Even the most successful writers of today had to overcome various obstacles to bring you the thrillers, romances, mysteries, and epics you enjoy reading. And like you, they have had to tackle the four barriers that wreck thinking processes and prevent you from succeeding:

Safe, Perfect, Victim and Feel.

Consider---these four socially acceptable excuses are professional poison---they are gremlins in the machine of your life in general and your writing in particular. And it doesn't really matter which ones clobbered you in the past, or which ones you're dealing with now. Your obstacles will have been different from mine, but I guarantee you've had to face at least one of the four beasts above. If you're still dealing with any of them, they're keeping you from doing your best work, and maybe keeping you from working at all.

So...what do these beasts do, and why are they so devastating to writers?

First, meet SAFE, a prison without walls. You find familiarity and comfort in SAFE, but also a paralyzing fear that thwarts any kind of action. Your subconscious mind insists is that everything will work itself out if you simply hold very still. And that just ain't so. SAFE is all about, being very quiet, about not taking any chances that might cause some nameless, faceless thing out there to notice you. And if you want to actually do something with your life, holding still and being very quiet will kill your dreams and your chances of success. If you want to write, you have to act---you have to do. You have to take the first step to turn your idea into words on paper...by putting them on paper.

Next, say hello to PERFECT, which lives in fairy tales, thrives in daydreams, and rules in those reviews you imagine critics will write about your book someday. "It was just perfect," you imagine them gushing. Advertisers and scriptwriters create PERFECT every day with a wave of the CGI pointer or the writer's pen. In the real world, though...there's no such thing.

PERFECT will keep you from ever wrapping anything up, because as long as you haven't declared it done, that story you're messing with constantly can still be perfect in your mind. And nonexistent in the real world, with real readers who won't think it's perfect. Though some of them would love it.

Now, greet VICTIM---a chain that binds you to itself, that keeps you from taking chances, taking charge, standing up, moving on. As long as you are the victim in your own life, you cannot be the hero---and if you want to write, you have to be the hero. Why? Because heroes do cool things. The only thing VICTIMS get to do is wait for someone to save them. And if you're not in immediate danger, if you're upright and breathing and not chained to a wall, you don't need someone to save you. It's time to rescue yourself, to look as yourself as your own hero, to make your life what YOU want it to be.

And finally, there's FEEL. Living by FEEL alone involves turning off your brain and refusing to allow yourself to question, to refute, or to observe. FEEL absorbs and accepts everything---and fails to call to account those things not worth accepting. You have to feel to be human...without feeling, you'd be a robot, but feeling is only half of what you need to be a writer. You don't replace THINK with FEEL---writers must think, question, challenge, investigate, judge---and deem some things worthy, and other not. Writing is about being selective, making choices, choosing the best elements for your story and discarding the rest. So you make THINK and FEEL partners.

It's easy to fall for SAFE, PERFECT, VICTIM and FEEL, and you'll find plenty of encouragement from plenty of people if you do. But none of those people saying you deserve to hide, you need to be perfect, you should wait for rescue, and you ought to think with your heart, not your head, are going to make it as a writer. If you stop listening to them, though, you might. Memorize this---it will keep you going when quitting is easier:

SAFE never starts,
PERFECT never finishes,
VICTIM never acts,
FEEL never thinks.

You can do this.

Sacrifice for Ashly'n

Andryln of Gondan High steadied Orilyn of Sorendale as the ground shook with the latest tremor from the multiple volcanoes ravaging Ashly'n. The younger of the Triadic mages gave him a look of gratitude and then back to the destruction in front of them. Nemalyn of Serian Hold sighed from his other side and ran a hand across his tired face.

Straining with the effort, they no longer resembled the youthful immortal individuals they were just moments before. Andryln's face contorted with lines from the grimace his face had never known before. The mages' once shiny blonde hair now hung limp and grey as their own life forces left their bodies to fuel the opening their people would escape through.

The portal shimmered and showed them a glimpse of their people's new world. Rich fields of green, a large lake shrouded with mist and from which extended two flowing rivers. The portal's view settled on a knoll with a beautiful view of the lake.

Andryln found hope and purpose in that scene and doubled his efforts at maintaining the portal as the last of the Elves began walking into it. Orilyn and Nemalyn answered his efforts with increasing their own workings of the magic.

Seeing their friends and their families walk to the new world, bearing saplings from the Elvenglades, gave the three strength and pride in their sacrifice. These three noble Elves who knew they could not follow and found comfort in the fact that their lives would end quickly by the portal's energy once they released it.

Copyright 2008 Diana Cacy Hawkins

Inspiration

Jeremiah 29:13:

When you search for me,you will find me,
if you seek me with all your heart,
I will let you find me, says the Lord.