I'm trying to get the next Peri novel finished. If I can meet my schedule, I should be done with the first draft by the beginning of December. Two thousand words a day can be hard, especially when you get to the middle and you're pretty sick of the story and you want to get to the exciting conclusion, but you can't yet and you have to still make every page worthy of turning.
Still, if you are that person who writes "Author" in every space that asks for your profession, you set a schedule and work your hours and write your two thousand words without complaint.
But I digress...
I'm trying to write, and I'm approaching nose-grinding Middle Territory. Every once in a while, I sneak a peek at Facebook and notice August McLaughlin's status. Lucky girl, she got to meet Oprah Winfrey and get inspired to be even more than she is, and she's already plenty. Here is what I read:
"I was up before dawn doing my homework from Oprah. Want to join? Envision your dream life then write it down with specifics." - August McLaughlin
Being one of those people who believe in positive thinking, daily affirmations, etc, this sounded exciting to me. Envision my dream life? Write it down? Use specifics? Count me in, especially if it delays me in getting back to the writing.
What would my dream life look like? Well, I'd live in a different house. It used to be a large house on a cliff overlooking an ocean, with a wraparound porch and lots of windows. After visiting Scotland, I replaced that one with a simple stone cottage in the Highlands.
Less to clean, you know, although it has to come with good internet access.
But then I thought, what about my friends and family? I couldn't stand to be that far away from my son, or to not get together with my pals. My gal pal Tameri lives in Carlsbad, which is about 90 minutes from my house - we practically have to stand on our heads to schedule a play date. Getting her to Scotland would be even harder.
And my horses - what about them? I can't envision a life without my horses, and as long as I have Snoopy, I need Niki to be my trainer. I can't imagine any trainer who would love Snoopy the way she does. Plus she's a fun friend - I feel a definite connection. She and I both had not planned to have any children, only to change our minds later in life. She's a little younger than me when I had Marcus, but she's still on the edge of being the "older mom." I now have someone to impart my little pieces of wisdom from my days raising an only son.
So maybe my dream life would not include a move to the Highlands, unless I could convince my friends and family to move with me. I suppose I could envision living in a cozy home on a large horse property here in southern California. Niki could train horses there, unless she envisions her own place.
I'd ride in the morning, then write in the afternoon. In the evenings, Dale and I would go to the local bar/café and have drinks and appetizers and watch some sporting event. Then we'd go home and I'd do a little reading before bed.
The thing is, this is the life I'd envision today, but what about tomorrow? Maybe I need to envision my dream life in terms of what I want to be doing, not where I want to be doing it.
Do you have a dream life? Is it about a place, or people, or who you want to be?
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