THINK, WRITE, TELL

Somewhere, recently, I read that if you have set some goals and just kept them to yourself without writing them down or telling them to others, your goal will probably wither and dry.

I've had to think about this for a while. I have always been the type of person who would set goals, but not write them down or say a word to others about them. That way, no one could call me on it. I thought it was a way to save face.

Writing down my goals sounded like a way to own those goals I was out to acomplish, but they tended to become easily covered. On a notecard on my desk? Covered with other papers and books. In a writer's journal? Turn a page and the goal is easily forgotten. On the bulletin board in front of my desk? Covered with other things that needed to go on the bulletin board. The same for my Toshiba bulletin board.

During a writing workshop last year, we were given a sheet of paper and told to put out name and the word "writer" on it. A full sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper. Most of us put our name and the word in the upper right or left corner of the paper, like we were taught in school. Our instructor chuckled and commended the single individual who wrote her name and the word in the center of the paper in large print. "Do you really think so little of your self as a writer?" she asked the rest of us. She challenged us to go out into the world and tell everyone "I am a writer." So I did.

But I continued to keep my goals to myself until I read that email or newsletter.

It was the end of October and I had been planning once again to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). For those of you who haven't heard, the challenge is to write a 50,000+ word novel in the 30 days that comprise the month of November. Usually, the only person I confided in was my hubby, but this year I decided to tell more people: anyone really who would listen. An amazing thing happened. The more people I told, the more I felt compelled to finish those 50,000 words.

As I look upon the experience, I think that setting goals must be three fold: set your goals and determine what it will take to accomplish the goal, then write it down, AND FINALLY, share your goals with anyone who will listen. 

So, since I can't verbally talk to you, here are at least two of my goals: 1) Post a new "Sunday Edition" story every Sunday, and 2) Post regularly on this blog and my other blogs.

I've said it and published it. Now, to make good on my word.

THE FICTION OF LIFE

Have you ever read Shakespeare's "The Seven Ages of Man"? It's part of one of his comedic plays As You Like It.

In my writing mind, I find the poem is a valuable tool. As an writer, try examining your life for the stories you have experienced and the stories you could have experienced.

Of course, I don't remember being an infant, but my mother does. Right now we are going through old papers that she has collected over the years, and she is ready, willing, and able to tell the stories of my childhood and her childhood. Some of it is the stuff good stories are based on.

In our second stage, we go to school. What lessons did I learn? What did I do? Several years ago, I was taking a college course that dealt with administration and society. The professor asked us to write our autobiography and examine why we are the person we are today. I was amazed at the experiences I unearthed about my school years. They are now recorded in that 30+ page document.

The third stage somewhat overlaps the second stage and continues, for many of us, into the sixth stage and for some into the seventh stage. It's the relationship stage. Who was your first crush? Your first boyfriend? And in looking at relationships, we can include the organizations we belong to, our best friends, and even the relationships with those with whom we work.

The fourth stage seems to me to address the world of work. What jobs have you held? I think the strangest job I had was posing as a victim for lifesaving classes. I had to pretend I was actively drowning and the aquatics student had to save me; then, I had to pretend I was the unconscious victim, near death, hoping to be saved before I died.

As the justice in the fifth and sixth stages of life, we are the parents and grandparents who look at the world with a different vision than we did as just a student or young adult. My mother who is in her 80s says that she has lived enough years to be able to say just exactly what she thinks. She's quite the spunky senior citizen.

Although by the time we reach the seventh stage, we have probably lived a full life, as writers we can harvest the ideas of the the experiences we share with people who have reached this stage.

Take some time and read Shakespeare's poem pasted below. Then, start to mind-map your life. What personal experiences can you identify as inspiration for a fictional story?

Let me know how this poem fits your life.

The Seven Ages of Man

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,

They have their exits and entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice

In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,

His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again towards childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.