Cosmic Karma Continued

So, did everyone meditate yesterday? Did the sun seem to shine brighter? Did you all throw your positive thoughts out to the universe at exactly 5:10?

I did.

I was on my way to my friend's house after work and I pulled over to send out my own message. In gearing up for NaNoWriMo next month (see Writing Fiend post. Again.), I visualized a piece of paper and streams of light coming from my fingers. Before I went to bed, I turned out the light in my office, lit my Creativity candle, and said:

"My creative spirit is flowing and I am open to prosperity and abundance."

Over and over. Like a mantra.

Writers can be a superstitious lot. I say can because not all writers are like that. Some of us have to have our desks set up just so. Others maybe have to turn behind their chair 3 times before sitting it (or maybe that's just an OCD thing, I dunno). Others just need something simple like a good cup of tea and a plate of cookies at the ready. We're like the athletes who wear the unwashed jockstrap before each game because it brings them luck.

Okay. Ew. Sorry for the visual.

But you know what I'm talking about. I fit into that superstitious category:

1) NO ONE reads my WIP until it's done. A while back, I let a co-worker of mine read a partially written chapter. After doing that I had writer's block for 3 months. This is why I don't participate in critique groups. If you wanna read it, you're gonna have to wait until I'm done with the first draft--if you're lucky--or when it gets published.

2) In writing mode, I don't read anything else (i.e. magazines, books). Do any of you recall hearing about that Kaavya Visvanathan's Opal Mehta disaster last year? No? Well, here's the scoop: Harvard sophomore gets 500k book deal (totally unheard of in the YA genre) to write a YA novel. She copied ideas, plot lines and exact phrases from big name books (in the YA category, that is) such as "Sloppy Firsts" and "The Princess Diaries." Girl gets caught, the book gets pulled off the shelves, girl goes into the Witness Protection Program. (I was kidding on that last one). Her excuse was that she didn't mean to do it; she had a photographic memory, there was pressure from Alloy Entertainment (the company that inked the deal), blah, blah, blah. That and the fact that Meg Cabot and Megan McCafferty (the authors of the above books) happened to be the girl's favorite authors.

Uh.Huh.

For those unfamiliar in the journalism/publishing world, that's called plagirism. And the very reason I don't read anything while I'm in writing mode. I don't have a photographic memory, but I have an overactive imagination...and a subsconscious that picks up on little things and blows them out of proportion when I dream. If that ever happened to me, just slit my wrists now because my writing career would be so over. To agents, editors and the publishing world in general, it would be like having a scarlet P next to my name (plague, pariah, plagirist...take your pick).

Meditation is something I do when I'm in writing mode. I should probably do it on a regular basis, but seeing as how I get wound up the most before my writing movements, I should probably stick to what works best. I close the door, light my Creativity candle and take a few quiet moments to visualize. I consider my creativity, my "mojo", to be a soft white light that lives inside of me (kinda like chi). When I'm crankin' out 3-4 pages a day, it's on. It's so bright I wonder sometimes if other people can see me glowing. When it's 1-2 pages of utter crap, it's dim. Dimmer than a nite lite. Six months of writer's block? Yeah, that light is totally snuffed out with no plug in sight.

Some people don't believe in karma. Pish tosh. What goes around, comes around. Alicia Keys knows what I'm talking about. Cosmic karma? What goes around, comes around...ten fold.

Hello,

My name is Celise. And I'm a superstitious writer.