Ask anyone who has gotten sick from contaminated water or tried to avoid falling out of a canoe while going down the Amazon River teeming with deadly piranhas. They will tell you that water can be deadly.

But what about a person dying of thirst in the desert or someone who goes into the hospital because they’re dehydrated? Water can bring life.

There’s a wonderful scene near the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Indiana passes three deadly tests to get the holy grail, fills it with water, then pours it on his father’s gunshot wound so he does not die.

It’s a beautiful analogy for the power of your words. Your words can cut people down to the bone with sarcasm and criticism. Or they can bring life through wonderful storytelling, personal experiences, or inspiring content. The choice is yours.

Daily Question: As you use your words today, will they bring life or death?

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In one scene, just after George’s mother slams the door in his face because she doesn’t know him, the angel Clarence can see he is distressed. He tells George, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. And when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

George Bailey had a chance to see what life would have been like without him. He had no idea that he had changed the lives of every person in Bedford Falls.

What about you? Do you know how many lives you have impacted through your writing and your overall life? It’s far more than you know. The world would be less without your influence, your words, your inspiration, your story.

Don’t doubt it for one second. You’ve really had a wonderful life, and you’ve made others more wonderful because of it.

Daily Question: If given the chance to see what the world would be like without you, would you take it?

The post The World Without You appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

In the fiction-writing community, there are two terms thrown around quite a bit: plotters and pantsers. Plotters are writers who know the whole plot of the story before they start writing. Pantsers are those who write “by the seat of their pants” and prefer to start with a situation, then discover the plot as they write.

These two categories also apply to other kinds of writing, including non-fiction. Planning and outlining are important, but they won’t take you through the whole journey. The real discovery process of writing comes in the actual writing, when you are fleshing out ideas in sentences, paragraphs, and chapters.

Henry Miller said, “Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery.” A good outline, especially in non-fiction, can be vital but don’t get stuck there. Set your course, then start writing. The discovery of new ideas will come as you write, but rarely before.

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Perhaps we take it a little too far. When have you ever heard of someone actually being damaged by being curious? There has been far more damage done to writers and artists by a lack of curiosity than by curiosity itself.

If you are feeling lost or uninspired, curiosity won’t hurt you. In fact, it is the very thing you need for a creative resurrection.

See a play. Watch a movie. Take a drive. Call an old friend. Do some journaling. Read a book. Visit someplace new. Do something, anything, to get out of that rut. Curiosity will bring you back to life.

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We live in a world where miraculous things happen every day. Of course, most of these things don’t seem miraculous to us. They seem ordinary. But it all depends on your perspective.

Seeing with your eyes seems ordinary to you, but to a blind person, it’s astonishing.

Taking a breath seems ordinary to you, but to a person on a ventilator, it’s astonishing.

Walking down the street is ordinary to you, but to a paralyzed person it’s astonishing.

Talking to someone on a wireless phone may seem ordinary to you, but to someone in the 1800s, it would be astonishing.

Having the freedom to go to the store may seem ordinary to you, but to someone in prison, it’s astonishing.

Mary Oliver said, “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

As a writer, part of your job is to help others be astonished. But you must first let yourself be astonished by the everyday miracles happening around you every moment.

The post When was the Last Time You Were Astonished? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Everyone feels writer’s block sometimes. The next time you aren’t sure what to write about, try combining two things you love.

If you love teaching and movies, write a book about how to use movies in the classroom, or write a series of blog posts on famous classroom scenes from the movies.

If you love science and gardening, write about the science behind how to make a home garden successful, or write an article for a science magazine about new methods of gardening.

If you love technology and marketing, write some articles or blog posts about different technologies the best marketers use today.

If you love children’s books and running marathons, write about how families can run together, or write a children’s book about running.

Author Dan Miller writes, “Passion is the intersection of multiple curiosities.” You won’t find your passion by following someone else’s path. Follow your curiosities and blend them in interesting and unique ways. You’ll not only stand out among other writers, you will also feel more excited because you’re approaching everyday topics with your own special twist.

The post What Should You Write About? Try This. appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

We’ve all heard it before (and probably said it): “I’m just not feeling inspired today.” There might be a hundred reasons why we don’t feel inspired, but there is one way to correct that works almost every time.

Madeleine L’Engle gave us the secret when she said: “Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” In other words, we have to get started working for inspiration to show up.

Inspiration is a sensitive, shy fellow. He is not rude and he doesn’t like to show up unannounced. That’s why he must be invited. And the way to invite him is to get writing.

The next time you aren’t feeling it, just get started and inspiration will more than likely show up.

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Whatever you think about the origins of the universe, one thing seems certain: the universe started as a kind of blank slate that is now filled with stars, planets, comets, gas, dark matter, and all manner of other debris and material.

Think about the effort and creativity that must have gone into the creation of the universe. It’s so mind-boggling that it’s almost impossible for us to wrap our minds around it.

Yet here is one tiny way we get to experience what it must have been like. Every time you sit down to write, you have a tiny sense of what it feels like to create. In fact, since we are all created in the image of God, and the very first image of God we have in the Bible is God as a Creator, it stands to reason that we imitate God in some small way when we create.

The novelist Sidney Sheldon said, “A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.” So the next time you sit down to write and it seems hard, it’s because it is hard. But with that difficulty comes the amazing possibility of creation. You get to bring a new creation into existence with just your words.

We will never know what it’s like to be God, but we are blessed to have just a tiny bit of his creative power.

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In your writing life, you will find that it’s easy to let go of some things, and much harder to let go of others. One of the items it’s difficult to let go of is books. After all, you’re a writer… why would you get rid of books?

The reality is that we fill our lives with clutter, especially in the modern world where we have so much access to almost everything we could ever want. But when you consider the books on your shelf, some of them were relevant to your life a decade or two ago, but they no longer have a place. You have outgrown the ideas in those books. You have moved on. And every time you see those books, you feel guilty because you know you don’t need them any longer, but you just can’t bring yourself to let them go.

It’s hard to hear, but true: you can’t make room for new ideas or new blessings in your life if you keep on hanging onto books that no longer serve your vision.

When you pass along those books to someone who can benefit from them, you not only free up space in your office or home, you also bless someone else. In fact, you are doing a disservice to a book if you hang onto it after it’s no longer relevant to your life.

A book WANTS to bless others, so the best thing you can do is pass it along. It’s not meant to be a collector’s item—it’s meant to change people. So give your books a chance to do that by giving them away to friends, donating them to goodwill, or selling them.

It’s OK to recognize the value something has had in your life, then let it go. When you do, you will make room for new and more relevant books that can take you to whatever destination you are going.

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Think about the last time you went to the eye doctor. You probably thought you were seeing just fine until the exam. It turns out your vision was blurry and you didn’t even know it.

Our creativity works the same way. We get busy and distracted. We lose sight of the amazing world around us and forget to maintain a sense of wonder. Our hearts and minds get blurry.

Artist and author Joanne Miller said, “There’s something holy about seeing and listening more intentionally. God’s beauty is all around us in sight and sound, taste, touch, and smell. But unless we intentionally seek illumination we may just continue down the path of mediocrity, never experiencing the richness.”

There’s a lot of truth to the old phrase, “Stop and smell the roses.” When you pause long enough to see the beauty in the people, nature, and world around you, your pathway will be illuminated. You will see the light.

All the inspiration you seek, all the beauty you need, is right there in front of you. Will you open your eyes and pause long enough to see it?

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