How to Chase Dreams Instead of the Red Queen

Thank you for sharing this post! I appreciate it 😊

I Did It!

“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.” Omar N. Bradley

Have you heard of the Red Queen Effect? 

It has many applications, but today I’m using it to refer to all the distractions that prevent us from achieving our dreams.  Like many of the ideas and concepts we encounter in life, it’s helpful when we consider them in a narrative.  The story within the Red Queen Effect helps us conceptualize and make sense of our world so we can not only identify, but also ignore the distractions. If we set our course by the lights of a passing ship, we lose sight of our dream.  That’s not what most of us want right?  Rather, our goal is to make our dreams a reality. 

The Red Queen Effect is taken from “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll. 

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began:  all she remembers is that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her and still the Queen kept crying ‘Faster! Faster!” but Alice felt she could not go faster, though she had not breath left to say so.

The most curious part of the thing was that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. ‘I wonder if all the things move along with us?’ thought poor puzzled Alice…

When they finally stopped running,

Alice looked round her in great surprise, ‘Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!’

What is the Red Queen Effect?

It’s been almost two years since I started this blog.  I did it so I would:

1.  Develop a writing habit.
2. Have a place to share my learning. 
3. Learn how to set up a website. 

What I really wanted to do though was write a novel. 

It seems cliché doesn’t it?  Writing a novel? I spent a lot of time reading books about novel writing and attempted to follow their advice.  I had an idea and tried to plot it out. But my blog was taking up a lot of time and I started spending less and less time pursuing my dream.  Rather, I became dazzled by the promises of what a blog could bring.  Always eager to learn, I started taking courses on marketing and web design and social media. 

“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.” – Author Unknown

The problem was I had nothing to market.  And, I wanted to write. 

Last summer I hit a wall. 

I stopped doing busy in order to re-evaluate how I was spending my time.  While I enjoyed blogging and didn’t want to give it up,  I couldn’t determine my why. The bright lights of the safe harbour had diffused my dream. 

Like Alice, I was working hard but always returning to the same spot. 

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. A Japanese Proverb” sometimes attributed to Soichiro Honda.

All it takes is one step

And so I took time away from my blog and refocused on my dream to write a novel and figuring out that first step.  I live in a small community in Northern B.C.  I’d taken several creative writing courses through the local college years back, but wasn’t aware of any novel writing course. 

I didn’t want an on-line course.  I wanted to take a course with other aspiring writers.  And I found it.  It was called “Bootcamp for Fiction Writers” by an author with the pen names, Ronnie Roberts and R.R. Roberts.  There were 10 spots in the bootcamp.  And…I got the last one. 

This course kickstarted me. 

Have you experienced the phenomenon where one small shift happens and everything falls into place?  That happened the first day of the course.  Ronnie said something, and the penny dropped.  I was like – how did I not know this?  Those aha moments kept happening and I’m excited to announce that I’ve finished writing the first draft of my novel.  It’s still going through the editing process, but I’ve planned the series and have book 2 plotted.

Why am I telling you this? 

“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.”  Jim Rohn

Check out this earlier post, 10 Awesome Quotes About Pursuing Your Dreams, for more inspiration.

P.S.  Other than my husband, kids, and the writers in my writing group, you are the first I’ve told about my novel.  Are you curious what genre I’m writing this first series in? 

P.S.S.  My husband, on the other hand, has told people that I’m writing a novel.  And if they know me, they are surprised when he tells them the genre.  All. Of. Them.  If you want to take a guess, leave your answer in the comments.  It’ll be revealed in next week’s post.  I’d also love to hear how your life was changed by taking that first step.  Comments are open!

Thank you for sharing this post! I appreciate it 😊