Alice Orr's Blog, page 7

How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination

How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination. Usually, I am all about discipline all of the time. Today I shall noodle a different tune. A tune I make up as I go along. Today I am all about lack of discipline all the time. Today is Distraction Day.

On Distraction Day, my imagination roams. Won’t you roam with me? Our object, if there is one, will be to see what happens, and perhaps be surprised. Our theme will be Less is More. Less careful attention. Less deliberate pursuit. Less clamor after control. Let us let go.

Instead of pushing yourself to do your very best today. Allow yourself to do whatever you end up doing, wherever you happen to be, however you happen to feel. We are not chasing achievement. We are, as the mystics say, simply being here now.

Start with your immediate environment. Where exactly are you? What is going on there? What will go on there when you let your imagination loose and follow the fantasy of whatever scenario may appear. When you allow the nature of the place to topple into the tale that unfolds.

Undiscipline your commitments. Put off your promises. The promises you have made to others. The promises you made to yourself, about what you would do in the several hours ahead. Watch it all slip-slide straight off your plate. Undo your To Do list, just for today.

Populate your presence with whomever happens to show up. Don’t turn off your phone. Don’t silence the notifications signal on your social media. If somebody knocks, answer the door. Invite everyone in by opening up to happenstance.

Stop thinking of distractions as a bad thing.  Distractions can lead us off our intended paths. Into adventure. Into unexpected venues. Around a corner we have never before turned. This is Distraction Day. A time to be carried away on whims of chance.

What are your personal time burners? The activities you ordinarily regard with guilt as a waste, especially of your declared intentions. Activities you think of as minimally productive to your career. What is the most difficult of these to resist? Desist from resisting. Indulge instead.

Welcome your own weirdness. David Lynch, frequent traveler of this territory, says, “It’s like fishing. I never know what I’m going to catch.” Take yourself on a fishing expedition. Accept anything that lands on your hook, the stranger the better. Astonish yourself if you can.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of rules to impose upon our anarchic experience of How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination.

Open your senses wide and turn up their volume. See. Each detail around you at maximum vividness. Listen. To sounds bursting like a revelation. Taste. Any morsel that touches your tongue. Smell. Scents pleasant and unpleasant alike. Feel. Everything, both tactile and internal.

Write it all down. Notes. Fragments of thought. Impressions. Dialog snatches. Only enough to make sure you can summon back the scene, the sensations, the silliness later on. If you spot the spark of a writing idea, record it briefly. Then abandon yourself to distraction once more.

Most important, have fun. Fly free. Resolve to fly into fun again soon. Make Distraction Days a regular event in your schedule. Your unleashed writer’s imagination will reward you richly for doing so.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

The post How to Boost Your Writer’s Imagination appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Back on the Writing Road Again

I last posted here seven months ago. The title of the post was “Exit Your Publishing Frenzy in 2021.” I wasn’t urging anyone to exit the writing highway altogether, but that is exactly what I personally did. I not only exited, I went to ground.

An animal burrows in – out of the flow of its usual life to rest and heal. People also experience times when recuperation, physical and mental and spiritual, is more crucial than work. The past seven months have been that kind of time for me.

A time of loss also. Most of us who write live with our stories as close companions that preoccupy our hearts and minds and reside in our souls. The loss of that story life is almost as deeply felt as the death of a friend. Mourning is required. I have been mourning.

Lockdown struck me hard, disoriented my sense of who I was and what I should be doing. The need to stay safe and keep healthy was clear, but my work direction had fallen into shadow. Days turned into weeks, and still the fog refused to lift. I longed to emerge into the light, but couldn’t seem to manage it.

In his wonderful book On Writing, Stephen King’s basic advice is this. Sit down every morning and do the work. Two-thousand words minimum, which is his fallback position. He actually advises more thousands than that. I wasn’t even sitting down, much less doing the work.

In response, Mr. King might tell the story of his own past lockdown, after being mowed down by the roadside. Leg encased in a medieval-style torture device. Confined to a back hallway. Sweating out a record-breaking heatwave with only a small oscillating fan. He wrote the book I quoted above.

