Spring Fever

Spring, that beautiful time between winter and summer. Days get longer, the air loses its winter chill, temps get warmer, flowers bloom, animals, butterflies, and other insects emerge, and birds sing their hearts out. Spring bridges the gap between the dark, cold days of winter and the warmer, brighter days of summer. Spring ushers in the celebration of Easter, Passover, and cherry blossom festivities. People venture out more, go on long walks and hikes, visit parks, festivals, and carnivals. For many, it’s a time for spring cleaning, donating old clothes, prepping a veggie garden, and planting flowers.

Spring means, rejuvenation, renewal, rebirth. Your spirit has a chance to reawaken, realign, and recover from the long winter. (Unless you live in paradise. If so, you're so lucky! Disregard.) For the rest of us, spring conjures the idea of new beginnings. It's a time to make a fresh start, rethink things, and reshape your life. And . . . wait for it . . . time to begin writing that novel or rewriting the one you gave up on.

Sometimes starting is the hardest thing to do. People wait for that perfect time; a time where they can see their way clear to take a new project on. They wait for better weather, a better relationship, secure finances, when their kids are grown and they’re empty nesters, when they retire. Picking a day to start is half the battle.

This season is a great time to, as Dr. Phil says, “Hit the reset button.” Spring has always been a time for me to regroup and shed what no longer serves me. Spring means new opportunities. Positive in and negative out. It’s a palpable feeling that comes with fresh energy to embrace then tackle that new something you’ve been thinking about.

Use Spring as your starting point to begin writing that novel or non-fiction book. Kick it off by marking the day on a new calendar. One that you’ve set aside for writing goals. Choose your dates and pencil in your objectives. Now, whip up a few sentences, brainstorm ideas, or come up with a working title. That’s more than you did yesterday. Write each day, even if it’s gibberish. There’s no shame in revisiting drivel later and spicing it up, expanding it, or changing it. The more you write, the better your writing gets. If you can accomplish small steps and stick with it, I promise, the bigger steps will flow naturally.

Commence with feng shui. You’d be surprised how moving things around reboots inspiration. Clear the clutter. Clear a space for yourself. Create a vision board. Open a new document on your computer and type your title, bold as brass. This makes it real, tangible, and something to conquer. One word after the other makes a sentence. One sentence after the other makes a paragraph. One paragraph after the other with characters, dialogue, and prose makes page after page. One page after the other makes a story. So, if there’s a story renting space in your head, get it out, and let your fingers do the typing.

There’s always room on the shelf for more books.