Thoughts are a driving force. As a writer, you know that because it’s your thoughts that sing and dance through your plot and make your story come alive. In that line, you are quite disciplined and think those thoughts every day. It’s creative, and creation is important.

What other thoughts do you have? Do you ever look at yourself and your own future in your thoughts, or are those thoughts all reserved for your writing or other artistic endeavors?

Yup, I’m going to say it again – I did that.

I lived for my writing. For many years, I lived pretty well in my writing. To a great extent, I got into writing as a child because the world inside my head was better than the world around me. At least I had some control over what was inside my head. I’m not going to get into the “oh-woes” of my childhood – we all had some of those and I had it a heck of a lot easier than many. Point is, I moved into my head and pretty well stayed there.

Then I ended up, a great many years later, with an excellent book and no way to sell it.

What had gone wrong? Yes, the publishing industry has problems, but they still accept some – so why wasn’t I one of the some?

Well… had I seen myself published? Had I seen myself at all? Um… no, actually. All my creative visualization had gone into the fantastic story within the pages, but never on the pages themselves. The story is not the book. I also never looked beyond getting it finished. I saw the story whole and as a great piece of work, but I didn’t see agents, publishers, media releases or book-signing ventures.

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Thoughts are more powerful than most of us realize. When you start to look into it, you can see that what you think, say and do surrounds you. It’s the Law of Attraction. You might question which came first, but at the start, it doesn’t matter. There are those who lift themselves out of horrendous situations because mentally they refuse to bow down. They keep their higher thoughts and look to a better place – and they get there. So a situation that comes first will not hold down a person who is in control of his or her thoughts. Most of us, though, have drawn a world in around us and never realize we have any play in its structure. We just accept what is, and don’t ever see a way out. We plod on with what we have, making do and echoing back to the world what we have already accepted. Reinforcing our situation.

So what are your thoughts regarding you, the writer? What are your feelings? What is the message you give to yourself, day after day? It matters.

When I sat there with a brilliant manuscript and no one would view it, I realized that I had neglected to put myself into the picture of my life. I didn’t know that was possible, to leave yourself out of your own life, but it is. My life – and I wasn’t in it. I dealt with everything I needed to at work and at home, I saw to the needs of those around me, but when it came to time for myself, why I gave it all gladly to my writing, plots and characters, backdrops and intrigue… and not one thought for the writer. Me.

Okay, well THAT had to change. So I started visualizing on my own behalf. It was hard at first, those pesky characters kept crawling into my thoughts and drawing me away (it was such a habit), but I persevered and turned it into a daily ritual.

I started by getting a book roughly the size and thickness of what my book would be, closing my eyes and just feeling the weight, visualizing that it was my book I was holding. Knowing the story so well, I could open the book – still with eyes closed – and mentally read the first few lines… The knife was wet with blood, the handle slippery with it, the huge blade dark and crimson…

I did that every day, I began to visualize my story in book form, sitting on my desk. Indeed, I put up a couple of bookends ready to receive my first book. I began to think and speak of myself as a writer rather than as I had, which was “an attempted writer”.

When I designed the first version of the cover (not the one I have now, which is professionally produced), we printed it off and I wrapped it around an existing book, so then I had shape and a visual that it was “my” book.

What I am suggesting is, if you’re not doing this already, start believing in yourself, whether or not there is anything in existence right now to back you up. If you’re looking at nothing and keep telling yourself you have nothing, you will never get anything!

I wanted to shift my thoughts away from “one day I’ll get there” and into “I am” – I wanted to look and act and FEEL like I had made it.

And now I’ve made it. The Khekarian Threat is out there most magnificently. Better still, most who have read it so far have loved it and come back for more (you can’t get better than that). The King’s Sacrifice, the next in The Khekarian Series is out there, too, and the third one is underway. I AM a writer, an author.

Was it my thoughts? My thoughts, my efforts, a mixture of things, no doubt, but focusing my thoughts speeded things along, I’m sure it did. If you’re thinking in doubt, you’re living in doubt, and if you’re thinking success for yourself, you are already living in success. It can’t help but follow.

You’ve all heard the saying, like attracts like. It’s the Law of Attraction and it is in everything, even your thoughts.

It amazes me, this realization. Everyone has got this most powerful tool and every writer knows the power of imagination. Let’s use a little of it to help ourselves along. Make it a habit. Thinking good and positive thoughts about yourself will not only help your life, but help others, too, it’s just a natural flow-on. Everyone benefits.

The Magnificent Universe? I admit, that’s the way I see it, but whether you see it that way or not, there is no harm and only benefit in removing negative words and thoughts from your daily processes. Give it a try. Anyway, there’s always room for more positive thinkers in the world.

Cheers all!

😀

Allyson