“Keep on writing whatever may occur.” I have signed my own books with those words many times. I cherish that phrase, and pass it on with every good wish in my heart, especially to beginners on this path. But what does it mean to me?

Keep on thinking like a writer. If I had a book-signing today, I believe that is what my autograph tag would say. Keep on running snatches of dialog in your head. Keep on putting sentences together to describe the scenes you happen upon in your day-to-day.

A writer writes. This is true. But maybe not always through a host of pages to make a novel. A writer scribbles ideas on notecards. A writer fills a journal page when the morning gifts her with inspiration. A writer creates a post like this one, or maybe just speaks it silently to herself.

Meanwhile, I wait for a way back in. A way back into the work. A spark with the potential to become a blaze. When I see it and feel it, I will climb all the way out of my burrow, pull on my satin slippers and dance off down the writing road once more.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

The post Back on the Writing Road Again appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Exit Your Publishing Frenzy in 2021

Exit Your Publishing Frenzy in 2021. That is my new year’s wish for all of us in Writer Wonderland. To slow our roll and our pulses. To find a different way to navigate this very different time. Such an adjustment has everything to do with Attitude.

Attitude may not be Everything, but it Affects Everything. It is not easy to change the longtime habits of our writing career lives. But that is exactly what many of us need to do. Faster does not necessarily win the race, if this in fact even should be a race.

Everyone may be dashing around. Scrambling after crumbs of the publishing pie, ever more agitated as they dash. This happens a lot when opportunities are limited. But, will dashing and scrambling get you where you want to go? Most important, will you enjoy the journey?

What would happen if you were to calm down instead? What would happen if you pulled your emotions out of the equation? Especially those emotions associated with fear. This is the attitude roadmap to follow as you Exit Your Publishing Frenzy in 2021.

Take a detour from the hurry-up highway. Adopt the Long View. Life is long after all. My latest birthday attests to that. Your career path is long also. Wherever you find yourself at present is just one passage on that path. It is not the full story of your writing and publishing career.

Adopt the Wide View also. Step back and look at where you are standing. Ask yourself, “What can I do to put myself in a stronger position toward reaching my goal as an author?” No vague generalities, please. Identify one concrete step after another on the road to your destiny.

Brainstorm these steps toward your personal, individual, unique writer’s dream. Write them down. Review them frequently. Rethink and update them frequently. This is your once-upon-a-time travel guide toward your own happily-ever-after ending.

Think always in terms of strengthening your stance where you are. Toward solidifying your position. That way you will be ready to move forward from a Place of Maximum Possibility when real opportunities come along, as they one day will.

How do you create your Place of Maximum Possibility as a writer? Make your work the best that it can be. Study your writer’s craft. Excellence requires effort, and excellence is the standard you will pursue. At a comfortable pace. Scrambling and dashing are not effective study tools.

How do you create a Place of Maximum Possibility for your publishing career? Build a mighty platform one plank at a time. Be ready to prove to potential publishers that you can reach your readership yourself. You have time to do that mindfully now. No frenzy is required.

How do you create your Place of Maximum Possibility in the writing community? Pay it forward when you can. Pay it backward too, toward all of those who have urged you to believe in yourself and your work. They will rejoice as you Exit Your Publishing Frenzy in 2021.

Meanwhile, ask your crucial questions. How does your attitude need to be adjusted? What fears do you face about your writing career? What do you most eagerly desire to know? Add a question comment to this post, or email me at aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. I will be honored to respond.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s latest novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5 – is available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

The post Exit Your Publishing Frenzy in 2021 appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side – One Step at a Time. Do the messages you send yourself light your way up the mountainside? Or do they shove you downward into shadowed places? Are you on your fan page or your enemies list? Do you believe you have what it takes to write and be published?

Self-Doubt is the Mighty Adversary of Motivation. Do you say to yourself, “I’m not good enough,” or “What chance do I have?” Wrong-headed thinking steers you in the wrong direction when it comes to pursuing your author ambitions and traveling toward your writing goals.

