Practice Your Art

Well dear friends, it has been many months since I wrote a blog post. I guess I wasn't sure what else to write or share with all of you. I have also noticed a lot of people have been viewing my Facebook page I created.

Last night, however, I was given inspiration on creating a new blog post. A band called, The Piano Guys, (I know weird title), had a quote in the beginning of their video by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Don't only practice your art,

But force your way into its secrets,

For it and knowledge can

Raise men to the Divine

-Ludwig van Beethoven

I thought this was a wonderful inspiration for those pursuing their dreams whether it's writing, like me, or music or art or even science for that is also a creative and meticulous art. Everything we do is creative whether we know it or not. I'm in the process of sending out one of my novels and I don't know how it will turn out but at least I am doing what I love, with so many other ideas in my head!

Everything we do is for a purpose, a cause, and it all leads back to God and what he plans for our lives. It all leads back to him and I know He'd want us to do what we love and if we don't know what we want to do with our lives, let Him lead us in the right direction. No one says it's easy and it most certainly is not for me. I've had my fair share of frustrations and doubts, but Beethoven's quote see my art in a different way. Hopefully he and God will do the same for you.

As for The Piano Guys, I found them on a whim last night on YouTube. They do a lot of cover songs for different artisits and hymns as well. You really won't be disappointed. Look them up. The quote above came from their cover song on Amazing Grace and Fight Song by Rachel Platten. Maybe they'll inspire you, maybe not, but listen to them and see what they have to offer. I know we have a lot to offer to each other and ourselves, but also to God.  

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Looking back on all that I have accomplished over the years, I don't think there is much that I could have changed. Sure, people have regrets on stuff that they wish to fix, and believe me, I'm not one to think that there isn't something in my life I wouldn't change. But that doesn't mean that life or writing isn't perfect either. An author's work is never fully complete as there is always something to rewrite, edit or take out completely.

People think that authors write a few sentences in a chapter or only two chapters and that's it for the rest of the day. I highly doubt this is how an author's day really is, and while my schedule is different as I don't write full time, I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that. I myself am currently working on a novel I wrote when I was seventeen and going back through all the chapters and reediting everything is fun, as I get to see the story change in certain ways and make it even more readable (I hope), and hope that one day it will be published and presented to the public.

However, as I move forward in life and in my novel writing, I realize that writing isn't easy. It takes a lot of work and determination and prayer to finish what you started. But looking at the outcome of what you've accomplished, maybe something good will come out of it. I hope God will guide me in the right direction to where I'm supposed to be in life. I can't predict the future, but I know that I'll keep on writing. How can I not? I've got too many ideas in my head and there's no way that I'm not writing down something about it, whether it's a small chapter or paragraph that will help me finish the rest of it.

So, keep trying and do what you do best and look back on all that you have accomplished and move forward with what you have.

Beginning Down the Long Road

The beginning of one's path on where they are to be in life isn't always an easy one and while there are many doubts along the way, depressed thoughts, and wondering if anything you write is sent out to a world of nothing, you continue to ponder on, hoping that someone hears you.

My road, especially now, isn't an easy one when it comes to finding a writing job, but writing novels and sharing my past about my writing is one way of putting myself out there. In the last nine years I have written about ten or eleven novels. My first one was written in the ninth grade, hence where my writing path began. I had wanted to write a novel for years, but could never finish it. It either just didn't feel right or was down right  pathetic. Like anyone would want to read about a pony and her family who adopted her or something like that. I haven't written stuff like that and hope to never do again. But, with determination in that year I committed to writing a novel and finished it. I remember being so happy that I finally finished a novel! At the young age of fourteen, almost fifteen at the time. The next year I wrote another one and that summer I did as well and then a few more up until the end of high school. They all sat, and continue to, in a big box marked, "Novels" patiently waiting to be read one day on neat, clean typed pages in a hard covered book with a glossy cover.

