The Radical Write: Crunchtime: Carpe Diem

The Radical Write: Crunchtime: Carpe Diem:

It’s crunch time. I have to start sending out work, or queries or both. I can do this, I tell myself. I have the brains, the nerve and the ability. My little Cuban friend Roberto Ornan Roche didn't let a language barrier stop him. He didn't let his naivete of American magazine markets slow him down. His reward was acceptance and. publication in two December editions of In Touch magazine, a Spanish version in his native tongue and an English version which is not.

He inspires me. He represents the full bloomed determination that is yet a seedling in me. So what is it going to take to let that determination grow stronger? What are the weeds that are trying to it choke out? Primarily, mine is procrastination. Why do today what you can do tomorrow?

Because you end up at the beginning of a new year with the same resolution as last year. My last year of  was less published than the year before. Yes, I had a job and a family and a lot of adjustments going on with all of it. I can say with some degree of certainty that with all that behind me, this year will be better. My goals are attainable with a little focus. One of my writer friends JB posted his New Year’s decisions. The one that I liked best struck the deepest cord with me. 

Live with less fear and more resolve. This is not an individual that scares easily, mind you. He’s seen more than his share of frightful and haunting images. This is an individual who charts a course and reaches destinations. This is something I deeply admire and something at which I hope to become more adept.

I have moments of fearlessness. Where I cast all gutlessness aside and plunge head first into my destiny to hell with the ego, let it get bruised. Let’s just get on with it! Those moments have been my most empowering. As a result, I have been rejected by some very prominent New York magazines. (And, with a no d to JB, lesser prominent Alaskan ones as well.)

It might serve me better to I.V. the adrenaline of those pre-rejection moments, a shot of bravery like an epi pen to the heart, when I start over thinking my work. Instead of holding off for another day, which too often turns into a month or several, I want to have enough attention for the moment to move ahead today. I want to finish well. So, as I gather the magazines that I wish to send work to, I will begin the tracking process for sending work to those magazines.

Why does it feel, then, like I’m getting ready to leap from a mountain in an untested flight suit? Oh, yeah, I remember now. Nervousness and excitement feel exactly the same. This must be me on excitement!

Carpe Diem is my anthem for the New Year. 

Are you ready?

Good, me neither.

Let's risk it anyway