Breakthrough In Writing - Remove the Limitations

I haven't written a lot in the last two years. And yet I'm writing all the time. I've been obsessing about it, wanting to do it, attempting to do it. Yet not making the time. Or relating to the process as if the time I have was enough. I've been like a rat on a wheel tiring myself out but getting nowhere fast.

But I took this 7.5 month class on leadership, and one of the things I got out it was being able to transform my relationship to my writing.

If you told me I could get done in 3 days what has always taken me about 5 months to do...I would have looked at you like this?! Are you crazy? I'm concerned that you're not in living in reality.

The thing is, we always relate to things from how they have occurred for us in the past. And in the past, it has taken me at least 3-6 months to write each chapter of my books, and that's with me being diligent. You see I knew it took at least 8 hours to rewrite each poem. So I would schedule a day, block out the entire day to write it.

The problem was, an audition, a doctors appointment, coffee with a friend, something would always come up in the middle of that time. Then instead of starting the poem, I would have to reschedule it for another whole day. And it kept getting pushed further and further out. Which is why it's been 6 years since my last book was published.

But by transforming the way I relate to my writing process. I had a huge breakthrough. I was grinning from ear to ear when I discovered I could just set a time limit, and not allow myself to work on any poem longer than two hours. (there were a couple exceptions to the 2 hour rewrite rule but I made up for those by ones that took less time).

In the past I would get stuck on a line and could stare at it and work it and rework it for 40 minutes! Just one line! Now I just rewrote as much as I could in the two hours and anything I was "stuck on" I would just put a note by like "I don't like how the meter is working out here" or "Does this line make sense with the theme of this poem?" etc...that way I wouldn't worry that I'd forget the area I had a problem with, and yet, I felt like I could move on, I wasn't ignoring it.

I would come back when I had the answer. Which would sometimes magically came to me when I went out for a walk to clear my head. Or, If the answer didn't come, I would then just show it to my editor who could sometimes come up with a great solution within 5 or 10 minutes.

In three days I wrote a chapter and a half which would have easily taken me 5 months in the past.  And still had time to go have coffee with my girlfriends in the midst of the most productive 3 days of my life.

I'm not relating to it the same way I was. I'm not second guessing myself and feeling like I have to research every since word that is a possibility for what might fit. I'm not driving myself crazy over every last detail.

Yes details are important, but if the work never gets out there because I'm obsessing about every last semi colon, then the desire to make it the 'best' is a waste.

We have to get to a point where we realize if the message is important, sometimes it's more important to be productive than to be perfect...and last time I checked there were no perfect people still living on this earth.

So just do it, do the best you can, and don't worry about the rest. Have confidence in your ability and show it to a couple of people you trust. What you've written can't help anyone if it never gets off your note book or out of your computer. So go ahead and just do it. The world is waiting.


1st photo with Hannah Johnson from the film "Storage" by Denver Mendiola
2nd photo taken by RT Norland
3rd photo with my girlfriends Monique, Joy, Jenna and me.

Signed with Literary Manager - 1st Publisher Said "No"

I've spent quite some time researching publishers, days at the library...making lists of which publishers I thought would be open to my material.

My next step was to do the same with literary agents/managers. I felt that having a list of publishers first would help my meeting with representation because I would know who I was targeting and be able to ask them if they had ties to those particular publishers.

However before this little plan of mine was complete, I met who would now become my literary manager on one of those social networking sites of all things. I sent them the excerpts of my five complete manuscripts and within a week they had pitched me to a major publisher.

This week I found out the publisher said no...but that's just par for the course. I had no expectation that the first publisher to read my stuff was going to sign me. I'm continuing to refine my work and confident in the fact that I will find the right publisher, it may not be the first or the tenth one, but there will be one out there that "get it".

Performed Poetry at the Kingdom Economic Yearly Summit in Los Angeles

The past few days I had the opportunity to volunteer at the K.E.Y.S. (Kingdom Economic Yearly Summit) conference at the Marriott LAX. One day I did camera, one day I MC'd and another day I just came to receive. On the day I MC'd I was asked to read a poem between the transition from speaker to speaker.

Since this summit focuses on business, money, the market place, being a good steward of our finances, I chose poems on these topics.

Here are some excerpts from a couple of the poems I read.



Excerpt from "The Love Of Money"

...I am not happy about this over-consumption thing;
Since Visa came into your life; I’m no longer King.
Time spent away from your Master is really getting hard;
You do not serve Me, like you serve your MasterCard.

Your lust for much more is the culprit, you guess;
You no longer save, just whip out American Express!
It’s all in My Word, did you read it from cover to cover?
Maybe you should have bought the Bible with your Discover....




Excerpt from "Try Me Now"

I have raised my level
Of expectation;
Because Jesus gave me
The invitation.
He said to “Try Me now
See if I am good;”
So I never have need
Of knocking on wood!

A blessing You’ll pour out,
That I can’t contain;
And that I will not need
Wall Street to sustain.
Many others I’ll bless
Because I am blessed;
When I do, I always
Have more manifest....



Excerpt from "Talk To The One In The Mirror"

...The reason I have what I have and the life I now live
Is because of my past seeds and what I’d chosen to give
I determine my future, there is no one else to blame;
The number one destroyer is my tongue I need to tame....



Excerpt from "Keep Up With Jesus Not The Jones'"

...Don’t compare yourself to your neighbor, and lust after more stuff;
Give your blessings away to those who have it even more rough.
You are spending kingdom finances playing this one-up game
Of who’s got more and better of what?! It is clearly insane.

Keep up with Jesus not the Jones', stop committing this sin;
End the competition now, go tell your neighbor that they win.
Start using finances for things that will eternally count;
Then watch Me multiply your heavenly and earthly account.

Trusting - On So Many Levels

Desperately cried out to You, You came through;
Gave me strength to do what I needed to.
Didn’t need to calm fear, I didn’t have any;
No fear heeded, Your power is plenty.
I won’t despair no matter how it looks;
Trusting the words of Your ‘66 books’.

This poem was originally written the first week when my son was in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. It was going to go in my book "The N.I.C.U. Roller Coaster: Poems and Prayers for Parents of Preemies" book, but I decided it would go in my book "Poetic Prescriptions for Your Pocket" vol. 1 instead, because I thought it was relate-able on all levels not just for struggling parents.

Copyright Obtained

After rewriting these books nearly a dozen times...I finally got the copyright taken care of today...after 2.5 hours on the US copyright website (it was running SOOO slow) I'm happy to say "Poetic Prescriptions for Plaguing Problems" and "Poetic Prescriptions for Your Pocket" are not complete, protected and ready to be published.

Final Revamp Complete fo "Poetic Prescriptions for Plaguing Problems"

More feedback on the the 1st book, revamped one last time to make some of the endings stronger among other things. Had my book editor look through it one last time. I'd say there has been about 8 revamps (at least) finally felt comfortable to pass it on to my manager so she can start passing it around with the contacts she's already made on my behalf. It's hard to believe it took an additional two years to get it to this point, in addition to the initial three to get it written. Talk about a labor of love...I hope it helps millions of people.

1st Person Poems

Ah, just when I thought my books were ready to start pitching. A writer friend pointed out how much better my poems could be if I took the time to make more of them in first person persepctive (especially when I'm teaching a lesson) than as they are when I say "you should do this..." It would be received better if I say "I should do this..." I've made the change in 3 or 4 of them in the Plaguing book. I noticed it doesn't work with all of them, but I can see some improvement for the ones that did work. As they say "Writing is Rewriting".