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side – Step 1 – Answer this Question. What is your right-now writing goal? A one-sentence answer, please. Clear, concrete, and very specific. Stop reading this post and craft that sentence. Write it down, big and bold, for your psyche to see. First step taken. You have identified where you want to go.

Step 2 – See Your Goal as Here with You Today. Not somewhere off in a vague future, but sitting next to your keyboard. Waiting within each sentence you write and story note you jot down. Giving you a kickstart into every writing task you undertake.

Step 3 – See Yourself Moving toward Your Goal Today. If you make any progress at all, even a nudge or two, then this is a productive day. That nudge can be on the page or in your imagination. Visible, or maybe invisible to everyone except your storyteller’s soul.

Step 4 – Take Stock. Before today ends, make a written record of everything you have done or thought or said since waking that relates in any way to your current story or your on-going career strategy. If you don’t yet have a Writer’s Journal for this purpose, I urge you to start one.

Step 5 – So  Crucial that it Could be Another First Step. Make sure your goal is realistic. Do not defeat yourself by filling your plate impossibly full. A tyrannical to-do list is the monster you create for yourself all by yourself. Set reasonable, self-sensitive goals.

Step 6 – The One We Too Often Ignore. Savor what you have accomplished today. Don’t rush off to the next thing just yet. Haste makes waste of your ability to experience your achievements as fully and deeply as you deserve to experience them.

Follow these 6 Steps Every Day. Know your overall goal. Break that goal down into daily expectations, or not. Some of us want a set plan for each day. Others prefer to go with the flow. Do what is comfortable for you, what keeps your head in your writing life game.

If You Don’t Believe You Achieved Enough Today – Look Again. Ask yourself, “Have I done what I undertook today as well as I could?” Factor in the obstacles and setbacks you encountered. If you can answer, “I have done what I could as well as I could do it,” you have had a successful day.

Think of Each Day as a Jewel on the Thread of Your Life. A jewel on the thread of your writing career. Place it artfully, and never underestimate its worth. Never forget to admire its beauty.

You are Headed up Your Mountain One Step at Time. Building belief in yourself lights the way one day at a time. Nurture that belief always. This is How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side.

 Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr’s Christmas story A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available on Amazon HERE. Enjoy!

 Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

 

 

The post How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude

Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude. Make yourself your most valuable writing career asset. I began teaching workshops to writers over three decades ago. From the beginning, my mission was to share what I know about the publishing world.

My knowledge comes from many years as a book editor and literary agent. My mission comes from many years as an unpublished, then published author. Back then, I could have benefited from what I have learned since as a publishing professional. I pass those lessons on to you, so that you may navigate the publishing marketplace more effectively in your own writing careers.

The specifics of my message have changed as your author needs have changed. My current  message is about how to combat the self-sabotage I find so rampant among writers who hope to be published, or better published, in this time of diminished opportunities.

Getting published has always been a challenge. Finding success in any competitive arena is difficult. Many try, but relatively few are chosen. That situation has not changed. You may not be able to alter these circumstances, but you can alter the way you respond to them.

Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude. You must empower yourself in your writing career. You empower yourself when you commit to two priorities. #1. To use your time and talents to grow your career potential, however tough the challenges may be. #2. To control your reactions to the limitations you encounter along the way.

You can make it through these difficult times. You can make it through because you already possess at least some of the skills and resources that will take you there. You only need to reassesswhat those resources are, and be guided toward a strategy for employing them. That strategy begins with examining your Attitude.

Triumph through adversity has everything to do with Attitude. And your first Attitude Adjustment must be to accept the following. To succeed you will have to do battle. You have no other choice, if your passion is to write and bring your writing to the world.

Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude. Your second Attitude Adjustment must be to fight back fear. Struggle against fear as fiercely as your story heroine struggles against the obstacles in her path in order to survive and thrive. I have waged similar fearsome fights in my writing career. As an author, you are destined to do the same.

