Friday, September 21, 2012

Dreams in the Works

Note: So my book Autumn Leaves is coming out in November which is...not so far away. It's without a doubt one of the most exciting experiences in my life (and this is coming from someone who got married and moved all the way across the Atlantic just last year). For this week's blog post, I took a moment to reflect on dreams.

Back in 2006/2007 I was taking part in a project aimed at women starting a business. One of the classes was given by Dr. Gudrun Schwarzer who had translated the works of Barbara Sher into German, and it was my introduction to the concept of Wishcraft.

The basic idea is that in order to make a dream come true, you need to things:

- The wish:

 You might think that’s pretty self-evident, but in order for your dream to have a chance at reality, you need to clearly define what your passion is. You might be in for a surprise.

- The craft

This is where you break it down into goals. You won’t get any closer to your dream if you don’t follow through with this step.

One of the examples was someone who dreams of becoming a famous opera singer which is certainly unrealistic for many. The trick is to find the motivation behind that dream--is it a love for opera? A love for singing? Maybe that person will be extremely happy singing in a choir, or taking singing lessons, or trying to see performances on a regular basis. Big dreams tell us something about us, but knowing that they are most likely out of reach isn’t a bad thing. They give us direction. There is space between that dream, and the status quo. When we step into that place, unexpected things can happen along the way.

I always wanted to write. Period. I made time for it when I was in school, university and later working two jobs. I posted fiction on the internet and met other writers. My dream was to one day, have one of my original works published as a book. You know what comes after the ‘Wish’ part: lots of writing. That’s the easy part. Next, is getting your manuscript polished enough so you feel comfortable submitting it…finding a place to submit it…dare to hit ‘send’. No doubt, a little luck and timing are also necessary, but sometimes the pieces come together. Of course, after the ‘yes’, there are many more steps to follow. Your dreams evolve. Your passion is what doesn’t change.

I’m sometimes frustrated with the limited choices of GLBT movies in the ‘L’ section. I have a pretty clear idea of the kind of movies I want to see, and who I’d love to see in it. That’s the big unrealistic dream. I’m a writer, though, not a filmmaker, and I realize that my part in this is to write these stories. Being able to do so is a big deal, and who knows what happens along the way?

What is your dream, and which steps have you taken towards it? How close have you come?

 

 

 

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