Firedance 3-23-24

Here we go.

Setting up your meeting for Facebook Live. Okay, I'm not going to worry about that. So anyway, so we said hello to each other and I had a little essay. Sometimes I write little essays in the morning. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is just kind of sit up and center myself. And then I'll do certain things like joint mobility drills and sun salutation. One sun salutation, the five Tibetans. I will do my Tai Chi, which is critically important because that's where I do my morning ritual. I always do my morning ritual connected with Tai Chi, or almost always. 98% of the time I'll do it that way. But then when I sit at my desk, the first thing I do is to write down to empty out of my head everything I can think of that I needed to get done that day. And then I'll take a look at my calendar, see if there are additional things I need to do that day, take a look and see where I want to end up at the end of the week, back to what I need to do today, clump those things together in patterns and then break it down. And one of the things that I will do is empty out my head with a list, but also letting Tananri then now. And I will give her co host status so that I can focus on you guys. There she is. Make co host. Make the memory do co host. Okay. And we're. We're good. So one of the things I will often do is I will look for what am I obsessed by? What did I wake up? What did I go to sleep last night thinking about? What did I wake up in the morning thinking about? And there are some things that are of great concern to me right now. So I wrote the. The three gates are my protection. The is it true? Means certainly to do all you can do to determine what is true. Ultimately, you'll always have to rest on faith or assumptions. For instance, I can trust my senses. And you'll be wrong at times. There is no avoiding this. This is one of the reasons to take frequent committed action so that the world can react to you. You can extract information from those reactions. People, even good people, will disagree with you in their times to trust their perceptions more than you trust your own. If you're a child or have emptied your cup, so to speak, and you're exploring a new way of being, then the goal, to be admired by the men I admire and desired by the women I desire can ask you to suspect what you know or you think you Know if a mentor suggests otherwise. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Okay.

You might be asked to suspend what you think you know. And you experiment with the new path and see how it feels and what results you get. Plan an experiment that lasts from six weeks to three months. Long enough to produce measurable results, but small enough that if you're heading in the wrong direction, you can click course correct. If it's true, you should get better results than when you were. Less true, your map is more accurate. While an accurate map doesn't guarantee you'll reach a goal, it certainly increases your odds. And in the magic formula, an accurate map is your first step based upon some model of a person who has accomplished your goal. The more specific the match, the better. But if you have a wacky goal no one else has ever accomplished, then model people who have accomplished wacky goals, amazing and unusual goals. You might need to look at three of them so you can seek the commonalities. If you still have that defeatist, you know. If you want to succeed, choose your parents carefully. Voice in your head. Dig deeper. Daily actions have to be moving in the right direction, constantly monitored and corrected as you get results. Gratitude is so damned important. Model people who are joyful. If necessary, read books like Man's Search for Meaning. To read of people found joy and evolution in the midst of a concentration camp. Or study the way that enslaved peoples used faith to keep their sanity. Also dig into what they did with their anger. Let's just say that slaves weren't as passive to the master's thought. Although direct confrontation could be suicidal, there are other ways to resist. Intentions must be clear. Otherwise, how will you know if you're getting closer or further away from your goals? If you cannot think of a goal, start with the goal of being happy. Really? As simple as that? Everything else can simply aim at this. Move away from pain toward pleasure, and ultimately be of service and of course, conviction and character. You must feel that your path, no matter where it ends or how far you get, is in alignment with your soul, not merely your ego. That you are being what you were born to be, doing what you were born to do, and that every day of life is beautiful, another progressive realization of a worthy goal. Looking at this, the way the three gates and the magic formula interact to create a daily life plan is powerful beyond belief. I certainly didn't create these paths. At most, I created labels that helped me understand and mnemonics to help me remember. Working backwards from joy and love as goals. Committing to truth, kindness and service. Awakening your survival Drive so that you know you'll fight to the death for the things you hold most precious and nothing else. Make these connections and life changes. Life becomes magical. It's a true path and will give back all that you give to it. I'm betting my life on this and frankly, my son's life. And I have no higher standards to offer. Namaste, Steve. So that's what I wrote this morning. And what I wanted to do now was open this to comments, questions, requests about anything that we've been discussing, any results that you've been getting. If you have good news to share with people, fantastic. If there's something you'd like to workshop, fantastic. If there are any explanations or explorations of any of this material that you want, any challenges or questions you have, for God's sake, challenge and questions. Question me. So this is the time. Let's. Let's get into it. S. Orion.

Would you please post the essay in your email?

Yes, I will.

It's a good summation of all the kinds of things that you've been telling us every week, but distilled down into a nice junk that we can handle.

Yeah, I will. And I will do that over and over and over again. The one thing I beg of you, do not feel that there is something wrong if you hear the same thing for the dozen times and all of a sudden it's like, oh my God, finally I hear that. That's the way it works. You can hear things when you're ready to hear them. And this was part of what I learned when I created the magic formula in the first place. I was not ready for some of the implications of that formula. I was not ready for the thought that in order to get out of Atlanta, I had to be grateful to be there. That blew my mind. That was the absolute opposite of wanting to feel. I wanted to be angry. I wanted to be self righteous. I want to. I had to let all of that go. And it was one of the great lessons of my life. What a blessing. What a blessing. The obstacle is the offering in that sense. You look at the things that are there in your life and you look at the obstacles in the past that you use to help you become strong. And it isn't exactly that you thank your enemies for creating the obstacles, but there is a way in which, if you could ever find that place while still being protective of yourself, you have totally defeated them. If you can be totally protective of yourself and simultaneously kind of say thank you for that pain, you helped me, now I'm Never going to let you do it again, but thank you. If you can find your way to that, you're undefeatable. So one of the things we have to do is to forgive ourselves for hearing something 100 times and it not penetrating. That's just the way it is. So you're very welcome, Orion. I will try very hard to do that. As soon as we get finished with this today, I'm going to be driving down to San Diego to see my daughter, who's starring in a play, and her mom stayed at our house last night. I'm just so glad that, you know, that our family is expanded in that way. That's a better world. Absolutely. So thank you. Is there anything else, Orion?

No, I tripped over the cat and hurt my shoulder.

But no. Do your mobility drills, sweetheart.

Yes, indeed. Okay, thank you.

All right, you take care. And Jaime.

Hey, everybody. Hi, Steve.

Hello.

Just a quick comment. Oh, gosh. Life is really, really good. And it's spring, so it's my season. A quick comment on happiness and joy to start with from there. In my past, those seemed out of reach, but the experience has been that they were the result of making some better choices. And that rather than starting from happiness or joy, I started from just simple pleasantness. If I can create pleasantness inside myself and spread pleasantness to those around me, happiness and joy comes much, much easier.

So I feel heading in the right direction. It's still the right direction. See, that's just a label, man. You did exactly the right thing. So, like, happiness and joy feels a little. That's on the other side of a horizon. But pleasantness is obviously a diminishment of pain and.

Right.

Diminishment of fear. So as long as you're diminishing fear and moving towards, you know, pleasantness, you're going in the right direction. That's all I ask, buddy.