Will yourself through the scary places. Here is a practical exercise to prepare you for that adventure. First thing every morning  say these words, out loud and with passion, to your mirror. “I will not be afraid today. I refuse to let anxiety infest my spirit today.”

How else do you fight back fear?  Change your thinking about now and the future. Change your attitude toward today, and also toward tomorrow. Particularly in terms of your goals for yourself and your writing career.

Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude. Stop discouraging yourself. Stop thinking of your goal as far away. Stop thinking of your progress toward your goal as painfully slow. That kind of thinking ends in discouragement. That kind of thinking drains your hope. That kind of thinking will not help you triumph in your struggle to succeed as a writer.

Do not squander what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the Power of Enthusiasm. Never relinquish your Powerful Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the energy you need to fuel yourself and your writing career through testing times. Enthusiasm will carry you to your goal.

Don’t miss my other Attitude Adjustment posts. I guide your Powerful, Enthusiastic Journey. I show you how to put your psyche on your side. How to escape the frenzy the writing life can become. How to notch up your discipline. How to recognize and utilize the abundance that surrounds you.

Join me here. Learn what we all need to know, and never forget Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude.

Meanwhile, ask your crucial questions. How does your attitude need to be adjusted? What fears do you face about your writing career? What do you most eagerly desire to know? Add a question comment to this post, or email me at aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. I will be honored to respond.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr’s Christmas story A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available on Amazon HERE. Enjoy!

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

The post Attitude. How to Earn an A for Author Attitude appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Attutude: How to Earn an A for Writer Attitude

Attitude: How to Earn an A for Writer Attitude. Make yourself your most valuable writing career asset. I began teaching workshops to writers over three decades ago. From the beginning, my mission was to share what I know about the publishing world.

My knowledge comes from many years as a book editor and literary agent. My mission comes from many years as an unpublished, then published author. Back then, I could have benefited from what I have learned since as a publishing professional. I pass those lessons on to you, so that you may navigate the publishing marketplace more effectively in your own writing careers.

The specifics of my message have changed as your author needs have changed. My current  message is about how to combat the Self Sabotage I find so rampant among writers who hope to be published, or better published, in this time of diminished opportunities.

Getting published has always been a challenge. Finding success in any competitive arena is difficult. Many try, but relatively few are chosen. That situation has not changed. You may not be able to alter these circumstances, but you can alter the way you respond to them.

You must empower yourself in your writing career. You empower yourself when you commit to two priorities. #1. To use your time and talents to grow your career potential, however tough the challenges may be. #2. To control your reactions to the limitations you encounter along the way.

You can make it through these difficult times. You can make it through because you already possess at least some of the skills and resources that will take you there. You only need to be reassess what those resources are, and be guided toward a strategy for employing them. That strategy begins with examining your Attitude.

Triumph through adversity has everything to do with Attitude. And your first Attitude Adjustment must be to accept the following. To suceed you will have to do battle. You have no other choice, if your passion is to write and bring the your writing to the world.

Your second Attitude Adjustment must be to fight back fear. Struggle against fear as fiercely as your story heroine struggles against the obstacles in her path in order to survive and thrive. I have waged similar fearsome fights in my writing career. As an author, you are destined to do the same.

Will yourself through the scary places. Here is a practical exercise to prepare you for that adventure. First thing every morning  say these words, out loud and with passion, to your mirror. “I will not be afraid today. I refuse to let anxiety infest my spirit today.”

How else do you fight back fear?  Change your thinking about now and the future. Change your attitude toward today, and also toward tomorrow. Particularly in terms of your goals for yourself and your writing career.

Stop discouraging yourself. Stop thinking of your goal as far away. Stop thinking of your progress toward your goal as painfully slow. That kind of thinking ends in discouragement. That kind of thinking drains your hope. That kind of thinking will not help you triumph in your struggle to succeed as a writer.

Do not squander what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the Power of Enthusiasm. Never relinquish your Powerful Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the energy you need to fuel yourself and your writing career through testing times. Enthusiasm will carry you to your goal.

