SIMPLE, EASY AND FUN – thoughts by Carmel Rowley
Could it be that all the drama of the last few years has finally made me realise: “There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.” ~ Jean de la Bruyere
Over the past nine years there have been lots of people who have asked me about writing books. My answer as to how they should go about writing is to take control and just write. In the ten years it took to write Tails Carried High I realised it was easier not to immediately stress about spelling and sentence structure. For me it was about getting my ideas down before I forgot them.
Here I have to add that I know from personal experience how hard it is to control the workings of everyday life and find enough time to relax, sit down, be patient and write. It’s a surreal realisation that since I released my first book in 2009, I’ve written another five, plus the one to be released later this year.
All of this writing is not without the many highs and lows of life. But these days being a writer and creator is a lifeline and something I love to do. But I knew I couldn’t sustain the pressure of churning out a book a year. Life dictated slowing down and I now realise the importance of savouring each books journey from birth to leaving home.
My days without horses is different but fun, especially without the regimented pressure of a strict routine. I find time for Yoga and I’m taking time to relax and reconnect with my patience. My writing remains part of my daily routine but now if I miss a day I don’t worry. When I return to writing after a break, I sink into my story and join my characters in a far more relaxed manner.
To the left of my monitor I have two pieces of paper taped to the outer edge the first with Louise Hay’s words, ‘I’m no longer curious about things that upset me.’ And the second piece of paper has, ‘This is Simple – This is Easy – This is Fun,’ written on it. And a message to my left has the words RELAX and PATIENCE written on it.
All three remind me how to go about my day and where to direct my attention. These words also help me to make decisions to tackle tasks that I previously felt I couldn’t possibly manage to learn. For years I’ve had an ongoing frustration surrounding my author website. So after a couple of futile situations I decided to take control. No more trying to explain to others my ideas and what I envisioned in my minds eye. I decided that 2018 is the year to learn about websites.
As with the horses and my writing I took control. Over the past few weeks I’ve been learning how to update my author website. I truly surprised myself by even understanding some of what was explained. However, it may take a while for me to completely get it but I’m okay with that …
But a round of applause for me because on Tuesday I actually managed to put up my new banner on all twelve pages. Whew! I now know that word by word and week by week I’ll finally achieve what I should have learnt years ago.
But here’s the big surprise – I’m enjoying every minute and yesterday I drove home happy and smiling. My amazing young teacher is patient, relaxed, understanding and makes the lessons simple, easy and fun.
If I’m to be honest I must admit that I’d become caught up in the perfect trap. There are people who insist all must be perfect to move ahead but the words I focus on everyday never even mention perfect. When I think about perfect (I heard it often from fellow horse breeders) it has me emitting a huge sigh of frustration. It’s such a misused word these days, we’re all only human. I decided so long as I push myself on a regular basis, stay curious to learn and take up new tasks it’s a huge achievement.
There may be some of you out there that can understand or even wish to make a few little signs as reminders to be patient, relaxed and no longer be curious about the things that upset you.
In closing, some advice for my writer friends from Mark Twain. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” ~ Mark Twain
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