees, which costs me a lot of money. That we get a bit of spring as we used to know it in Santa Fe, and I can wear sweaters a bit longer, something I missed in Florida. That the roads are passable. And I can see the snow-sky lift off the horizon, know the white will soon disappear and the sky will be crystal blue. Perfection in the imperfect.

I’m booking author talks around Santa Fe and Albuquerque, getting the word out about The Writer’s Block Myth. This week I spoke at a Southwest Writers meeting. Someone asked why writers get critiqued & consider it form, while other artists don’t. But they do, I said. In college classes it’s part of the process. When you work with a mentor, you’re critiqued. I could’ve said more. Could’ve gotten to the heart of his question…was it perception, or something else he was really asking. Because getting to heart of what’s there is what I do. And I didn’t.

I’m still thinking about that missed moment for me, for him, for the group. l learned from that mistake. As writers and creatives, we dance with creativity. Our goal always to expand the dance floor. And mistakes can do that.

Because mistakes take us beyond the boundaries and limits of ourself and what we set for ourselves. Opens us to other perspectives. It happens every time we show up imperfect. I learned this at Stony Brook Southampton Writer’s Conference one summer.

NYTimes bestseller Meg Wolitzer was teaching the class. I submitted a first draft of a scene I really liked for critique. It was a pivotal scene. Revealed layers of the characters, their changed relationships, and emphasized how the setting affected them. I wanted to know something very specific – did I pull off the transitions between four characters’ POV in a single scene. But after reading the work my classmates turned in for critique, I was mortified. It was clear they’d submitted edited, finished work. I cried all night.

Something totally unexpected happened the day of my critique. Not only did I get my question answered, I learned about the strength and weaknesses in my writing from a wise teacher. And readers saw things in the work I did not, such as a device that placed them in the time period of the work: a choke on a truck. Something I did unconsciously that could be used consciously. My craft improved. There was a wealth of information in that submission I cried over all night.

I’m lucky. I had practice before I got to Stony Brook. I grew into my Writer-Self in a group where we wrote from prompts and read our raw work. But I can tell you every instance where I stretched my boundaries on this journey, and they all started with a decision to trust the process and test my imperfection. It’s still scary, and I’m still doing it.

Show up imperfectly with your work. Be open to hear what works, what doesn’t work, what readers see and hear, and learn how you engaged them. Go for the perfection in the imperfection. Like that world gently covered with snow out my window.

Another small journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writer’s Life.

Tell me. . .when were you brave with your imperfect work?
I’ll tell you a secret. . .I’m already composing the second edition of The Writer’s Block Myth.

Here’s me at Santacafe, one of my fav restaurants, celebrating my first author talk. The entire interior is white, except for the floor & these iconic NM antlers. Just had to get a pic.
Celebrate the triumphs. Even the imperfect ones.

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Learning to Love Life Again

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Heloise Jones

“Maybe the only letters we need after our names are A.R.T.
They could stand for Already Rocking This.”
~ Jena Schwartz, poet
*

A friend calls me Rocket Girl. Why, I asked, would you say that. You’re the kind who’d have a kid on your hip, hold things together and get a dozen things done. For once I didn’t say ‘I don’t feel like it,’ or ‘Oh, I’m so behind.’ I thought, Yeeah.

Years ago I asked my sister, ‘Did you ever feel abandoned when we were left with other people so much growing up?’ Her answer, No, I had you. I asked my husband if he was scared during his rehabilitation after being run down by a car, us not knowing if he’d walk right again (I’d been so scared). His answer, No, I had you. A friend once said after a discussion about a challenge I was having and how I was getting thru, you’re the one who fixes things, makes them work. When I was working at the brewery we’re part owners of, I did it. Did it at the art museum where I worked. They called on me to do it. I do it at home.

Here’s the thing. . .I’ve committed to loving my life again. And that includes big changes. Stepping into arenas I don’t know how to hold together, because they’re new to me and have steep learning curves. I’m a newbie, a baby. And I want to be a different kind of Rocket Girl. Which means I’ll make mistakes, and doing things that push my boundaries. Of all the things I’ve learned in my lifetime, I never learned not be hate making mistakes. The little ones that in the end don’t really cost that much. And the big ones (I’ve done some doozies) that require a full pardon by myself. But in this new incarnation, I’ve even committed to the beauty of mistakes. I teach it. I’m gonna live it. And pushing boundaries looks a lot like Hope to me.

If you’ve read much of this blog, you know I believe in Angels and the swirly amazing interconnectedness of the Universe. That I often call what I experience magic. This magic a combination of my deep & strong intuition and observing with awareness that connection with the swirly amazingness. It often looks much like author Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s definition: where purpose and happenstance come together. I am there. Smack in the middle of that right now. Those stories will come.

Last night I gave a talk at the Southwest Writers meeting in Albuquerque around my book The Writer’s Block Myth. I sold a few books which paid for the room I got thinking breakfast the next day with writers. I forgot to announce the invitation. And forgot a couple other things. But I’m not going to thoughts of squandered opportunity. I’m going to what might be. Seeing it the next time. This is also a shift, a moving forward.

What might be next time. Next. Time.