I guess you could say that is pretty impressive for someone so young to write that many books even though none were published at the time. At least one more novel was written while I was in college, around sophomore year and part of one for my senior seminar class. Currently, many ideas have come to my head, unfortunately when I'm about to fall asleep and I'm too tired to get up and write it down. Don't you HATE when that happens? Along with novel titles as well which somehow get forgotten about too. But when I do come up with ideas and I'm around pen and paper, small exerpts of the novel are written and I continue to think about the novel idea for future reference. Beginning stages of a novel have been written, bu currently, I am working on a novel that I wrote the summer I was seventeen, which happens to be my favorite. Going  back and editing and changing chapters is a lot harder than it looks. But I hope in time I can be finished with it and find someone who loves it as much as I do and willing to publish it and pass it along to the world. I'd tell you the whole story but I wouldn't want to ruin it before it's finished! 

Anyway, my path or road or whatever you want to call it may have been simple in high school or even in college, but I now know that it isn't easy. It's not a fairytale where everything magically comes to place. There is a lot of hard work and determination along the way. I know I'll have doubts, even today earlier I did, I'll be honest, but how can I give up something so easily? My dream? The one thing I've always wanted to happen to me? Somehow Danielle Steele, Nicholas Sparks, Jodi Picoult, and James Patterson found it along the way somehow.

So, whoever is reading this, don't give up on what you do. Maybe there might be something out there different for you, the same for me, who knows? But right now, I will continue to write and someday I hope I succeed and make everyone proud. Including my fiance, my number one fan. <3

"A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes"

The small minds of children brings happiness and joy to parents as they see their children growing and learning about the world beyond the front yard. But there is also wonder and a fair amount of curiosity of what their dreams and thoughts are, how they grow with them and how they change overtime. Sometimes they drift away from those certain dreams and explore other ones to pursue, but during other periods of their lives, they somehow come back to their original dreams, thoughts from when they were young and you hope that they achieve those early dreams and they become a success through them and that it brings not only you joy, but them as well.

Previously, in my first post, I mentioned how I used to make up stories about Abraham Lincoln from the book my grandmother had which now sits in our dining room china closet. My idea of writing came about when I was seven years old and I'd make up stories in my head, write them down on paper or scribble in my notebook pretending I was writing a story. Of course, I've thought about other career paths, and still do, but somehow, I've always gone back to writing since it is something I've always known. Something that helped me express myself as expressing my thoughts verbally has never been my strong suit.

As for Abraham Lincoln, from what my grandmother has told me and still tells me like she did this past Easter, is how I'd make up stories about him and his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln, that had nothing to do with their real lives. I guess you can say that our 16th president helped me become the writer that I have strived to be. I know that writing isn't easy, but somehow, someway, I always come back to it. Too many thoughts jump around in my mind, story titles, pieces of scenes I picture in my mind. 

God has drawn me back to writing and I hope that He will guide me in the right direction on where to go with it and hope that one day I can be a success and that other writers such as myself can get the inspiration to follow their dreams and not forget how they began in the first place and always go back to that.
Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

"Do what you do best, not from what others tell you"

Passion and thoughts on what I do best has never been far from my mind. In today's society we are pressured into academic careers that all revolve around technology and finance. While these careers are very important, they are most certainly not my strong suit.
No, I've put myself into the mysterious world of the written word. Creativity, coming up with something of my own, has always been something I strived for.
Ever since I was a girl I'd make up stories. I''d make up ones about Abraham Lincoln! But that's a story for another time!
When people come across me they regard me as shy, quiet, with ont much to say. While that maybe true, i do have alot to say, I'm just better about it through writing.
For writing is what I do best. Or, at least I hope it is. Is it wrong to say that?
As a college gradute I have been tryiung to find my place in the world. After a year, I've come to the realization that it's harder than I thought it would be.
I've had my doubts, believe me, as I'm sure you have to whoever is reading this.
But, I've decided to get my word out in someway, shape or form. So, I introduce to you my blog. A blog that shows my passion, my creativity and the possiblity of faith through all that I do whether simple or extravagant.