The Writer Behind the Words by Dara Girard

healthy.
     
Eat fruits and vegetables. The right diet can help you maintain energy and overall good health. The foods below can help fight fatigue, improve the appearance of your skin and help with stamina. Carbohydrates (protein, dairy and fruits and vegetables) are great energy boosters. Consider eating:

Fruit yogurt
Toast with beans, cheese, or peanut butter
Fruit salad
Fruit juices or smoothies
Dried fruit (dried apricots are a great source of fiber and iron which prevents tiredness)
Bananas
Nuts
     
     
    Be creative. Grab a cookbook of power foods and incorporate them into your diet.
     
Refill the well. Don’t forget that it is your job to be in touch with art. Visit museums, theaters, sports events, movies, restaurants or whatever gives you joy. Remember to be alive. You can’t write about life if you can’t live it fully. Watch a cartoon, a funny movie, read the comics have a good laugh.
Read.
Many writers stop reading for some reason. Some say they don’t have time, others that they don’t want to know what “the competition” is up to. Read. Fill the well. Applaud a good story or well written article. They are not your competitors, they are your sisters and brothers and teachers and friends. Learn to safely love another’s work without putting your own work down. You’re not a good judge anyway. Enjoy the pleasure of someone celebrating life.
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If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting.
    RAY BRADBURY
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Prepare for success. At some time each day give yourself a pep talk. Many successful people have a mantra or affirmation that they repeat to themselves. Some salespeople give themselves talks to get the courage they need to sell their products. Start your day with this statement or a variation:
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“I’m a talented author with many readers eager for my stories or articles. I am an asset to my publishing company (magazine, client) and make more money than I could ever need. I have all the skills I need to succeed at my goal.”
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    This exercise helps to trick your mind so you’ll face the day with eagerness and confidence.
     
Create a safe haven. It is important that you create a safe haven, a place where you can retreat and be your authentic self. A place where all the labels (mother, sister, husband, dad, dentist, Asian, HIV positive) are erased and you are who you truly are. This safe haven needs to be a place where you can play peaceful music or hard rock; a place to rant, rave, or cry. A place totally yours for however long you want it. It doesn’t need to be a sacred place. It can be your bathroom. You can turn it into a safe haven by lighting candles or wearing a certain robe. It can be your closet, your car, or a special location in a park. Any place where you can have a moment of time to get in touch with your feelings. If you need to, save some money and go to a hotel/motel once in a while for a night or two of peace.
     
Remember that everything has a season. In your career, you will have a winter season when nothing seems to grow, and the land is barren and cold. You’ll look at someone in her bright, fruitful spring season and feel your career is over. It’s not. Keep sowing the seeds (creating, sending out, reading) and eventually what you plant will grow.
     
Life doesn’t always make sense. Remember that bad things happen. Sometimes things happen for no reason. We like to have a logical equation for everything. If you write a brilliant novel, an editor will buy it. If you send out a perfect query, an agent will ask to see more. But that is not always the case. Sometimes the editor is at the wrong publishing house, so that even if they like your work, it’s not right for the publisher. Or your article is ahead of its