Living Creatively

By Peg Brantley, an author who utterly loves what she does.



"Love what you've got or create something new."

I made that off-the-cuff statement recently to someone. I was commenting on a surprising litany of snarky, negative authors who had big enough names they could be named in a post for snarky, negative authors.

I believe we create our lives, even the crap we have to deal with. I also believe we can find the spirit— the direction—to facilitate change, if that's what we want at our core. A further belief is that we're in some kind of weird accordance with a more powerful element who knows better than we do what we need to experience in order to truly facilitate growth as spiritual beings.

To repeat: I believe we create our lives, even the crap we have to deal with. Which means we can change it. It's one of those things that is simply stated but not particularly easy to bring into reality.

What? Are you saying I asked for this?

Well, yeah. In a sort of sideways metaphysical kind of way, you did. As did I. And the sooner you wrap your head around that, the sooner you can decide to create something new. Something different. It probably won't happen overnight, but it can happen.

I've never liked the saying "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" because quite simply, some people don't have boots. But everyone, even those who aren't fortunate enough to live in a country dedicated to free-will, have at least an internal choice to make. Every single one of us, whether we have boots or not, can choose to allow our internal lives to go in a snarky, negative direction—or not.

Every morning I write three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts. When there's something in my life I'm not happy with, I work it out—evaluate my level of control—and facilitate change. When there's something I'm not happy with and have no control over, it's time to try and understand what I need to learn from it and what my options are—what direction I want to choose. That's my choice. That's my control. There is no reason, ever, that I should become a snarky, negative author.

As a writer, I face things I cannot control professionally day in and day out. Even as an Indie, there's only so much I can make happen. The rest is up to the Fates or God or simply Readers. Also as a writer, I can use this lack of control to more fully develop my characters. To validate both their weaknesses and their strengths—because in the end, they are reflections of me. Even the snarky, negative characters.

And if I'm ever fortunate enough to find myself in a position to be named in a group of well-known authors, I can promise you that snark will have nothing to do with it.