At home I work at the dining room table in a converted 1940s one-car garage done really well. My vision for the room is a meeting space for writers. Right now, unhung pictures lean against one wall, boxes line another. One of my grandmother’s oriental rugs holds the center of the room. The room is bright, feels good. Two windows are at my back, above my head. When I turn I see the sky. A window across the room offers sky, too, tho it will soon be covered with leaves. I look thru the door and out another window. One morning before dawn I sat down at the computer, forgot to take my break for the beginning of the light. As if Dawn called me, in the middle of a project I thought to turn around. The color in the sky was beginning to fade. Had turned all pastel. It was not the usual. That’s the closest I can get to telling you what loving my life again feels like. The mess of undone and yet to be + big work and the sky calling me all in the same space. In a place that I say often, I love living here.

I can be really goofy when I’m tired. After the talk I went to the restaurant in the hotel. They were empty, shutting down tho 30 min. remained to closing. The guy said no worries, have a seat. I paid right after I ordered so he could close his register. Before my burger arrived, I rushed down the hall to the restroom to wash my hands. Just as I soaped up, a guy walks around from the stalls. ‘Hello,’ he says. blink. Am I in the wrong room, I ask, the thought just starting to register. ‘I think you are,’ he replies. I ran out with wet, soapy hands. My first thought when I entered the right room. . .the women’s is nicer, and a chuckle. I passed on the laugh to the guy in the restaurant. Nice end to the day, I thought.

My friend who calls me Rocket Girl also agrees I’m goofy. That is part of loving my life again, too. Being seen as the fullness of me with right parts. One part not canceling the other. And in a weird kind of way which may appear contradictory, it comes at a time when I split my face to the world. One side – my vulnerable, flawed, moving thru stuck and uncertainties, having a tad of discomfort at times oh-so-human. The other where you learn I have what you want. Doing what all teachers do. We show up in a way you need us, and let you know we understand ‘cause we’ve been there. I think that makes sense.

I’m gonna sign off with something I’ve longed to say for years: I love my life.

Another Small Journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writer’s Life.

Tell me. . .how do you love your life?
I’ll tell you a secret. . .never go by appearances. The burger in this old hotel was excellent, and cooked just right the way I like it. Something I don’t say often about burgers.

Rocket Girl Typewriter Key Image created for me by Mary Anne Radmacher

*
#1 Bestseller

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Do What Writers Do

Posted on March 17, 2017 by Heloise Jones

I took this shot of the Royal in a consignment store here in Santa Fe.

Ernest Hemingway wrote on a Royal. Every time I see one I think of him. I also read he wrote standing up, not at the big desk we always see him at in pictures. And that he had a signature way to get past stuck–never empty the well when you stop, leave something to write when you start in the morning. He didn’t tire of editing, either. He stayed in the process, doodling with the words for as long as it took. He was once quoted in an interview as saying he rewrote the last page of ‘Farewell to Arms’ thirty-nine times before he was satisfied. When the interviewer asked what stumped him, if there was some technical problem, his response was,“Getting the words right.”

I have a shot of an old Remington, too. Seems vintage typewriters are everywhere here. A friend at the Santa Fe historic foundation El Zaguan was once discarding two. I knew author & actor Sam Shepherd was in town writing at the Santa Fe Institute. That he only works on a typewriter, never a computer. I asked him if he wanted them. He didn’t. But what I noticed when we spoke is he looked me in the eyes. Was completely present until we were done. One might say, observed with awareness, too. Two attributes of a good writer.

Both these authors modeled what I write about in my book, The Writer’s Block Myth.

Focus on process.
Observe with awareness.
Doodle with words for as long as it takes (meaning, take as long as it takes!)
Find the ways that work for you to succeed.

Pretty darned cool. Right?

btw, author Cormac McCarthy is a trustee at the Santa Fe Institute. He has a library named after him there where he writes on a typewriter, too. I love what he wrote about their mission. You can see his typewritten draft in the video:

And here, in my World: #1 Bestseller on Day One.

I’m pretty darned excited.

Tell me. . .what’s the one thing you know works for you to succeed.
I’ll tell you a secret. . .making Bestseller felt so surreal, I waited 2-1/2 hrs. before I shared it on Facebook.

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Excitement City with an Oops. And Free Download!

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Heloise Jones

Isn’t it hard to let things go? Well I let my “free download link” go last night and I had the dates for the FREE download of my new book wrong, in 2 places! I was a day early. Excitement City, even with an Oops, tho.

Free download is Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on Amazon.

And in case you missed it. . .here’s my beautiful note and the link!

Hi! It’s time, it’s time! My book’s coming out March 14th!
Could you do me a favor? I have the book downloadable for free on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of this week (Kindle and to your computer). Could you download it on one of those days?

The book, The Writer’s Block Myth, is something I’m so excited about. Every day I hear, read, or experience discussions that talk about being “blocked” in writing. Sometimes it stops individuals from even starting! Isn’t it hard to get to that anticipation place and then get stymied by your own thinking?

I’ve got your process and you’re going to truly value that you’re not alone on this journey. The Writer’s Block Myth will free you from so much more than your perceived block in writing.

C’mon, here’s your free ticket to learn! Let’s talk about writing and if you order on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday you can receive it absolutely FREE.

The book is intended to support writers and creatives to get past stuck, complete their goals, and experience lasting creative freedom whatever life looks like in the ‘real’ world.

Please, let’s get the word out, for any writer or want to be writer that this week the book is even free! I’d so appreciate your sharing and if you truly love the book, and the work within it, would you consider rating it on Amazon?

This is an exciting tool and I hope one you keep in your tool shelf of good things to read and share!

Warmly,
Heloise Jones

* #1 Bestseller

And here, in my World: #1 Bestseller on Day One.

Free download is Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on Amazon.

*
#1 Bestseller