LIVE LIFE INTENSELY/FULLY

LIVE LIFE INTENSELY
by Billie A Williams © 2007

“For your writing to have depth, you must experience life to the fullest.” [Rob Parnell, www.easywaytowrite.com ]

Does that mean you have to go out and sky dive even though you are afraid of heights just so you can write well? I think not! I doubt even John Grisham or Patricia Cornwell have sky dived. Your background can provide a rich tapestry from which to draw or intense fantasies provide varying degrees of depth and intrigue to your writing.



For instance fantasy author Brenda Kleager isn’t satisfied to sit and dream up fantasy worlds – she is continually experimenting with new ideas, new venues—researching and developing her worlds, her characters. And, when she is not designing characters or worlds, she designs jewelry and book thongs and more for authors [ http://www.treasuredsecrets.info ], or she is writing books on natural/holistic topics. She is a teacher, she is a mother, she is a student, and she can move across town or across states without taking a second to pause for a breath. In my book, she is a prime example of living life intensely, going for the brass ring every day in everything she does. She is the Literary Specialist (Little Professor) at
www.word-mage.com/ offering her abilties to help others.

As writers we come to discover, writing itself seems to add intensity to our lives. The very act of thinking on the page, developing characters to people our stories, designing plots to wrap around the guidelines of the genre we are patterning our story to fit, personal growth, achievement and spiritual fulfillment help to develop the writing and the person/author.

Dealing with rejection takes a certain kind of chutzpah and writers become adept at handling it and moving on. That takes intense living. Believing in yourself enough when some others don’t seem to, takes a certain kind of courage and perseverance. It is an experience, it is growth and it is living without walls when you defy that rejection and dare yourself to try one more time.

Think of yourself as Einstein – not 10,000 failures but 10,000 experiments that didn’t yield the desired outcome—yet! If dyslectic Einstein can be an inventor of great things, how could one little rejection stop you who are living intensely, while wringing every drop of power out of every second of life?

Becoming a successful writer is the ultimate gamble as you risk your self-esteem, your livelihood, your ego on the belief that you can succeed. Living life intensely doesn’t need to be living recklessly; it just means challenge yourself to do the thing you fear. Stretch yourself, to do the thing that helps you grow, helps you gain experience that can be used in your career. Fear is the energy for change that fuels your growth. Fear nothing.

There is a saying around that “nothing is wasted on a writer” and I think this is true. What other profession lets you use every single thing that— rules your day, or spoils your mood, or elates you, or crashes your dreams, yet allows you to further your career? Live it for all you are worth, whatever the day may bring and you will be living your life intensely. Look at those dreams in your background while you were still young enough to dream, before someone told you you couldn’t, that it was a foolish waste of time – dream again—it isn’t a waste of time – it’s time moving you to stretch and try and be all that you can be! YOU’RE UNSTOPPABLE! Live your life that way.