By Michelle Griep, @MichelleGriep
Zombies aren’t the only things that will eat your gray matter. There are plenty of other brain suckers that will kill your creativity. Here are the top 5 things to avoid when you need to be productive.
Self-Doubt
Give your ideas a chance. If you don’t, who will? Don’t self-talk yourself into believing you are less than adequate, rather error on the side of telling yourself that you’re up to the task.
Fear
Don’t be afraid of failing. Expect it. Sucks the fear right out of not being a success. If you acknowledge that you’re going to make mistakes, it frees you up to take risks and some of them will pan out.
Excuses
Excuses not only slow you down, but they also downright sidetrack you so that you never get to what it is you really want to accomplish. Stop telling yourself why you can’t do something and replace that line of thinking with why you should.
Attention-Deficit
There are way too many distractions in our world. Unplug from the internet. Shut off the phone. Go old school and try paper and pen if you must. Whatever it takes to hone your focus, do it.
Negativity
Lord knows there’s enough negativity in this life without surrounding yourself with naysayers. Hanging out with people who tell you that “you can’t” is a bad idea.
To keep your creative juices flowing, it’s important you maintain the mindset of a champion. Set your goal, give yourself a timeframe, then run like the wind toward it. The bonus is that if you’re running full speed, zombies can’t catch you.
Vampires are alive and well in North Yorkshire, leastwise in the minds of the uneducated. Librarian Rosa Edwards intends to drive a stake through the heart of such superstitions. But gossip flies when the mysterious Sir James Morgan returns to his shadowy manor. The townsfolk say he is cursed.
James hates everything about England. The weather. The rumours. The scorn. Yet he must stay. His mother is dying of a disease for which he’s desperately trying to find a cure—an illness that will eventually take his own life.
When Rosa sets out to prove the dark gossip about James is wrong, she discovers more questions than answers. How can she accept what she can’t explain—especially the strong allure of the enigmatic man? James must battle a town steeped in fear as well as the unsettling attraction he feels for the no-nonsense librarian.
Can love prevail in a town filled with fear and doubt?
Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She is the Christy Award-winning author of historical romances that both intrigue and evoke a smile. An Anglophile at heart, you’ll most often find her partaking of a proper cream tea while scheming up her next novel…but it’s probably easier to find her at www.michellegriep.com or on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
And guess what? She loves to hear from readers! Feel free to drop her a note at michelle@michellegriep.com