I am unwritten
cant’ read my mind
I’m undefined
I’m just beginning
the pen’s in my hand
ending unplanned…
— Natasha Bedingfield
As a writer, my characters are always “becoming” and, over time, they become more and more authentic. As a person, I’m also becoming authentic (hence my first website, www.BeWhoYouAre.com). Becoming me is never a done deal. It’s a constant reevaluation.
I thought, when I was a teen, I’d get past this introspective phase, find myself, and that would be that. I thought it again each time a new era in my life came along. I didn’t expect to have to go back to the drawing board so often–something about that felt like failure, like I wasn’t getting it right.
Today, I have a totally different take. I know I have to keep myself in evolution or everything falls flat. BORING! (Same with characters not growing.) Truth is, life changes you, and you change life, and when all is said and done, it takes a lifetime to become the person you really are.
It also takes effort. Just like writing, you have to sit down and do the work or you will have great ideas, but no books on the shelf (and boy do I love having multiple copies of my own books lining the shelves–they can never take that away from me).
So you know that old saying: “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it?” Well, my version is “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it…’till it changes.“ In other words, don’t expect me to say what I said yesterday, or the day before. Check in with me…I evolve! That doesn’t mean I won’t honor important commitments to the best of my ability, but it does mean I’ll reevaluate and shift (with integrity) anything that no longer serves the person I’m becoming.
In that way, I’m always just beginning…always open to life…always ready to evolve.
How about YOU?
faris on 
Audrey Taska Hare on 
Anna on
I love that song by Natasha Bedingfield. I, too, feel like I am constantly changing. I had someone ask me yesterday if I had set-in-stone-beliefs and had to answer ‘no, I do not’.
I used to, but trying to stay the same caused pain, so I learned to change my mind and now I hope to always change my mind in a growing, learning and evolving personal process.
My Dear Robin, I see how this whole blog experience is an exercise in evolution and I appreciate you laying it out the way you do in this post. Creativity is a powerful and wild galloping steed that cannot be tamed; only saddled briefly before the rider is bucked off and left in the dust. It’s a fearful thing for many to even consider building a relationship with anything wild or unpredictable. So many variables-will I look silly? will I fail? Will I piss off the horse? Will I suffer injury? eh, I’m on the horse, but now what?
As I read the first posts on your new blog, I perceive this forum as a tool meant for your evolution as a writer and creative guide, and for mine as a reader and learner with an avid interest in developing my own storytelling abilities. It’s also a fresh and innovative way to share your good work.
So ride’em Cowgirl, yeeeehaah!