Yeah, I just wanted to throw that out for anybody else who was struggling with that, because, you know, this. This thing has been working for me for way more than six weeks at this point. I'm giddy with it. One of the things I did for myself, because of the successes I'm getting from it, I ordered a piece of artwork off of a TikTok streamer. It's a type of ceramic pottery called Jianzhan from Fujian, China, and it arrived yesterday. So I have a special cup, an art cup, that I can drink my morning tea out of now as a reward for myself for doing this.

Yeah, creating a symbol like that can be very powerful. I would suggest you meditate with that.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, I do that every day as a focus. It's, you know, you're putting your energy, creating your emotional associations. That's great, Heine. If there's anything else, we'll circle back around, but I see my good lady wife has her hand up, and I never miss her.

Oh, my goodness, I do have my hand up.

So beautiful, wonderful, brilliant.

Hey, Otis, forgive me for jumping ahead of you. I know your hand was up first, so I do that with full awareness.

Happy wife, happy life.

But those of you who might have seen my newsletter today saw me talking about our cat, Ginger, who is Jason's kitty. And I had to announce that for the first time since early February, he is gaining weight. We've been treating him for a digestive disorder. And those of you who have pets know it's just round after round of expensive, more and more expensive testing, and he was shrinking to nothing. So for him to have gone from his low weight to have gained like a pound, basically in the past week, really 18, 19, 21, almost, actually less than a week, he's gained a pound. So we seem to have turned a corner with his new prescription cat food. And that's just a metaphor, people, for one step in front of the other, because there were days I thought we would wake up and find him dead in the laundry room when he was so sick he couldn't even move all day. And now he's just a happy kitty taking a nap with a very good appetite. And I just wanted to celebrate.

Fantastic. Fantastic. What? What else is going on in our lives right now that is, you know, worthy of comment, sweetheart?

Well, we just finished a short story collaboration that's going to be in the Stephen King anthology called the End of the World as We Know It. Not yet. I'm not putting the story air yet. Heck, no.

But.

So that is exciting to get the feedback from the editors. And, you know, that was intimidating because Steve and I hold Uncle Stevie in high esteem. He was definitely a huge influence to me. I know he's been a favorite and an influence probably for Steve as well. So, yeah, we struggled with it for a while. How do you write a story in this world that's so well trod and so many other horror writers, you know, how do you stand out? How do you pay homage to him, but also keep your own little voice? So, yeah, I think we finally worked it out. Fingers crossed that the editors agree. Fingers crossed. That's it.

Just great. I was just telling Maurice to put his story in Google Docs.

Oh, his story.

And share the link.

Don't.

Don't put it in here. It's going to be unreadable if he puts it in chat, but.

Oh, I see.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'll do that.

Yeah. It's possible to share the link. It's a very, very good way of sharing it. So that's. That's great. Thank you very much, sweetheart. You know that. Let's see. I am no longer in a place where I'm dealing with feeling sick. I'm feeling extra tired, as if I had a really strong workout without having had enough sleep last night, you know, so I'm in a place where recovery at this point is literally just a matter of recovering. The fitness, you know, the health is kind of taken care of. So I'm being very. Being very careful about that and doing yoga type things and getting extra sleep and taking naps and drinking plenty of water and working very hard to make sure that I'm keeping my mood in the right place. Your energy, your sense of aliveness is very important for your physical health. It just is. My wife has been wonderful in terms of providing me the space that I need to heal. And this is another of the countless reasons why I love her so very much. Thanks a lot, sweetheart. And let's see to. Let's move on to Otis Johnson.

Hello?

Yeah.

Hey.

I just wanted to say that, like, I had that surgery last week I was talking about. Yes. And that means I'm going to go. I was like, three months down, and I'm going to be another three months down while I recover. But I just wanted to say that this group, participating in this group has been important. And, like, I found it, and it was like a big, important lifeline for me. And you also helped me get published just because I was following the.

Your.

The path you set up. I got published, like, right before the surgery, and that helped, like, I fully transformed. Let me ask you a question. Yeah. How many stories did it take to get published? 7. You see, this is. None of our students have gone past story 24. The average seems to be about nine. A person who is willing, who looks at writing 24, 25 stories and says, I can do that. Yeah, 25 stories and I'll get published. That's a writer. That's the person I can help, the person who needs to believe that every story they write is somehow precious, and if it's rejected, it's because the world is out to get them. Oh, my God, I feel so sorry for those people because they are children. Their Adult selves are not home selves are not engaged. So you can tell this was, this was someone who grew up probably very smart in a home in which their father was not protective, not see their heart. And they're going to have to shift themselves so that they are their own father, they are their own mother. And I, I have nothing but respect.

Congratulations.

That's right. Congratulations. See what you're doing, and by sharing what you're doing, you help everybody else to see that that's possible in terms of writing. So you're, you're being a really important part of this community. What I need to get people to see now is that there are similar patterns with your emotions, relationships and your body. That there are patterns that are just as simple as the life writing pattern. It's just difficult because it's difficult to express them and provide a universal link because I don't have the same level of clarity on it. But in terms of your emotions, I would say the morning ritual. Do your morning ritual. Breathing and the morning ritual. In six weeks you'll be a different person. And in terms of your body, you look at mobility drills and the five Tibetans. If weight loss is an issue, there are things like intermittent fasting that's more complex in some ways, less complex in others. But what I wanted to be sure to tell you is if you master anything, you know how to master anything else. No one thing, no 10,000 things, the success that you've had here, figure out how you can turn that success into success in the other arenas of your life as well. There's going to be something. It's like, oh, I did this differently. And because of that, I got this result. If you can figure that out for yourself, apply it to the other arenas, get the results. If you're getting good results, come back and share it with us so we can see exactly how you did it. Everybody's going to do it a little bit differently. Everyone needs something a little different. So like I said, I'm providing a buffet. It's not even off the counter medication. It's the basic building blocks. But I can point you in those directions. I wouldn't try to take responsibility for that unless I was your personal coach. And I wouldn't take responsibility for prescriptive work unless I was your guru. And I ain't nobody's guru, you know, I'm not taking responsibility for anybody's spiritual progress with the possible exception of my children and even their. No, they're responsible for that. But I will take responsibility for delivering them to the adult world that I will take responsibility for nothing else. Proud of you, Otis. Congratulations. You have. I hope that you're. Did you celebrate? Oh, hell yeah. Excellent. What did you do to celebrate? Honestly, I just had a bunch of sushi about it. Yeah, absolutely. Not only did you celebrate, but you celebrated in a healthy way. Yeah, you know, so fantastic. That's exactly right. You figure out what you need to do and how you're going to do it. You do it. You evaluate what you did. If you succeeded, you celebrate. Because we will beat ourselves up when things go wrong. It's critical to celebrate when things go right. Critical to celebrate when things go right. So you did it 100% right. Congratulations. When. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Let's.

