The last night GUTS Writing Group met at my home. Five of us met at a novel-writing workshop seven years ago and continued to meet. Each month, over a cup of tea (or a glass of wine) and lots of nibbles, we discuss our writing progress.
Although most of us are still struggling with completing our first novel, Moira has finished hers and is going through the vigorous process of pitching it to the publishers.
Moira was always the cool, collected, and focused one amongst us. She started with writing the story of her great-great-great-grandfather, the first doctor in Melbourne, Australia, back in the nineteenth century.
Moria's first and only dilemma was writing the story as a historical fact or embellishing it and write it as a novel.
She decided to write the factual story first. For more than a year, she researched methodically and painstakingly and published the story as a website: Dr. Barry Cotter. The National Library of Australia recognized her research and included the site in its Pandora Collection.
During her research, Moira found that the wife of Dr. Barry Cotter, her great great great grandmother was a much interesting character than even Dr. Cotter. So she decided to tell her story—this time as fiction.
For the next four years, Moira worked slowly but methodically, writing the story. While we all went in all sorts of directions and got distracted by other projects, Moira stuck with her gun and completed the book.
Mythbusters conducted an experiment once. They took a cannon and shot a big iron ball from it at 50 miles per hour. But they fixed the cannon to the back of the truck, and the truck also moved at 50 miles per hour but in the opposite direction. What do you think happened?
The big iron ball fell splat down in the same place without traveling a single centimeter. As unintuitive as it sounds, the ball didn't shoot ahead.
The truck moving in the opposite direction negated all the force of the powerful cannon. And that's an important lesson to learn. When powerful forces move in opposite directions, nothing ends up happening.
To become a force of productivity, you need to ensure that you are not moving in the opposite direction.
Something I am trying to remind myself. There was no reason for me not to finish my novel in the past two years. But I was the canon tied to the truck that was moving in the opposite direction.
Peter Shankman, a keynote business speaker, gave a piece of wonderful advice in one of his speeches.
“Be brilliant at the basics. Get the little things right, and you will win at the big things. It’s that simple!”
Everyone today is moving fast and in multiple directions.
In a world where everyone is hustling to outdo each other, it helps to be a calming influence, just like my friend Moira.
Self-discipline, steadfastness, and consistency are the three qualities of quiet achievers.
You can be average and still stand out if you work consistently towards a goal.
Consistency is a seriously underrated quality.
Commit to moving in a single direction consistently, and you will become the calming influence to those trying to make a mark in the noisy world by hustling a lot.
Here is the link for this week’s articles.
Five Future Technologies That Will Change The Game Of Writing Forever
Publications Are Still The Key To Reach The Wider Audience
Let’s Talk About Writing Books
Why Is Everyone Around Me So Irrational?
When You Can’t Put Together Your Writing In Any Coherent Manner
I Am Forcing Myself To Do ‘Nothing’
Enjoy!
That’s it from me this week.
Take care.
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You’re so right Neera. Consistency is the key and a community has a lot of benefit too. Your writing group stuck it out all these years together to support each other.
The past 6 weeks I have seem where the two works for me also and is encouraging me to keep writing ✍️.
Thanks For sharing Neera. I finally have your ebook and have started reading. Now I am inspired to write my own book because you inspired me.