In future posts I will guide your Powerful, Enthusiastic Journey. I will show you how to put your psyche on your side. How to escape the frenzy the writing life can become. How to notch up your discipline. How to recognize and utilize the abundance that surrounds you.

Join me here. Learn what we all need to know, and never forget. How to Earn an A for Writer Attitude.

Meanwhile, ask your crucial questions. How does your attitude need to be adjusted? What fears do you face about your writing career? What do you most eagerly desire to know? Add a question comment to this post, or email me at aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. I will be honored to respond.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr’s Christmas story A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available on Amazon HERE. Enjoy!

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

The post Attutude: How to Earn an A for Writer Attitude appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Storytelling Mentor on Your Shoulder

Storytelling Mentor on Your Shoulder. Every writer I know has endured rejection. I certainly have. In fact, on the occasion of my first major rejection, the editor implied, or maybe told me straight out, that I had no idea what I was doing.

My first big mistake that day was agreeing to a sushi lunch. I didn’t know sushi from tsunami at the time, but I did know I should appear cooperative. So, I replied, “Sushi’s good.” Had I guessed the true purpose of the lunch, I would have made a different response. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a clue, though I probably should have.

I was writing my second novel for this editor. The first hadn’t set the world on fire.  The second was supposed to correct that, but the revision phase had dragged on so long I’d almost lost track of what my story was originally about. As I took a wobbly chopstick grip on my third portion of something raw and wet wrapped in seaweed, my editor let me know she felt the same.

“This just doesn’t work for us,” the editor said. If you have ever heard or read those words, you know what happened next. I plunged into shock. On the other hand, I was back on track in one respect. I got that the revision phase was finished. Novel number two was off the table, as surely as the sushi had slipped from between my chopsticks and plummeted to my plate.

“You seem to think a bird sits on your shoulder and tells you how to write,” my editor was saying. “Like you don’t have anything to do with it.” I was incapable of responding. Instead, I excused myself, dashed to the ladies’ room, and leaned my clammy forehead against the cool black tiles of the marble stall.

A Storytelling Mentor on Your Shoulder?  I had never been aware of anything, with or without feathers, telling me how to write a book. What I had always been aware of was my lack of power. Because of the way the publishing world works, I had no control over the destiny of my writing career. Now, I understood how perilous such a position can be.

If you have ever submitted a manuscript anywhere, you know what I mean. You labor over your work, send it out into what feels like a void. then wait for a thumbs up or down on your efforts, your ambitions, your hope. You endure this because you have no idea what else you can do. You are as clueless as I was in that ladies’ room with my forehead pressed against tile as black as I believed my future to be.

A few years later, I became an editor myself. That choice had a lot to do with power. I was determined to regain mine, and to pass it on. As an editor, then a literary agent and teacher, I would be that bird. I would sit on a writer’s shoulder and whisper in her ear the words she needed to hear to avoid her own demoralizing rejection scenes. I could do that because my years on the other side of the desk taught me a lot about how to create a marketable manuscript.

I have been sharing that knowledge ever since. Still, the dread words are out there. “This just doesn’t work for us.” Words that hit their mark hard for any writer. I wish I could guarantee they will never be heard again, but I can’t. What I can offer is my experience and expertise, and to be a bird with an empowering song you need to hear. A Storytelling Mentor on Your shoulder. Stay tuned to this blog. I have many more melodies to sing.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr’s Christmas story A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available on Amazon HERE. Enjoy!

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

The post Storytelling Mentor on Your Shoulder appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Write Thru Crisis – Tell Your Life Story

Write Thru Crisis. Tell Your Life Story. There are many reasons to tell your story as you have lived it. All of those reasons are legitimate, as long as they are your reasons, and you are the center of your story. Which is definitely a story that deserves to be told.

You might want to make a gift to those close to you, especially your family. A gift portrait in words, and other materials too, created by you from the moments that make up your experience on this earth. Your story is a legacy after all, to be passed on to those you love.

