persistence | J.R. Johnson

“…very often a risk is worth taking simply for the sake of taking it. There is something enlivening about expanding our self-definition, and a risk does exactly that. Selecting a challenge and meeting it creates a sense of self-empowerment that becomes the ground for further successful challenges.”
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

“So do it. If you win, you win, and if you lose, you win.”
— Jake La Motta, Raging Bull

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A Wonderful Thing

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, community, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I recently had an article featured in the Winter 2024 edition of Review Tales. (I’d share the essay but unfortunately it’s not freely available.) If you click through the magazine links, you’ll see my article highlighted in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover. I’m writing about something with which I am all too familiar! “When the Muse Takes a Holiday.”

* Find Review Tales at Amazon and B&N.

I will say that the promotional elements of creative work can be a little challenging. I’ve never been that comfortable talking about myself.

It’s not about me, I want to say. Art is about us, and the world we create together.

“It can seem like it’s about, Look at me! Like me! Approve of me!’, but I think it’s really about finding your people. It’s about connections, especially when you grow up feeling different and like you don’t have a community. Through art, you’re able to find that community, which is a wonderful thing.”
— Maya Erskine, on why she’s drawn to acting despite “a childhood in which she desperately wanted to blend in”

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You Don’t Give Up

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Anne Lamott, creativity, genre fiction, hope, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don‘t give up.”
— Anne Lamott

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Applies to Everything

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, inspiration, persistence, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
— Thomas Edison

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Next Thing You Know

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

Next thing you know, you’ll be ready.

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Sticktoitiveness

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »

For when you’re stuck on a project and thinking that everyone knows how to do this but you.

Hallelujah! Leonard Cohen’s almighty struggle with rejected song that became a classic

Hallelujah is one of the most famous songs ever written, yet a new film reveals it took Leonard Cohen 180 attempts over a decade to perfect – only for it to be rejected by his record company. Nearly 20 years went by before an animated ogre, Shrek, turned the song into a monster hit.

Is this a little nuts? Maybe, but you won’t always know what’s “worth it” ahead of time. Tastes change, editors are human, and in the end, you’re the artist. Stick to it.

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