Yup, We Gotta Have Faith...

"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme, when you wish upon a star as dreamers do."

--Music by Leigh Harline / Lyrics by Ned Washington

Faith is the light that brightens our darkest moments. We need faith to stay true to our vision no matter what.

I spent my wild high-school years in Orange County, California. I adored Hollywood but my true home was Disneyland. The enchanted land where magical dreams come true. Disney was an innovator, a pioneer and an unabashed dreamer who fueled his vision with a sense of optimism that would not be dimmed no matter how many clouds came his way. We have only to consider his fantastic legacy to realize just how far faith can take us.

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." --Walt Disney

Ah, courage. Yikes. It's one thing to bask in the lovely fantasy of being a best-selling author, signing books (not to mention contracts!) and quite another to scrape up the courage to tackle each phase. The Dreaded Synopsis. The Horror of Endless Editing. The Revision That Would not Die. The Curse of the Unwoven Subplot. Each and every aspect of our budding career requires us to believe. To have faith. And to have the courage to tackle the inevitable fear that arises. We may chide ourselves for our procrastination, our innate talent for avoidance. Yet the issue is often deeper than we realize. We need to remember that it is SCARY OUT THERE. We are confronting the Great Unknown. Imagine your fingers are the shaking legs of your inner self, and you're pushing, saying, "Go ahead... step off that cliff. It'll be fine. Trust me."

Of course, it WILL be fine. But our quaking fears don't know that. Yet. That's why we need to keep going. We need to push ourselves a little bit further each time. Remember the first time you rode a bike? The wobble and pitch, the fear of crashing? The fear fades with repetition. Soon, we'll be steering through plot twists, changing gears with ease!

"If you can dream it, you can do it." --Walt Disney

Anything we want to achieve, we can. That's the crux of it. Action is the vehicle to make our dreams come true. It does no good to visualize without taking action though! You can sit on your lawn all you want, visualizing cut grass. Those blades will continue to grow until you get out the darn mower!

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." --Walt Disney

Hah! Aye, there's the rub, eh? There's a huge difference between wanting and doing. Discipline is required. Focus. Determination. Those darn books won't write themselves. Dang it. *heh-heh*

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable." --Walt Disney

No half-measures. No... "I sort of think that maybe I might just be able to write if the heavens open up and give me a sign and the weather cooperates and every circumstance happens just right. Maybe."

Say it. "I'm a writer." Believe it. Then make it happen. How? Writer's write. They persist. They push. They don't let up. Ever. Make it happen.

“Somehow I can’t believe there are many heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret can be summarized in four C’s. They are: curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of these is confidence.” –Walt Disney

The four C's. Oooooh, this works well for writers, eh? Curiosity? You betcha. It's what drives us through our hours of research and our weeks of plotting. The greatest of all though… Confidence. Believe. You ARE what you believe. Remember, we're rewriting the old saying, "I'll believe it when I see it." *heh-heh* We now know that We'll see it when we believe it.

“Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it's done right.” –Walt Disney

Back to persistence. Yup. Plug away and keep the focus. We start with a cool premise. We type feverishly until we've carved out an incredible story. Then the hours and hours of editing. The critiques. The new revisions. The realization that a subplot needs to be expanded or doesn't work or drops off… and what the heck happened to the dog in Chapter Three anyway???

We begin with the barest wisp of an idea. And out of that tiny, almost imperceptible seed (to which we water, prune, weed, and add loads of s**t… er… Fertilizer *grin* ) a full-grown story blossoms. Amazing. Freaking amazing. Truly, it seems impossible, when we think about it.

“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” –Walt Disney.

Yeah, Walt. I'm with you on that one.

Have a great week, everyone!

Dare the Impossible.

Dare to Dream.

Even more importantly, Dare to WRITE!!

What are you goals this week? Fresh pages? Editing/revision? Synopsis? Queries? Plotting? What is your minimum goal and your streeeetch goal?

My goals:

Weekly essay.
15-25 pages.
Finish planting.
Spring-cleaning *groan* in time for Memorial Day Weekend.

How's about you?

Remember if we can dream it, we can do it!! We Are WRITERS!!

Now…. Go-go-GO!!

--Chiron O'Keefe