Happy 2010 everyone! I trust that it will be a year of passions lived and dreams realised for you.

In my last post I was talking quite confidently about seeing my current writing projects as acts of co-creation and feeling quite comfortable with that. Obviously “the gods” just could not resist that challenge and decided to make things a little interesting. So interesting that I had thought that I posted here last month but now discover that in the melee of the last month or so, I actually did not post. Apologies for that but here we are now.

To refresh us all, I have just finished writing a film script, have a book due this month at the publishers and edit a magazine (WELLBEING). Towards the end of last year I also discovered that I will be editing a one-off magazine to come out in mid 2010 that will look at “mysteries” of the world; things like reincarnation, the Mayan prophecies, ghosts, ley lines and such like. More on that later for in this post but I’d just like to update you on the process for the film and the book.

As I mentioned the film is a project that began about five years ago and centres around the potentially world-changing capabilities of “crystal skulls”. It had been in hiatus until in mid 2009 I was contacted by the producer to write a new draft for some potential new investors. Sleepless nights, much angst and a couple of months later we had a new draft that is ready to go. It now looks as though those super keen investors are not so super keen. While they drag their heels if you or someone you know wants to invest in an inspirational but action driven film with spiritual themes, let me know. I’m just meant to be the writer, not the money-man, but I can put the two together.

On more immediate matters I am writing a book that is due at the publishers by mid-January. I can’t tell you the exact topic now but it is a book that looks at one of the quintessential questions of how we live. I’ve interviewed ten celebrities to get their experiences and insights (one of them being the awesome Toni Childs) and I’m writing ten chapters of “advice” on how to deal with the issues surrounding the central theme. For these chapters I’m drawing on my own degrees (one in psychology and one in naturopathy), my own reading and experience and interviews that I have done with a Buddhist nun, Sufi counsellor, Christian minister, Ayurveda practitioner, lecturer in psychology and two life coaches.

Clearly I am drawing on the insights of many amazing people and then melding them with my own. Early on in this process though a stumbling block kept coming up for me. It was something along the lines of: “Who the hell are you to be writing this?” The book is about some pretty big, central issues of life and I was struggling with my validity as a guide to these issues. The answer to my question came in a phrase that had been said to me many years before; “If not you, who?”

The answer is that this project, this book has come to me, not to someone else and therefore I am the one that is meant to write it. Whatever I make it, whatever it becomes via me, is what it is meant to be. That is the first part in coming to terms with such a big project. The second part is seeing it as an act of co-creation.

I’ve written three books previously (four if you count one that I ghost-wrote). Every one of them has a been a ripping, tearing struggle against my own need to quote others and my lack of belief in my own wisdom. Again, I needed to accept that whatever my wisdom, my understanding, it is just right for the task at hand. More importantly though, I accepted this time that everything I write is not just of me. Sure, I have the contributions of many other amazing people, but I am also working with something higher. Call it collective consciousness, God, the Muse or whatever you like; but I am co-creating this book with that force, the same force that brought the book to me.

In the end it means that I accept that I am, with all my flaws and talents, the right person for the job because I’m the person who has been given it. It also means I don’t need to stress and fret as much because I am creating this thing in partnership with the forces that shape life itself. I feel sure that flowers don’t fret about the colour of the petals they produce (at least I’ve seen no obvious eveidence of floral colour stress) so why should I worry over the book.

That’s the theory: in practice I’ve been stressed and panicky but truthfully, not as much as before. My stress relates more to finding the time to write rather than worrying about the content, although that is still certainly there. In the end though, as I write my fifth book and after years of writing for magazines and newspapers, I finally feel like I am a writer. Much water is still to flow before I finish this book and doubtless I’ll doubt myself in the process. It is going to be a good book though, I know that much. It’s out in September this year (2010) so I’ll keep you posted on its progress.

If you have stories of your own path to becoming a writer or any sort of creative person, I’d love to hear them. If the idea of co-creation resonates with you, I’d love to hear of that even more.