I've hit 200,000 words before April!
I've got the highest word-count goal for the year I've ever set for myself.
I'm driven.
All my life, at every turn, I've been told I "can't."
My father told me I wouldn't amount to anything.
"Paul, you can't go to college. We can't afford it." - So I joined the military.
"Paul, you will never make E-5 (a military rank)." - I not only made it, I surpassed it as an enlisted troop & THEN earned a commission as an officer. (Fun fact: I ended my military career as a much higher rank than the senior NCO who told me that.
"Paul, you'll never find a better woman than me." - Oh, 1st wife, how wroooooong you were. GILU, Slinky!
"Paul, you won't ever be published. It's too hard & you need to focus on your career." - I bought that lie for two decades. Now, I'm making up for it.
Fact: there will always be people in your life who want to shit on you when you're down.
Hordes are waiting around the next family tree or internet dark corner to convince you that you don't have "it" to make it, that your dreams are "childish," or that you need to make them & their priorities your priority.
And they'll manipulate you to feel better about themselves.
They'll tell you that your writing sucks.
They'll tell you no one will buy your story.
They'll tell you that your dream is "impossible."
And each and every one of them is full of shit.
I subscribe to my own--a tad pretentious, I realize, but it drives me forward:
Paul's 3D theory: all you need is Drive, Determination, and Discipline -- which you can hear on the Horrible Writing Podcast
I am accountable to me.
And I'll be damned if I have to look that gorgeous slick-headed man with the stunning green eyes in the mirror and explain why I let him down.
The 8-year old me only ever wanted to write stories. The 18, 28, & 38 year old me fell for the LIE that you "have" to grow up, you "have" to buy a house, you "have" to fit the mold society has set for its lemmings.
I was a lemming for over a 3rd of my life.
No more
In 2018, I published 3 times while watching more talented writers sit on their manuscripts or fight the endless battle of finding "the" editor, or "the" agent, or "the" magazine that would publish them.
I'm on schedule to publish 3 more times this year.
That means, in the span of about 20 months, I'll publish 6 books.
SIX.
I'm chasing my dream. The barriers have been removed because I removed them.
What are YOUR barriers?
The lie that you need a 6-figure salary? The lie that you need a nice home in a nice neighborhood in a nice school district? The lie that you need to keep going to school until you could be the grandparent of some of the other students in the room? The lie that you must procreate?
The lie that you "can't?"
Don't buy into them.
Within you is everything you need to chase your dreams.
It's simply up to you to run in the right direction.
Originally Posted: March 2019
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