Reinventing the wheel - Nah! Fresh Start!

Do you ever feel the need to reinvent yourself, start over with something new?  I've been blogging for ten years now and am ready for a makeover.  Sometimes makeovers are scary, because you end up looking like a stranger.  Every one hoots and hollers and wolf whistles, then the make up comes off and the old clothes get pulled out of the back of the closet and you are still the same.  So maybe I should say I ready to do something different and am in the discovery process.  Or maybe I already know what it is I need to do and just need to stop procrastinating.  

I just finished reading Fierce on the Page by Sage Cohen which totally lit a fire under me.  Wonderful book which I'll be talking more about later as I work through some of the Be Fierce exercises.  One of the things she mentions in the chapter, Art of Incubation,  is procrastination is sometimes confused with incubation..."the process of ruminating and allowing ideas the time they need to take root."  After reading the entire book, underlining multiple ideas that struck a chord and scribbling thoughts in the margins, I realized I've been stuck in the incubation stage and Sage's book has pushed me into the illumination stage.   

She highlights french scientist and polymath, Henri Poincare who said creativity happens in four steps:

• Preparation
• Incubation
• Illumination
• Execution

I've been stuck on editing Eyes in the Ashes and haven't worked on it for many months. The other day I had an epiphany which will help move the story forward.  I also realized I ended up sabotaging myself and my writing.  I've been saying for quite some time that I love the first draft stage but hate editing.  The joy is supposed to be in the journey, the discovery process and editing is all about discovering more about your characters, the setting, the story itself and bringing it to fruition. I've been planting the seeds, but not watering or tending the new shoots, so end up with nothing.  Sage's book has been very illuminating and given me the kick in the butt needed to get back to writing.  

I'm working on goals, getting back into writing habit, both story wise and blog wise and studying the craft as I just signed up for a Short Story workshop on Writer's Digest.  June will be a month of experimenting with schedules, writing times, brainstorming and figuring out a blog schedule. My goal is to write every day ala Julia Cameron's morning pages and Write Brain exercises as well as other resources. 

Time to get the writing party started.