Let's everybody give Otis. Unmute yourselves and give Otis a big hand. Great. Okay, so who. Who's next? Volunteer or you will be voluntold. Maurice, do you have your hand up again? Yes, I do. Okay, well, real quick then. And then I'm gonna go to somebody else. What's up? This past week I went back into media. I've been the guest host from Monday through Friday from 7am to 10am on a Internet radio station called the Morning Glow. And I was very proud this week when I explained the three gates to the folks there. And I've been completing my drafts of my stories. So it is working. I've increased my 1%. Fantastic. And stories of increasing my 1% are so important here to understand that there is some subjectivity involved. What are you going to focus on? How are you going to measure yourself? Set yourself up so that winning is easy. Set yourself up so that winning is easy. Life will give you the crap no matter what you do. Be kind to yourselves. Be kind to yourselves. If I love you enough to every single week, be sure to be here with you. Then know that I see what you are and I believe in what you are. And if you can believe in yourself and then bring that fire and share it with us, fantastic. If you don't think that there are times when I need to pick myself up and say, oh, God, you know, everybody's like that. Everybody's like that. There are daily rituals that I do to get myself in the mood to be able to take care of my life, my family, do my writing workout. You have to. You have to manage that stuff. Dr. Matt. Dr. Matt. Got your hand up.

Hey. Sorry.

It's okay. And what are your doctor in, Matt?

So my PhD is in urban planning, architecture.

Oh, fantastic. Congratulations.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. So I'm a great looking guy.

Thank you.

So actually it's a good, interesting note to start off with why I was raising my hand. So a lot more of my writing has been a sort of non fiction approach. Writing for my. My day job and things. And yeah, I've just been on this interesting journey of trying to decide whether the writer's life is something that is integrating the things that I'm thinking and talking about for my sort of non fiction work versus the sort of fantasy science fiction kind of things that I've been working on. And this past year I've sort of hit a turning point. So there's like two things I wanted to say is one, I've discovered that there's. And similar to last time when Angelique had spoken about being sort of coming from this like academic pathway and having this critical voice and all that, I've discovered there's other friends in my circle of folks who also are artistic and don't know whether to fully embrace it. And so we've all sort of been commiserating about this. And actually just this morning I had a call with one of my friends from work and he was saying, oh, I have my book project I want to work on. And I was telling him about this group. I was like, yeah, like I've been starting to focus on just like decompressing, making smaller the big picture and just do a sentence a day. He was like, I love that. So I was like telling him a little bit about the system.

Make sure to invite him.

Okay, yeah, I'll pass it along.

Everybody is welcome here. And the truth is that this is part of our marketing process. It's also part of just what we give to the world. So we will recommend that people go to lifewritingpremium.com or firedance tai chi.com and get in our courses. But you don't have to belong to any of those courses in order for me to love you and want to give you everything you possibly can. If you will contribute to the other people on this call in chat and support them and cheer them on, then you are. Absolutely. That's more important than the money. So invite anybody that you want. Now the one thing I will say is that if you like to write, are you published? Has anybody handed you a check for your work yet?

No, not. That's not really how a lot of the academic writing. No, not fixed. No.

You don't have to go all the way into. I'm going to totally embrace this over here. Just sell a story. Just sell a story. On the other side of selling a story, not self publishing, but doing your work, you know, polishing your work, improving your work, sending your work off. And one day you will get a check back. On the other side of that, you'll know what it is that you want. But I think that giving yourself the thrill of doing that at least once, that does not threaten your academic standing. No, it's just having fun.

Yeah, quite the opposite. So I was going to say. I mean just embracing the sort of fun and thrill of writing stories that are not, are fictional has really helped me with my other book project that is under contract.

That's because you're making your child happy. Yeah, it's the kid part of you that goes into flow state and has the fun. If you tell the kid it's all work, it's all academic, the kid will often, just like a kid who works on a farm, they'll pull the plow, they'll do the work. But if you let him dance, if you say, I tell you what, you did this for me over here, now I'm going to do this for you. I'm going to create the space in which you can write about rocket ships and monsters and like that and just have fun. I can promise you that when it's time to do academic writing, it's going to be easier because that kid now sees the academic writing as the part of, part of the cycle. I get to have fun. I work, I rest. Fun, work, rest, fun work, rest, do that and you then become a person who can set your friends free. It doesn't have to be all one way or the other. And even if you decided you wanted to publish books, keep the academic day job as long as you possibly can, do nothing. Do not try to aim at being a full time writer unless you have no choice or you got a, you know, six figure check, you know, and even then keep one, one toe in the other pool because that's the adult world. The world of money is the adult world.

Even then, money. You know, if I may interject here, because we know so many people who are best selling horror writers. Paul Tremblay still teaches. Victor Laval still teaches. Nikki Atujisu the director, still teaches because they understand that you cannot tie your income to the whims of publishing or certainly not the film industry. So having a baseline income, a job you hopefully like, even sometimes love, which I do, teaching, that's the ticket, you.

Know, and my daughter who we're gonna go down and see is, you know, starring in a play down There. And she graduated from from UC Irvine with a degree in drama, but she works a full time day job and she acts for fun. And so she keeps that kid part of her and she's pursuing her art, but she's also got her mom's blessed understanding that it's important to pay the bills.

Yeah, for sure.

So there is more fluidity and more nuance in this. You get to make it up the way you want it. You get to decide how much security, how much insecurity is perfect for you. So you need to have enough security that you can take risks, but keep the risk small enough that you're not damaging your security. We thrive on some balance of being totally secure and wondering what the hell is going to happen next. I am secure in my love for my family, my family's love for me, me. But when I went to Manila, I had no idea what was going to happen over there. I simply had to be ready. And that was in and of itself, the workshop that was, that was the experience is being willing to tolerate risk in exchange for reward. So you have earned the right, my brother. You have earned the right to have fun. Go out there, sell stories, have fun. Keep doing your academic stuff and bring your aliveness to us and share that aliveness with your friends and family. Okay?

Yeah, for sure. I had one question.

Yes, please.

It was related to, I guess the update is one. Like I was saying, I think the artistic writing and fictional writing has really helped with my nonfiction work. And I got a whole new draft of the manuscript back to my editor and he's like loving it. He's like, your voice has changed completely since I started this book. And it's just been a really interesting journey to see how that's changed my writing style. The other thing I was going to say was I finished a draft of my first short story. So I'm really happy about that. And the question related to that is that I find myself being a bit more of a novelist and I have like a whole drafted novel, but I need to rewrite it. And I'm really seeing the value now of like short stories just for like a structural standpoint. Like it just flows better than.

You don't run a marathon if you haven't run around the block.

Yeah, but I guess I was going to ask about that. Like, what do you think is the sort of.

You write short stories until you've sold a hundred thousand words of them.

Okay.

Then you do your novel. You stair step your way up to the novel you create by creating short Stories. You don't have as much of your ego invested. You learn 10 times as fast. You will learn 10 times as much by writing a hundred thousand words of short stories. And that could be 20 short stories. It could be 40 short stories than you will by writing a single novel. You are, you are just in every way tananarif.