Or, you might want a wider, less personal audience. An audience you reach by publication. I took that road once myself, as you will see below. Should I ever choose to explore another aspect of my story, I would most likely try a different route.

What are my reservations about publication as a personal storytelling goal? They have to do with the difficulty of actually reaching that wider audience. I base this opinion on my several decades in the publishing business, as book editor, literary agent, and published author, especially of that memoir I mentioned.

What does commercial success as a personal storyteller generally require? Either you are already well known in the world. Or, you possess the potential to become well known because your story is sensational. Meaning it has shock value. The more shocking the better, if you wish to capture attention in a world already bombarded by shocking stories.

I don’t discount this reason for telling and marketing your story. If you happen to have risen to fame or infamy, grab your flash of spotlight while it lasts. Grab with all your might, and hold on tight. I wish you the best of luck with that.

Meanwhile, many of you might seek a more intimate center stage. The family and friends focus is one of those venues. But even this personal circle audience does not reach as deeply into the heart of the matter as you could go.

Some of you would prefer to tell your story for yourself. Your purpose is to define yourself on your own terms. You want to tell your story as you perceive yourself to have lived that story.

We have all heard ourselves defined by others in various ways. From glowing to despicable. Reality generally lies somewhere between those poles. Plus, the reality that truly matters to your story is your own. What you perceive, believe, and struggle to tell, as long as you struggle for truth.

You aim to tell your real life story from the center of yourself. Not the versions of your story told by the voices of other people. Though the most insistent critical voice in our heads is most often our own.

Your challenge is to excavate your story. Below its surface. Beyond derisive voices, especially your own. A personal archaeology to discover, uncover, and recover the story of your life that is most true for you.

This is an expedition worth undertaking. Unearth the story in which you are the main character, the hero of the drama you have personally experienced. Now, there is a story deserving to be told. I can’t wait to hear you Tell Your Life Story.

Alice Orr – http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Lifted to the Light: A Story of Struggle and Kindness is Alice’s moving memoir of her battle against life or death odds and the good people who helped her triumph. Find Lifted to the Light HERE.

What Readers Say: “Couldn’t put it down.” “Juicy and truthful, straight from the heart.” “Too good to miss.” “Beautifully written.” “Funny and consoling.” “Alice Orr is an amazing author.”

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/

http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/

http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

The post Write Thru Crisis – Tell Your Life Story appeared first on Alice Orr Books.

Tell Your Story

Tell Your Story. There are many reasons to tell your story as you have lived it. All of those reasons are legitimate, as long as they are your reasons, and you are the center of your story. Which is definitely a story that deserves to be told.

You might want to make a gift to those close to you, especially your family. A gift portrait in words, and other materials too, created by you from the moments that make up your experience on this earth. Your story is a legacy after all, to be passed on to those you love.

You might want a wider, less personal audience. An audience you reach by publication. Though that will not be the most pressing intention of this blog, as we contemplate why our individual stories deserve to be told, and I guide you toward telling yours.

What are my reservations about publication as a personal storytelling goal? They have to do with the difficulty of actually reaching that wider audience. I base this opinion on my several decades in the publishing business, as book editor, literary agent, and published author.

What does commercial success as a personal storyteller generally require? Either you are already well known in the world. Or, you possess the potential to become well known because your story is sensational. Meaning it has shock value. The more shocking the better, if you wish to capture attention in a world already bombarded by shocking stories.

I do not discount this reason for telling and marketing your story. If you happen to have risen to fame or infamy, grab your flash of spotlight while it lasts. What I will say, in future posts about how to tell your story, could help you make a success of that grab.

Meanwhile, I speak to those of you who seek a more intimate center stage. The family and friends focus is one of those venues. But even this personal circle audience does not reach as deeply into the heart of the matter as I will urge you to go.

My own target audience is those of you who seek to tell your story for yourself. I speak most directly to those of you whose purpose is to define yourself on your own terms. Those of you who want to tell your story as you perceive yourself to have lived that story.

