Promise of the Page: Creative Writing Mindsets

Maybe you promised a lover you would come back ... but you didn't. Perhaps you decided to be an artist when you got rich, but the riches were never found. Maybe you promised yourself you would go back to the page, but you forgot the promise of the page. Forgetful writers do such things, saying one thing, doing another. Creating is an act handed down to us; the strongest act of free will. The page offers each of us a promise of success.

Success Mindsets:

The mindset is clear to you, perhaps. Maybe you saw how much Danielle Steel or Stephen King make per novel, or how much money those screenwriters made for selling their first movie. And the awards! Forget the rewards, forget success. The promise of the page is a new mindset, one you will hear again in this piece. The mindset is your creative writing must pay dividends immediately. Look at it like a stock purchase: you cannot expect a return on the second day, usually not the second week, sometimes not even the second year. The success will come if you keep creating, however, and you will see creative writing as an act of survival.

Creating the Work:

The work tells you to finish-to finish the story you dreamed of. I can promise, if you work hard on anything tied to creativity, something will change. Work does that: it changes you from within. The purpose of creative writing is more about developing mindsets, the role of success and failure in honing you. There is even a promise in failure. It's quite clear: you must continue the story.

Promise of the Story:

The story-a magazine op-ed, fiction tale, whatever it is- has its own promise. The story will change you in many ways. For one, you will learn; creating the work leads into your own kind of success, defined as you would want. You are free here to create the novel you think no one will buy, or the personal story everyone rejects. That is the promise: you can always keep creating the stories.

Promise of a Life:

The life will happy to you in an odd yet fun manner. Your life will become far different than it was. Being a creative artist is about taking the pieces of your life and making them into story. Your opinion is created by your life, your prose is affected by your life, and your pain factors in most of all. So does the happy ending.

Promise of the Happy Ending:

There are some promises you might write down. "A novel in thirty days," is a very good goal. Creative writing is all about goals-positive goals. If you want to explore the world of creative writing, you must understand the promise you make to yourself in the beginning. Through thick and thin-through rejection and success-you will keep writing. It isn't about always about rules, and neither is it always about having fun. It means you are taking a journey, exploring your own worlds. You will see more of the world with your creative writing than Columbus did on his explorations. There it is: the happy ending.