I'm not as completely strict about that. I mean, yes, absolutely do write the short stories. And what you might even do is set short stories in the world of your novel. That way you're still keeping the creative world alive. I did that with Reformatory. I did it with my upcoming novel. I published two short stories and I realized, oh, this wants to be a novel. So I would say as long as you're writing short stories, it's okay to work on a novel from time to time. You know, as long as that doesn't become your full emphasis before, as Steve says, you have learned how to become a professional level writer through writing those short stories.

That's really helpful. And I was going to say, yeah, this short story is actually set in the novel's context. I found it acting more like a prequel almost to it.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, yeah, no, Definitely. Thank you.

100,000 words.

Got it.

And come back and let us know how things work. All right. So Ross have not talked to you for a few weeks, buddy.

Well, I've been here listening. You've been talking to me, just not having me talk back to you too much, which is okay. You were asking about various minor brags concerning successes. New laptop, who dis? I stepped past a huge amount of financial fear and invested in a tool that is going to make it much easier for me to multi profit while I'm out here doing my pet sitting gigs.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. So if you're, if you're doing pet sitting to make a living or to supplement your income, aim at being the best pet sitter.

Oh yeah.

What would it take to be the best pet sitter in the Northwest? Well, no, no asking foreign.

I'm sorry, say again?

What would it take to be the best pet sitter in the Northwest?

Apparently I have that. If you look at my reviews on Rover, I'm there.

I'm.

I'm already increasing. I've been doing this for a little over six months. I'm already raising my rates. I've locked in my initial customers as a thank you for getting me started and I'm already raising my rates and still staying busy.

Okay, that's fantastic. I'M glad that you found something. And what I want you to do is to specifically aim at getting better and better and better at it until you are so good that you're golden. Just so good that you're absolutely golden. And you could teach classes on how to do it because people are looking for things that they can do that are pleasing to their hearts, that will be a contribution to the world and also make the money. So you might conceivably want to teach how to pet sit at some point. It's really easy. It's easy for you. Why don't you start, start creating your, your 10 golden rules of pet sitting. And you might have, you might conceivably have a workshop you can sell right there. You never know, Ross. You try different things, you try different expressions of who you are. You never know what the public is going to want to buy.

And I see lots of people on social media doing videos about pet, they, their pet sitting experiences, both as the owners of the pets and as the pet sitters. So if you have any inclination in that direction, and I know not everybody does, a sort of diary while you work on social media could also be a way to bring more attention to yourself if you feel comfortable with that.

You know, and you know, the other thing you want to look at is how much money do you want to earn? If you don't see a way to earn it doing pet sitting, maybe you could earn it having a pet sitting company, teaching other people how to pet sit, organizing pet sitting, teaching how to pet sit. So look at this just for the sake of fun, to get used to the idea of. Okay, money is made by finding a need that people have or desire that people have and satisfying it and convincing them that what you have is so good that their money will make them happier in your pocket than in theirs. Good for you, Ross.

Thank you, sir.

You betcha. Anything else we can do for you today? Okay, Otis, you're back. What's up, dude?

Yeah, I'm back.

And just to follow along a train of thought we were going on, you were like a hundred thousand. A hundred thousand words sold. A hundred thousand words. And then what? Like a spec novel. What should. No, I mean, if by the time you sold a hundred thousand words of short stories, you will understand the field much better. You will also know editors who were willing to take risks on you. Those editors know the agents, editors know the publishers, editors know the agents. They have lunch together. And if you have sold 100,000 words of short stories, you could then reach out to Those agents and say, listen, I have a novel. Can you think of an agent who might be willing to look at this? And they will know that you're a pro because they were willing to bet their money on you. So they will be willing to bet people who are in that profession. The thing that makes them the happiest is discovering new talent. See if you can show them that you are that bitch, that you are the person who loves this, who's willing to put in the work, who's not asking for favors. They know that you're their kind of person. And when you're. That they will share their friends with you. And now you're on your path. You know, the question of an agent or an editor, you know, but in the process of writing those hundred thousand words of short stories, that's a totally different world. You're not the same guy you're going to be. You're going to know different things and you will ask different questions. So the. It's. It's relatively easy to sell a short story. It gets more difficult. Short stories are where you learn your craft. Novels are where you get paid. Hollywood is where you get paid really well. So it's all a matter of figuring out who are you willing to be, what aspects of yourself are you willing to sell? What is in alignment with your heart? When we talk about the magic formula and the sea and the magic is your character, is your commitment, that walking this path is in alignment with your heart. As you write short stories and sell them and people start knowing you and you start interacting with people who've read your stories, you will have a very different idea about what this life is and whether or not it's for you. But I would suggest to anybody that they sell at least one short story just for this, just for the heck of it. On the other side of that, the world looks a little different. And then you'll have a better idea. So I cannot. I cannot offer you absolute clarity for anything except the next two or three steps. But when you take those next two or three steps, you'll have clarity for the four or five steps beyond that. So get this done. And after you had that done, you'll have better questions. Okay. Right on. All righty. So any other comments, questions, requests about anything that we have been discussing here? Otherwise, I'm going to look. Who have I not seen in a while? And Holly Hancock. Is Holly Hancock there?

I'm here.

Hey, Holly Hancock.

Hi. How are you?

I'm doing great.

I basically have been listening to get my Shot in the arm. I come in about once a month. And I have been working really hard to be healthy and be strong and to. And to do that on a daily basis. And so that's as far as I've gotten.

That's a lot, honey.

I'm sorry.

That's a lot. Just taking care of yourself, understanding that you have the right to joy in the world is a huge amount. And I. You know, that's. I. Nothing but respect.

Yeah. So I'm really listening to the whole process because I do want to start writing one sentence a day again, which I was doing before, but I kind of got knocked off by. Well, I got Covid. And I was sick for a while, and so I was trying to deal with health.

Yeah.

At this point.

So one of the things that, you know, there is that the quality of your creative expression is going to be related to your health. So they just hopefully will give you additional motivations to take care of yourself, because you want to have the clearest mind and the most powerful heart. Courageous heart. And fatigue makes cowards of us all. When you're sick, it is very difficult to maintain that positive expression. So, absolutely, you take these lessons as they come. One sentence a day is your first stop. Look at. You know, just get back on that train, and then let us help you leverage yourself further.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Because it's been a lot of fatigue, and I'm. It's kind of.

That's the truth. Take. Take naps, sweetheart. Naps are great. Naps are greatly underestimated.

Thank you.

Okay. You bet.

And I really appreciate this space. I want to say that I appreciate this space.

This space will be here for you, and it will continue to be safe. I have no hidden agendas. My agendas are right out in public. And I really mean it, that if you will bring your heart here and share with the others and allow yourself to be supported and support others, then you are a dynamic part of a community that is slowly growing and expanding, and it has to do that with integrity. And thank you so much for sharing yourself.

Holly, I want to jump in for a second with a question. I think I. I happen to know. I believe you're an attorney. Correct?

Well, I'm not just an attorney to Natarin, but you supported me in my.

Okay.

Her name sounded familiar.

Okay.

Even before that, I used to. I put your book up in my shelf, and I remember.

