My ONE Wish for 2008

Personally, I've sworn off wishing. But, okay...if we're wishing, here's mine: I wish for every word that shows up on my Word doc to be pure genius the first time out. What a beautiful wish. Sigh.

Oh, and world peace and all that too; but Heather only gave us ONE wish. (What's up with that, anyway? I thought all good genies give 3 minimum.)

Joking aside, there’s the ONE thing I’ll do in 2008 that will make all the difference in my professional and personal success.

I’m going to watch my language. (But I don’t mean cussing, because we all know what I’m going to say the next time I stub my toe.)

Have you ever noticed that when you say things over and over, those words start to define you? Become a part of you? What we say about ourselves directly influences who we become. And so I will watch what I say about myself, both internally and outwardly.

Here's a lovely quote that illustrates exactly what I mean. Like so many of the great ones, it's unclear to whom it should be attributed. And just because you first got this in some spam from your sweet Aunt Martha doesn’t mean it’s any less true. (And rest assured that nothing bad will happen to you if you don’t forward it to at least 10 of the editors in your address book!)

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

So, there you go. My ONE believing plan for 2008 is to use my words to communicate – to myself and to the world - the put-together, confident person I really am. :)

Carolyn

Lessons Learned - Lesson 1

One of the great reasons we have this blog is so that writing mothers can share their experiences and what they’ve learned. As I learn things that help me build my writing career, I want to chronicle them here on Mama Needs a Book Contract. My hope is that I can be helpful.

I hope that somewhere out there on “the Internets,” as Heather says, some aspiring writing mother will click her way here, and find kinship, information, inspiration, and most importantly encouragement that yes, Virginia, you can be a writer.

I hope for this because two years ago I was that mom.

I was an unpublished, hopeful wannabe writer. Had been, in fact, for at least 30 years.

My mommy always said I could be a writer. ;-) My dad said I could be a writer. Dear, sweet Mrs. Calloway, my high school English teacher, said I could be a writer. My high school magazine teacher told me I was a writer. My distant relatives always asked me if I was a writer yet.

Later, my husband told me I could be a writer. My friends told me I could be a writer. My college English teacher told me I should be a writer.

But I shed some tears on my 37th birthday because I was almost 40, and I wasn’t a writer. It wasn’t as if I regretted the path my life had taken. I loved all of it: the years I spent in a Christian leadership program, the years following when I spent most of my time helping and ministering to people, the first years of marriage when we focused on stability and our new life together, and the first years of motherhood, when I focused on enjoying one of my dreams come true.

But now that I had all that in place, I wanted to be a writer. So on my 37th birthday, I prayed to God. There was some whining involved.

Two months later, my husband and I went to a Bible conference where I ran into an old friend. She pulled me aside as if to tell me something important.

She described a series of events that led to her getting a job working at home as a proofreader for a major educational publishing company. She remembered (after all these years!) that I wanted to be a writer. And she looked for me at this conference so she could tell me one thing: “Carolyn, God can open doors for you.”

It was like God was talking to me. Heck, He was talking to me. Answering me.

Before I turned 38, I was a writer.

Lesson learned: Yes, Carolyn, you can be a writer.

This is the life of a writing mother...

I came up with this - may I say, brilliant - idea this morning while I rattled around the empty house, getting more laundry done than should be legal, and amazingly writing sentences that turned into whole paragraphs, paragraphs that became the rough outline of an article that isn't due until next week. I had a telephone interview, and I didn't even have to deal with the guilt of parking my dd in front of the T.V.

Today was the 2nd day of my full-time freelance writing "career." (Can you call it a career when it's only been two days?) My dd started 1st grade yesterday, and since she's in a great school, and we know the bus driver, met the teacher, bought the very fashionable school clothes, I was Not. A. Nervous. Wreck. (And I feel very guilty about that. Not.)

Anyway during a break from all this, in a blissful state of inspiration, I decided I need a blog. But blogging alone is kind of - well, lonely - so I posted the idea on The Writing Mother that we should get together to do a group blog!

Now, I should tell you that I'm a wealth of ideas. But the WM group is full of doers, not just thinkers. By 3-ish, we were already discussing ideas. By 4-ish, Heather had this site up.

But in the midst of all that, at 3:36 p.m., I got a call from the new owner of a GREAT local parenting publication, asking me to consider working for them as a writer and in sales. By 4 p.m., I was off the phone and calling my husband. At 4:26, I found Heather's email, asking me to do a test post (this is it), and a few other emails I needed to answer right away. At 4:32 exactly, my dd's bus came and I was

not

there

to meet her! (Ah, there's the guilt - I wondered where it had gone, lol.)

Some other kid's babysitter walked her across the street. When she came in the house, I was still riding a wave of excitement about my own great news, and it took all the motherliness in me to remember to ask dd about her day!

And thus ended the day of productivity and solitude. It was one (happy) thing after another from that point on. Helping dd find some glue so she could finish her craft, reading the papers sent home from the school, ordering the pizza, greeting dh and dss who were home from work, watering the poor hot tomatoes... I'm sure you know how it goes. Busy, busy, busy!

After supper I tried to sneak away to write this blog post, but dd caught me. "Mom, aren't you going to watch the movie?"

"Sure, honey. I just have to do this one thing," I said, hoisting my laptop into my lap.

"You could bring your computer downstairs and be with us, Mom." (Aww. She loves me! Isn't it great to be wanted?)

So that's where I am right now. Typing in a darkened room while the movie Cars is blasting in full surround sound, teaching us a valuable lesson about working together as a team, and about appreciating those who help you get to where you want to be.

Hmm. Seems appropriate.

Hey, Writing Mothers - I appreciate you!

:)

How's that for a test post? With this movie blasting, I can't hear myself think, so I'll have to read it later to see if it makes any sense!