Imagine a Genie pops out of an old lamp and says you are to be granted three writing related wishes. What would you wish for?

At first, I thought this would be a great blog prompt. I am well along the road of my self-publishing journey. My novel has been submitted to Friesen Press  – they have my reworked book synopsis (the first time around I said too much – I needed to write this piece in such a way as to tease the reader with hooks without giving anything away! Tall order right? Someone commented that it sounded like dating and I replied – Ya, like dating a really big pain in the ass). My author bio has gone in. My author photo has been uploaded.  (I take the worst pictures ever and I am thankful to my husband for insisting on taking hundreds of photos of me – though when this is happening, I literally want to strangle him – but due to his persistence, he does get a decent shot now and then) The photo that I want to form the background for the book jacket, as well as some of my ideas for how the cover should look have gone to the design team. My manuscript is in the hands of one of their editors for a complete read-through. I am basically done for now. I thought it would be a good time to dream. But it seems like dreaming about where my writing could go is more scary than fun. Who knew?

Genie: Come on – dream big. It’s just between you and me and the old lamp here. Give it a go – why not? What have you got to lose? (I picture this Genie to be like the Disney genie from the movie Aladdin – all blue and manic with Robin William’s voice)

Me: I’m embarrassed to make wishes – everyone will know what an ego-maniac I am about my writing and think – good grief, that woman is really living on some sort of fantasy island – da plane, boss, da plane.

Genie: They’re wishes – it’s supposed to be fantasy island stuff. Relax – let your hair down – get your wishing groove on.

Me: OK – well – here goes then.

Writing wish number one – I want to be able to write novels for the rest of my life. I’ve never done any other type of work that made me feel so motivated and alive. I’ve never felt that any other way of spending my time fit me so well.

Writing wish number two – I want disappearing in plain sight to be a success (a pretty relative term – success – could mean many things – I’ll leave even my wish for success vague). I want to gain the confidence to pitch the sequel to an agent and maybe get picked up by a traditional publishing house – I guess I want to have both kinds of experiences. Only then would I be able to judge what worked best for me.

Writing wish number three – I wish that people will read and enjoy the books I write and that they will discover insights that help them move forward with their own lives.

Genie: There, that wasn’t so hard was it? Of course I am just a pretend genie and possess no powers to make wishes come true.

Me: That’s OK, Genie. I believe that imagining what our life could be, creates possibilities and opens doors. They may not be the doors we wished to be opened or even any kind of door we could have imagined – but we imagine ourselves into being every single day of our lives. Wishes and dreams keep us plugging away.

I invite you to make three wishes today – bring three possibilities selves into the world by imagining what your life would be like if these wishes were to actually come true. Are you afraid? Good – you should be. Are you excited? That’s good too. Do you feel like you dreamed too big or maybe the only wishes you could come up with were narrow and tight? Think about that. Let me know how it turns out for you.

Image courtesy of  disneymoviefacts.tumblr.com