Joplin's Ghost, I recall, was one of the books, at least. No.

Okay.

Yes, it was. Yes, it was.

It's an Understatement.

Now, I'm a judge, so, yeah.

Oh, you are. Okay, well, your honor, let me ask you this. Do you. Is your writing related to the legal profession or no?

Yes.

Oh, great. Because that's all I wanted to know. That's specialized knowledge. Specialized knowledge. It is a huge advantage in writing if you have specialized knowledge of something. It's not that you have to write about it all the time, but you know things about the legal profession that for those of us who are not where you are, it feels like a wall and we have no idea what's on the other side. It's one of the reasons why all these shows about lawyers and judges and the legal process are so popular because people, you know, want this demystified. So if you will, if you will create stories that from time to time touch on this aspect of your specialized knowledge, it gives you a nice unfair advantage.

Yep, that's all I wanted to ask about because, yeah, that's what it's about.

And I have various ideas and I've written down those ideas. I just haven't started the one sentence a day. And I did, I do. I am working every day on the job. On the job, which is judging.

Just.

Trying to fight through this fatigue that I have. So.

Yeah, well, you take, you take care of that and keep us posted about that and you dive in here and you will always be supported. You'll never find anything but support here.

Good afternoon, your honor.

Good afternoon. Okay. All right. Megan Lancaster. Maggie.

There I am. Hi, Steve. I hope you really had a good time in Manila. I know you did. I'm sorry I haven't been here for a couple weeks. Business, business, business. But I wanted to say a couple things. One I am working on. Can you see this? My fairy costume for Norwest Con.

Ah, that's right. I will see you next weekend.

Oh yay, you're coming. So like one week exactly from this time they will be judging my costume. Hopefully it'll be done by then.

Well, fantastic.

So I'm very excited about doing a floofy glittery because most of my stuff is pretty comic, something glittery and fluffy feet. I have a 1% betterness today. This week I have a teaching. I'm teaching a class this summer. It's. It's a short workshop class, one of a. What they call it, a series of craft workshops people can take this summer at Tacoma Community College, which I have every reason to think could lead to regular five week class in the fall or winter. And I'm very excited. I'll be teaching some sort of book arts.

Question for you. You would like for this to be a regular thing?

Yeah.

Okay, then over deliver.

Okay.

Just like your plan needs to be to totally over deliver. You give these people far more than they thought. You blow their minds by the first class, they should feel like they got everything that they'd ordinarily get in an entire class. You know, all you have to do is teach from your heart. You have been an artist the whole time I've known you, and you have had struggles and you've had successes, and that's all they want, is to see your heart, to know that the path of being an artist is not some golden thing where you just have the ability and, you know, you just kind of complain, accomplish everything. They need to know that that's bullshit. They need to know that the path of art is like the path of life or love or anything else that you get up in the morning and you commit to it and you do it and you do the best you can. And now give them your heart, if you will do that, and your whole intention is to light them up and set them on fire, you'll have that job that you're looking for because you will be offering something that nobody else can offer, which is authentic. Megan Lancaster. All you have to do is believe that you're precious, which you are, and give it away.

Thank you. I will. That's a very good. That's an in. That's a good thing for me to. To work towards while I am designing this, guys, because it's like I have three hours to get them hooked on making books. So.

Yeah, so look at the combination of questions, exercises, lecture, examples. Hopefully you're going to have them do something in class.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. They need to make something.

That's right. They need to make something in class. So you can then guide the space. You want to create that combination of structure and flow and. And you create it. I mean, it's like bring music, insects, whatever music that you use, blow them away. Give them your heart and your mind and help them to guide their bodies. And you do that, and you've helped make the world a better place. Those three hours have made the world a better world. You have increased the net amount of joy.

Great.

And I would say thank you. I would say one other thing. Would you please tell that daughter of yours and Tony, give them. Please give them my undying love when you see them?

I will absolutely do that. I'll absolutely do that. She's downstairs right now. I just I could hear Tony and Tananarive talking downstairs. It gives me great joy to. To do that. Yeah, it really does. So you keep us posted. You drop in when you can. You keep us posted. Posted. But I want you to be fierce. I want you to be fierce. Art is fierce. Art is courageous. It takes real courage to show the world your heart, Meghan. And you've been knocked down a lot of times, but you always get back up. There is that fierceness within you. Find that. Give them that both your triumphs and your tragedies and they will love you.

Okay, thanks. Okay.

All right. You take care. Anita Jackson.

Hi.

I came in late and I have.

To leave early, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoy this.

Zoom with you and your wife in the community. This is my second time. And I really enjoy your advice on.

Starting with short stories and one sentence a day. Currently.

It works, Nita. Yes, it does. It does. And it takes so much pressure off you. You know, you hear other advice, like 2,000 words a day. A thousand words a day. I found a sweet spot in between 100 and 500 words a day. But even when I'm not feeling up to it, that one sentence will do it every time. You know, a thousand words a day, that's three novels a year. You know, that's.

I know.

Huge amount of output. You know, 2,000 words a day, that's six novels a year. Nobody tell me about it that much. You know, you just. You just don't. And not only that, but if you will write short stories and send them out, then you get to hear what the results are from.

Yes.

You know, it's like, okay, am I getting closer to it or further away from it? You're also having the fun of finishing a work. And it's so much easier to sell a story than it is to sell a book that you get the satisfaction. There's a part of you that's just the kid that wants to write and be thought of as a clever girl. People love you for your dance. Give us more chances to love you for your dance. Not only that, but if you write a short story, you can share your short story here. We can actually read it and get back to you. There's so many reasons to do the small thing, the small manageable thing, until you feel like, I've got this. Let me try something a little bigger. So start small with just one sentence and then build upwards from there slowly. That is the safest path that I know. That will give you the best chance possible of Having a happy writing, artistic, creative life. Well, thank you very much. You're very welcome. And it's so good to hear you. It's so good to. You know, I'm glad that you could visit us. Come back when you can.

I will do.

Thank you.

Okay. Rebecca Lillenfield said I have to leave early, but thanks. All I lurk, but these meetings are always helpful. That is fantastic. I'm so glad. Anna o'. Connell.

Hello, Steve. This time I figured I would raise my hand before you called on me.

Oh, good.

I just wanted to say that it is always a joy to be here. I always miss it when I can't be. And my life is going pretty well. Although it mostly doesn't involve writing so much as it does involve getting more involved in my community in ways that the community seems to need.

Talk to us about that a little bit.

The school district where I live is widely considered to be excellent. It's Ann Arbor, Michigan. But they are also profoundly dysfunctional in some important ways, mostly around administration. They just forced out their most recent superintendent who has been there for almost nine years. And. Just last week the school board decided to take the person who had become, had stepped up from assistant superintendent to become acting superintendent is going to get the job permanently.

Okay.

But they are deeply committed to keeping on doing something dysfunctional called balanced literacy in terms of how to teach kids to read. And it isn't working. It's not going to work. But they're fighting very hard and the teachers are fighting very hard against some initiative, political initiatives in Michigan that are going to say all public schools have to use science based reading instruction instead of, instead of picking whatever they like. And there, there both the school district and the teachers union are pushing.

