Rewrite Your Reality

It Begins With Intention

Last October, a photo was taken of me standing on a mountain overlook. I had just dropped my husband at the airport for a three-month absence. I was nearing the end of my term as president of the Horror Writers Association. I had no idea that within days Amazon would permanently ban me from their platform, nearly erasing two decades of my career. As I was reeling from that, a hailstorm would damage the roof of my home, prompting a rapid move.

But none of that was visible in the photo.

All I knew then was one simple thing: that’s not how I see myself.

There was nothing wrong with the woman in that picture, but she didn’t match the version of me I knew was still possible. I was about to turn 57, and I was about to have three uninterrupted months to focus on myself. So I made a decision. I would use that time to transform my current self into my authentic self.

As we drove away from the overlook, I made myself a promise: I would use this time to merge who I was in that photo with who I saw myself as. I’m a writer, I reminded myself. I make things real by thinking them into existence. How hard can it be to rewrite my future self?

It occurred to me then that I’m the most important protagonist I will ever create.

This is not a strange idea to writers and artists. We invent people, places, and personalities all the time. We build worlds with our thoughts. We invent personalities as easily as we draft a shopping list. With a few marks on a page, we decide what matters, what survives, what changes. That ability doesn’t switch off when we close the notebook.

My own transformation is going strong, with twenty-one days left. I’ve dropped 8 kilos/18 pounds, added 10 new tattoos, moved to my dream apartment downtown and feel amazing. As I sat down to write my weekly Substack post, I kept thinking about how powerful imagination becomes when it’s paired with intention and action.

Open any esoteric or sacred text and you’ll find the same core truth expressed again and again in different languages and symbols: what we consistently hold in mind shapes what becomes real. Christian scripture tells us that as we think in our hearts, so we become. Buddhist teachings remind us that the mind precedes every experience we have. The Upanishads trace destiny back through desire, will, and action, placing imagination at the beginning of becoming. Taoist wisdom teaches that what we cultivate within ourselves determines the direction of our lives, and Islamic tradition reminds us that actions are empty without the intention that gives them form. Hermetic teachings go further still, asserting that reality itself is mental in nature.

Across centuries and cultures, the message is consistent: the inner image comes first.

This means that if we can imagine a world, we can imagine ourselves, and our shared future, differently.

Reinvention isn’t changing who we are at the core. It’s writing ourselves as a true story.

Every tale we admire is, at its core, a refusal to accept that things must remain as they are. Writers have always been the ones to ask what if and then follow the question to its natural conclusion. We know, perhaps better than most, that reality is more flexible than it pretends to be.

This is the maker’s creed: If we can dream it, we can make it.

Not instantly. Not perfectly. Perfection is not needed. We know epics take time to grow from rough drafts and we expect the edits.

World-Building Begins Within

When the world feels narrow, extractive, or exhausted, it’s tempting to believe we are powerless inside it. But creators know a quieter truth: every masterpiece begins small.

One person. One word. One mark on a canvas.

Reinvention doesn’t start with grand declarations. It starts with permission. Permission to imagine abundance where scarcity is assumed. Peace where conflict is normalized. Love where fear has been allowed to set the rules.

Creation is not escape. It is truth taking visible form.

Every time we choose to make something, including ourselves, we are practicing the world we want to live in. We create despite doubt, despite noise, despite the insistence that it doesn’t matter.

A Call, Not a Resolution

New Year’s resolutions often fail because they focus on what we don’t want. What we focus on becomes our reality. This is not a demand to become someone else. It’s an invitation to become more intentional about who you already are and to let that transformation ripple outward.

To recognize that the same tools you use to shape stories can shape a life, and from there, our world. To remember that reinvention isn’t about constant change, but about alignment, clarity, and care.

We do not rebuild the world all at once. We rebuild it in fragments. In sentences. In sketches. In shared moments of making.

All writers, musicians, and artists are Makers. When we all come together, we make anything possible.

This Week…

• Your Authortunities Calendar Every opportunity in this calendar is vetted for clarity, fairness, and accessibility. If it’s here, it’s something I’d feel good about recommending to a writer I care about. Find your calendar here.

• January 2026 Makers Challenge is live. This month, we’re exploring what it means to rewrite our reality through small, intentional acts of making. Each day offers a gentle creative prompt, something you can complete in minutes, or return to as often as you like. There’s no catching up. No perfect streaks. Just an invitation to practice authorship in daily life. Find your Challenge card here.

• Weekly Makers Meets: Thursdays at 8 pm UTC-3 (6 pm ET). We’ll start with five minutes of hellos, then move into two quiet 25-minute co-making blocks with a short break in between. Cameras and mics off during focus time. Join in here.

• Authortunities is a global newsletter with subscribers in in all 50 US states and 76 countries full of high-value, low- or no-fee opportunities that welcome writers everywhere.