We have all heard ourselves defined by others in various ways. From glowing to despicable. Reality lies somewhere between those poles. Plus, the reality that truly matters to your story is your own. What you perceive, believe, and struggle to tell, as long as you struggle for truth.

Telling your story will be our pursuit. Not the versions of your story told by the less-than-admiring voices of other people. Though they are not usually the loudest to overcome. The most insistent critical voice in our heads is most often our own.

Our challenge is to excavate your story. Below its surface. Beyond derisive voices, especially your own. A personal archaeology to discover, uncover, and recover the story of your life that is most true for you.

Join our blog post expedition. Unearth the story in which you are the main character, the Hero in Your Mirror. Now, there is a story deserving to be told. Tell your story.

Alice Orr – http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Lifted to the Light: A Story of Struggle and Kindness is Alice’s moving memoir of her battle against life or death odds and the good people who helped her triumph. Find Lifted to the Light HERE.

What Readers Say: “Couldn’t put it down.” “Juicy and truthful, straight from the heart.” “Too good to miss.” “Beautifully written.” “Funny and consoling.” “Alice Orr is an amazing author.”

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Write Thru Crisis – Places Replenish

Write Thru Crisis – Places Replenish. Reading stories aloud was a big deal when our grandchildren were growing up. At bedtime, always, with my voice at deliberately droning level to encourage sleep. But my favorite tale-reading moments happened under the storytelling tree.

Our front yard featured a particularly family-friendly place. A yellow Adirondack chair fitted into a notch at a fence corner between two trees. I would sit in that chair with a grandchild at my side and another at my feet, and I would read.

There were actually two trees, but the way they grew made me think of them as one. At ground level, they were far enough apart to accommodate a seat and small table. Further up, at about towhead height, they began to grow toward each other.

One day my grandson, ever inquisitive and curious, asked me about that. “What’s the story with the trees, Grandma.” He was staring at the place where the trees came almost together over my head, and he’d asked for a story. I gave him a story.

“These trees were born very close to each other under the ground, and they fell in love. When they grew above the ground and saw each other’s beauty, they fell in love even more. So much so that they couldn’t stand being apart and grew toward each other instead. Until they were side-by-side, with their branches entwined, reaching for the sky.”

I’m not sure my grandson believed my story, or my granddaughter either. But they appreciated a good yarn, and allowed me to think they accepted what I said. On the other hand, I believed every word with all my heart. Especially the mood of it, the undertone and maybe the reassurance, of romance.

Stories have power. They lift and transport us out of real-life time and space into another universe, separate and apart. John Gardner called that universe “the dream of the story.” I believe in this lifting and transporting, but I also believe in places like our storytelling tree.

Places have power too. Wherever we may be, we can picture ourselves somewhere else, like that notch in the fence at the corner of our front yard. We can take ourselves there, into the feel of it. The green branches overhead, the smell of grass and a child’s hair, the sound of bird chirps on the soft air of late spring. The taste of contentment on the tongue.

At bedtime in those days, I sat in another chair. Bright red, with a comfortable back cushion to ease me after delightfully exhausting hours of youthful energy everywhere. This chair stood between the dormers of the children’s upstairs loft bedroom, where the angles of the ceiling leaned toward one another, much like the trees in the fence corner outside.

These days, when I most need to be re-spirited, I take myself to Christmas Eve in that red chair. There’s a stack of books at my side, to be read in the same order each year. My singsong has droned two excited children almost to sleep. I reach the last book on the pile and begin. “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house….”

I hope you will tell your re-spiriting stories as well. I imagine you lifted out of all that the Now may demand of you, and into a place you know intimately in every detail. Your heart is opened there. Your hopes are revived there. Your soul is replenished there, as it most richly deserves to be.

Alice Orr – http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Speaking of Christmas, A Vacancy at the Inn is Book 3 of Alice’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series, and it is a holiday story. Find A Vacancy at the Inn HERE.  Find all of Alice’s books HERE.

What Readers Say: “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”  “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

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