What is it that you specifically are doing here?

Lobbying individual school board members and lobbying the politicians to. And the people in charge of the various schools of education at the five different universities that have schools of education in this state to start training the teachers better so that we get better results.

So do you have a specific pattern? You've talked about several different ways that people are teaching reading. Do you have one that you think is the one that works best or a method of determining what will work best?

That one has kind of already happened. There's like five pillars of the science of reading, starting with phonological awareness and ending with teaching morphology, which is the way how words are structured so that you can more easily derive meaning from the words.

Okay. And so you have an approach that you feel is you're prepared to defend and promote. So the question is, what is your intent then to, say, raise awareness of this particular method by 30% within a year?

My intent is that more. The ultimate goal is that more kids learn to read in school.

Okay, so without what percentage improvement are you looking for?

I would. I would look for an improvement of at least 50%.

Okay, so 59 grade level. Okay, 50%. Because that's your intention. If you're going to use the magic formula, you need to have a clear intention. You want to increase literacy by 50% within three years or something like that. Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. And in order to do that, then you might want to ask yourself, what are the five major moves that have to happen to get there? You have to identify the program that you believe could do it and your reasons for believing it. You have to identify allies within the structure who could influence. You have to come up with effective argumentation to convince those allies, you know, for instance, and you have to give those allies a plan to then go out and replicate themselves. That would be one way of looking at it. But try to define the five things that you would need to do in order to. To get to the point where kids. Where literacy has been increased by 50% within the time frame that you want. If you can define those five steps, you should be able to find what is it that you need to do next week? What is it you need to be doing every day? So if it's not a matter of I'm going to do these things every day, then it should be a matter of I'm going to do these things every week. And just make sure that you're doing those things and noticing the results you need. They need to be measurable so that you can determine whether or not you need to do more of this or less of that. So you know your goal is fine as long as you can quantify it and as long as you can model someone who has been successful at getting such measures past the school board. What did they do? How did they do it? Does that make sense?

It does. I'm probably going to do that in parallel with lobbying for our legislature to pass the laws that are being proposed.

I gave you. I pulled something out of the air. You come up with your path. That was just an example, you see. So you come up with the five in lobbying, going above the level of the school board to create an effect. Fine. You know, using, you know, there's the political thing, there's the personal thing, so forth. You find something that is in alignment with your character so that you know, if you were to say to yourself every day, I'm going to write one letter to one person on, you know, here, or I'm going to write one letter per week, something like that, and you're going to speak your truth and you're going to have the sense of, you know, you are going to be part of the answer rather than part of the problem. Problem. You're going to do the best you can. And the truth is you're aiming at 50%. But if you help one child, if you help one child, you'll be at peace with that. You'll be able to smile at that.

Yeah.

And I could help one child by being a volunteer tutor.

You could.

I have done that. But the magnitude of the need says that those of us who can operate more leverage on a higher level, where the system changes, rather than the situation for one child changes, we need to do that.

Make sure that you study marketing and sales, because this is all about marketing your idea. Who are the people who will hear your idea? And sales is getting them to vote or change what they're doing. Okay, so the psychology of marketing and sales, identification of the people who need your product and how to convince them to say yes is of critical importance in the adult world. Critical, critical importance. You are entering a marketplace of ideas where other people are going to offer, no, do this. No, over here, do this. No, over here, do this. How will you prove what it is you have to say? And how will you structure your argumentation so that people, people will make changes based on their emotional states? Okay, how do you get them to feel emotionally rather than think logically or politically? Then once you've got them feeling a particular way, then they will then organize. But how do. Sales is a transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another. So how do you get them enthusiastic about this? So those are the kinds of general questions I would ask you to ask yourself, but your cause is very worthwhile. I wish you luck.

And you know, at base, if people can't read well enough to be able to read for pleasure, all of you people working as writers are not going to have very many customers.

You're right. So, you know, if when you come up with your five moves, and I borrowed that from Brendan Burchard, who's really good on project planning, if you come up with your five moves that will get you there, please bring it back and let us help you workshop it. Because then that first one needs to be something where you can see what actions you can take every day. Maybe be like one Phone call. You make one phone call every day. You know, if you do that, you know, you've got that magic form. You got your map or model. What's your daily action? It could be a weekly action. Keep your emotions high, your sense of commitment and love and gratitude that you have this wonderful opportunity. Be sure your intentions are crystal clear and be sure that your actions are in alignment with your character, such that you know success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. That the. The actions that you're taking are in integrity with your soul and your commitment in your heart. And therefore, no matter what happens externally, you're being Anna, Anna's being Anna. And that's. You don't need more than that to have a happy life, sweetheart, and a good life.

My life is so good that I feel compelled to help other people.

Yes. Remember what I said.

At this point, I have almost everything I could possibly want.

See? Well, see, that's. Remember the thing I said that first move away from pain toward joy and then to service. So you're in that place where you want to be of service. So I say study marketing and sales. Study other people who have. Who have accomplished things that are similar enough to what you're doing, and be sure that you. Your everything you say passes the three gates. It's true to the absolute limit of your capacity. It is kindness to these children who are trusting us, and it is useful to the community. You know, let that be your armor.

Okay, I. I will do that. And it will probably be two weeks before I come back with five specific things just because over the Easter holiday a bunch of other things are happening.

All right?

I come every week I can.

And we don't ask for more than that, sweetheart. And you're always beautiful when you're here and I always appreciate seeing you.

Thank you.

The feeling is mutual for you and Nanana Ray.

Fantastic. I want to say again that next week we'll be here at 10:30am Pacific because I'll be at the NorWestCon science fiction convention, so I will be broadcast from there. But I never want to miss a week with you guys if I possibly can. And if you can. If you can allow me to be a little bit flexible. Makes it much easier for me to do that. So I thank you. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I'm trying to get better with that, so thank you very much, Anna. Okay, so let's take a look. Anybody else? Who. Who else? Kurt Steinler. How are you doing, Kurt?

Oh, I'm doing very well. I Tend, I tend to lurk rather than actively participate. I, I don't identify myself as a writer, I didn't identify myself as a filmmaker. So it, adapting that but still breaking things into small, doing small constant actions. I'm sort of embracing right now my inner screenwriter because honestly I can't afford to pay a screenwriter right now to write something and I want to work on a project. So.

No, you absolutely should have you. You know, the process of making little movie is so much fun. You know, there's a guy named Dov Simons, something called a three day film school. I don't know if he's still got that, but that's great stuff. And Dov Simons, I would suggest looking into what it is that he's doing, but he definitely suggests you start, you write a script for basically a one act play. Two or two people are sitting, talking to each other, sitting at a table and stair step your way up from that.

Well, I, I have done a, a number of short films. I have determined that this is one of the weird things in life is.

That.

Short films are great. They teach you how to make films. But it's just as hard to make a short film as a, as a, as a feature. Except you need a lot more money to make a feature. So it's mostly marketing to get investors to make a fee.

Yes, that's right. And that's where doing the small thing can work really, really well because people get to take a look and they say, oh, you did all that with $50. You know, sure, I'll put a hundred bucks into this and help you take the next step up.

Yeah, I Wish it was $100, but when you're looking and going, oh yeah, I need a million dollars.

No. So the way you do a million dollar script is you do 100, you do a hundred thousand dollar movie. And the way to do that is do a $10,000 movie. And the way to do a thousand dollar movie. So you stair, step your way up. Yeah, each level and then convincing people to invest. If you can't invest, you can't convince people to invest $50,000 in your movie. Then you're not capable of making a movie that would attract an audience, you know, so it's, it's, it's learning. There's so many different things you're learning as you move up. How can we support you?

Well, I mean you are. Because I'm, I'm listening to other stories. As I say, I mostly lurk and, and hear how, where other people have successes and where their challenges are. And I mean, in terms of this, it's, you know, mastery builds on mastery. I'm an attorney, you know, I've already achieved mastery in at least one thing.

Exactly, exactly.

You know, and that's a. It's a thing. And, you know, I'm a. I'm an attorney as, as my day job. So when I decide to make a film, you know, it's just the bug for me to tell a story on film has just gotten me so hard that I have to. I have to do it because it's a. It's a hard job.

Well, let me ask you a question. Do you. Have you published short stories?

Me? No.

You should think about that. Because if you can publish, if you can write a movie, frankly, writing scripts is a higher level skill. You have to strip storytelling down to its absolute essentials and find ways to convey it all visually. And then you have all the production skills and the skills of working with writers, with actors and all that other stuff. So as you work your way there, you might want to think about taking one of your scripts and turning them into a short story and seeing whether or not you can market it.

I have to be fair. All of my scripts start off as.

Short stories, but do you submit them for publication?

No, because I want to make them into films.

No, but see, but that's a false dichotomy that, you know, that publishing it as a short story is protecting your ip, you know, there's absolutely no reason you can't do both. And it's actually. It can actually be a step towards what it is that you want. Even if you can't invest, if you can't get people to invest a thousand dollars, that doesn't stop you from writing a story and sending it off. They literally you. There's no reason in the world, and there are many reasons that you should. So it's just something to consider, you.

Know, I never thought of that.

Thank you.

Your urge to be a storyteller is. That's the primary urge. And storytelling is sitting around the campfire, you know, drinking beer and eating venison and telling stories. So whether it's a play or a movie or an audiobook or a book or a short story or whatever it is, it's all the same thing. So I want you to satisfy your hunger. And it just so happens that selling short stories does not take you away from that. And if you can sell a short story, I promise you it'll be easier for you to raise the money to make your movie.

And, you know, I. I heard you say that earlier. This is one of the reasons why I like lurking, and I like. I like being in here. I like sharing. Sharing this because.

Yeah.

I mean, I started off making movies because I thought, you know, everybody should make a movie once in their life. I recommend it.

Yeah.

I don't ever recommend actually being a director. I recommend hiring a director. That is a. That is like. That is like juggling time bombs on a schedule.

It is a different. So you want to be a writer? Producer.

I don't want to be a writer. I just want to be a producer.

You just want to be a producer?

Yeah, it's just, you know, like William Castle. Not William Blanking on his name.

Roger Corman.

Corman did, too. Came up with ideas and, you know, workshopping with the writers, but the primary writing was. Was done by others, even if his name's on the script.

Well, you can be a producer simply by raising the money.

Yeah.

You know, so there are lots of different things. Once again, I would suggest you take a look at what Dov Simons did, because he basically talks about making tiny movies that give you all the basic skills you need to make larger ones. And the ability to raise money is beyond the shadow of a doubt, a skill in and of itself. You can option a short story, have that short story made into a script that you feel could be done by a local drama club, you know, and you put the money together, and you pay them in donuts. And, you know. And, you know, you do rehearsal, and then you do. You do your thing, and you put it up on YouTube and you drive traffic to it. You use that to make your next movie. There are patterns here. If you don't want to be a writer, if all you want to. If what you really want to do is be a producer, then define those skills as clearly as possible and begin to gain them. That's absolutely. Either of these paths are possible for you. All these things are possible for you. So ask yourself the question, what do you really want? What do you really want? And start building. Building that. You've earned that because you're a professional. You're a professional lawyer. You've earned your way into the adult world. So now start looking for having some adult fun. Okay, Great. Now, I'm not suggesting that you make adult movies. That would be your choice. But that's a different skill. That's a very different thing. All right, buddy.

All right. Thank you.

You bet. All right, comments, questions, requests? Anything on. Let's see, who is here. Sonia was Here she was thinking that she might have to take off. Sonia, if you'd like to say anything before, before you leave, that'd be great. Anything.

No, no, I have to find the, the microphone to unmute it. I just, I'm working on. I just not say working on. I am making steps there, small steps or otherwise, to find a path that I enjoy.

What do you love to do?

Well, I do enjoy writing. I met a very successful person who has produced small films and maybe big films and just having a conversation about storytelling. And I just got very. He was just very innovating in terms of doing the reels they call them, you know, that they have online, how writers can leverage that. And also the. I forget what they call those pods. Podcasts. Podcast, yeah.

So you're talking about dramatic podcast.

I, I don't know particularly. We're just having a conversation about these things. And then this person has also written a book. I'm like, dang. You know, this is a, this is someone who is just focused in getting the work done but having fun.

So what you want is to have fun and make a little money.

Well, I can make a lot of money.

Okay.

Have fun and make a lot of money.

I need to have fun and, and be able to enjoy my life. And that's been a challenge.

And you like to write?

I do. Right.

Okay, so.

And I mean, when I'm excited.

So would it be fun?

Okay.

You write poems?

Well, no, that's the thing. I wrote a poem that tells you how excited I was to talk with someone about writing and being successful at it. In terms of personal success, not external.

Dr. Matt says. Are there any journals that don't allow you to retain the rights to your story? I'm sure that there are places that want all your rights, but you don't have to submit to those places, Sonia. So if you are interested in writing stories, that's the thing that we specialize. And we can get you published, you know, if you're willing to do the work. We can pretty much guarantee you that you can get published if you're willing to do that work. And so if you ask yourself whether or not that would be something that would be happy making to you, we. And it would be, we can help you get there. There's no question about that. So all you have to do is make a decision about whether or not that's what you want.

Well, yeah, I have to see the structure.

My mind, the structure is, you know, that's that six step process we talk about. Write at least One sentence every day. Write one to four short stories a month, finish and submit at least one of them a month. Don't rewrite. Once you finish, don't rewrite. Accept to editorial request, read 10 times as much as you write, and the last step is Repeat this process 100 times. If you will get on that path, you will absolutely publish. Most people, anyone who can't, who's not going to be able to publish, can't stay on that path. They'll. They'll. They'll let their egos will, Will bump them off of it. But if you will stay on that path, we can get you published. So is that what you want, Sonia?

Yes.

Excellent. Fantastic.

And also film. The small short films.

Yeah, well, that's, that's. That requires a higher level of organization and resources and energy to do so I would suggest, you know, you're going to do what you do because you're a grown ass woman. You can do whatever you want to do. But we would suggest that you publish short stories, then you make short films, and then you see how far you can get up that process.

I was just thinking of writing the short films.

Well, you could do that.

My word count.

And you can do that. And if you're committed to that, then ignore what I'm saying about stories. But it all depends on what it is that you really want. And I would suggest that you keep thinking about that. What do you really, really want? What is it that would make you happy? And if seeing a story published to make you happy, I've got a path that'll get you there. If what you need is to see a short film of yours in a film festival or something like that, that requires a higher level of organization and is still doable. People do it all the time. So. But you need to ask yourself, what do you really want? And as you're making that decision, I still suggest that you write short stories. Because of the fact that you can write a short story all by yourself with no cooperation from anybody. Whereas you can't do that with a.

Movie, with thinking about writing this, the script.

Yeah, but then don't you want. I think that you want to share it.

I guess I'm. I'm doing what you're saying in terms of if I write a short story and push those to get published and I write a script, it's just something I want to see myself progress in.

Okay, so, so let me. So what you're saying is. And I want clarity, and clarity is really important.

Yes, it is.

If you had one Goal of what you wanted to accomplish within the next year. What would that goal be in terms of, in terms of the, this, what is, what do you want? What do you really want?

I think I would write short stories.

Okay, that's good. Now then, if it's short stories, see, we can help. Once you've published a short story, I tell you what work, set a goal of publishing a short story and on the other side of that goal, then you can think about the movie or whatever.

Okay, yeah, I would probably think about the stories.

Okay. If you, if you stick with stories, we can help you 100%. So if that's your goal, that within a year you're going to publish a short story, then you keep bringing that goal here and allow us to help you clarify your process. So you, you start by committing to write at least one sentence a day and then one to four short stories a month. If you will start going there, if you'll start with that, we can then help you.

Okay, so just to be clear, I've also, I've not a lot, but I've had like three stories published.

Good, good. Where were they published?

Online and not online but you know, small. I found them in literary journals online and there were small publications.

Okay, well there's, you know, that's, that's, that's still published. That's still published. So I would say to continue that and to allow us to, to help you with your process, you know, the questions of how to write and how to put more of yourself into your work and then how to market it properly, that we can give you some guidance there. But part of that guidance will simply be researching what other people say and creating your own plan. You know, we can provide you with a plan, but we can't necessarily provide you with a plan that is custom made for you. But if there's a magazine in particular, you know, you say, I, I, I'd really like to be published in this magazine.

There is a magazine Granta, but I, I, my mfa. So that right there when you were talking about process and writers knowing their process and not getting that until they wrote enough work to start refining or honing their skill, I felt like writing my thesis was kind of that way.

Well, kind of that way, kind of that way. And it's, but you'll see, see whether or not you can get, write stories that at the level that you want to write them in the magazines for the market that you want to reach. And it could be that writing your thesis helps you with that, or it could Be that you still have some skills that you need to get or polish or.

I mean, I haven't really been stepping back from the creative writing, dealing with family or personal issues. Yeah, I definitely can use some. Some.

It's the experiment, sweetheart. If you're going to be a scientist, you perform the experiment. You have a theory that you have the skills necessary. You perform the experiment and you test it and you take a look at the results. And if the results say, no, you don't have those skills, then your attitude needs to be, I don't have them yet. But I will never be afraid of not having the skills you need. As long as you're saying to yourself, I don't have them yet. That yet is critical. If people don't feel the yet, they won't let themselves admit they don't have the skills. They'll have this sense of either I've just got them out of the box or I don't have the ability. Whereas the truth is that any skill you can break down into its component pieces, you can acquire. Okay.

Okay.

All righty. You take care, hun. And thanks for being here. All right, so let's see. Just a really quick check in with Chikaja in Indigo.

Hi.

Hello.

How are you?

I'm doing fine. How are you?

Well, thank you.

Excellent. Excellent, excellent, excellent. So is there anything we can do for you today? Because we're going to wind up here so I can get down to see my daughter. But I wanted to say hi.

Hi. I am. I feel like I'm okay. I feel like. Well, I'm about to start. I'm working on finishing up some coursework towards my teaching certification in art.

Excellent.

So life is about to take some. Some turns. I'm feeling good about it, but then it is giving me a little bit of anxiety because. Means that I'm going to have to make space for this coursework that I was actually allocating for writing and building up. I have been doing a. I'm working on the Tibetans. I'm working on learning the first.

How many Tibetans? How many Tibetan. How many Tibetans are you doing?

I'm working on the first one. The spins.

When you say working on it is. Is it problematic for you in some way?

So I. I'm not at a point where I can do 21 spins.

No, but you start with three.

Right. That's what I'm doing. I'm building into it.

Okay, so. And how about. How about the other Tibetans?

So I haven't gotten there yet. No.

Okay, so That's. That's critical. They're all. They. They fit together. So don't do more than three. Three spins then.

Right.

Three of. Of number two. Three. Number three.

Three.

Number four. Three. Number five. And I will, you know, and if you will do that, then you can come back and you can say, I'm having problems with this. I'm having this. And I can actually coach you at a distance.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

I'm continuing with the Ancient Child. That's still a work in progress for me, and I'm still working on adding dialogue into my story. I have some things, but I'm trying to figure out how they fit together so that the story stays coherent. Coherent. So I feel like.

Can you tell me. Can you. In 20 words or less, can you tell me what your story is about?

Oh, yeah. It's about a. A girl in the inner city. A small girl in the inner city who. Who confronts a molester, but in this particular instance, does not get molested, but is denied protection.

So what is her challenge?

I think the challenge is it's the relationship between a father and a daughter. It's her learning.

So her challenge is what her challenge is.

Well, the challenge is the relationship.

It's just that her challenge is to say something she's never said, do something she's never done, get some response she's not gotten. What is her challenge? What does she want?

That's a good question. I have to really. I have to sit with that.

Yes. So it could be any number of different things, but remember, people always trying to move away from pain toward pleasure. So either she's trying to do something, or she's trying to undo something. She's trying to accomplish something, or she's trying to remove an obstacle to doing something she's trying to get herself to do something, or she's trying to convince somebody else to do something. You know, there's. There's something that she wants. And the clearer you can be on what she wants here, the easier it's going to be for you to be sure that your story pays off. Okay.

Thank you.

You betcha. All right, folks, I would like you guys to unmute yourselves and say goodbye so I can get out of here and go down and see my darling daughter. And remember, we will see each other next week at 10:30 in the morning. And, you know, approximately. I will send you emails about it. But thank you so much, everybody, for being here. I love this. I have so much fun.

Thank you.

There you go. Take care of yourselves. See you next week.

Absolutely.

Remember to have you back.

It's great to be back. It's great to have my health back and starting to build up my energy. And I'd like to close this, as I always do, by saying that the divinity within me salutes and acknowledges the divinity within each and every one of you. Namaste.

Take care.

Love you all.

Take care, everybody.

Bye.