Long Absence

One of the fantasies I’ve always had about a writer’s life is the freedom of time and place. I always thought I could write from anywhere in the world; and with the internet, that fantasy is more reality now than ever before. Technically, it’s true. But during my recent absence, I discovered some of the pitfalls that make this fantasy very difficult to turn into reality.

In the middle of March, I went to Florida with my niece, Kendal, and her two children: Savannah, 7; and Isaac, 5. Kendal took her laptop and air card so we could access the internet from wherever we were. I took my thumb drive with all my current work on it. Good planning; we were all set!

I did most of the driving so Kendal could tend to the endless needs and demands of the children. That’s fine - I wouldn’t have been able to work in the car anyway.

We spent the first five days in Orlando so we could visit the different Disney parks with a day in between at the hotel. By the way, we stayed at the Nickelodian Hotel, a kid kingdom with enough events, activities, and parks of their own to entertain our every waking moment. Between Kendal getting sick, Isaac getting sick, Savannah fighting it off, my work bag getting drenched in a sudden downpour and the constant squeals and screams from all the events at the hotel, I had a hard time working…

I couldn’t find a quiet place to sit. Then, when I finally found a tree on the outskirts of the Nickelodian property, I didn’t have what I needed – first my thumb drive was left in the car; then my research articles were in the swim bag with Kendal and the kids at the pool… It was this way all the time. I couldn’t get settled. I was out of sorts, out of my comfort zone, out of my element.

The next week we were at Grandma Clock’s house in Bonita Springs. Much better. There is a park nearby where I could set up my workspace at a picnic table, fairly free of interruptions. There is also a library nearby where I could print when I needed to. So I managed to meet all my paying customers’ deadlines, but nothing more. No personal writing, and not blogging.

I am easy-going and flexible. If anyone can write on the road, surly it would be me. Yet I found that I was constantly unsettled, always on guard, consistently missing something important: my glasses one time, no pen or pencil another, a dead batter in the computer, a dead zone with no internet access, the library isn’t open on Wednesdays, and the list goes on and on…

I clumsily struggled to make the fantasy work. I can’t say it was a disaster because I did manage to get all the required work done and on time. It was not relaxing however, and it certainly did not fit my vision of happily and productively working on vacation. And when I got home two and a half weeks later, I have been discouraged to discover that it has taken me a week more to get resettled and back to my regular routines!

I am not giving up though. I am a die-hard believer in dreams. I still believe that I can write from anywhere in the world and I have every intention of giving it a try again soon. The test will be whether or not I can keep up with regular blogging posts because there is no paying client at the other end forcing blog posts to the top of the priority list.

Anyway, after a long absence, I am back now. My office is back in order and freshly cleaned and reorganized. The laundry is done, dependents cared for, and my skin reflects that golden glow that tells the world I am renewed.

Blogging resumes.

Questions as Prompts

In our last journaling meeting, we did a whole prompt on questions. For something like 5 minutes, we just wrote out all the questions we could think of. It was a fun activity and now we’ve got tons of new prompts to keep us going! There were many more than I’m including here simply because this is all I could write as people were reading. Pick one and write on it and see where it takes you.

Enjoy!

1. Who is your best cheerleader?
2. What is your favorite spring memory?
3. What does your best day look like?
4. When have you regretted your lack of adventure?
5. When do you learn to keep our thoughts inside?
6. What does blue taste like?
7. Why are we here?
8. What is the purpose of human life?
9. Why did we meet each other?
10. Was there a purpose in our meeting?
11. Where did you go?
12. Who is he?
13. Did it hurt when we separated?
14. Do you remember?
15. Do you care?
16. What time is it?
17. Does anyone like hominy?
18. What does the color green mean to you?
19. How long is a ‘little while’?
20. What are you wearing?
21. How do you look past a face?
22. How do you reason with yourself?
23. Do you sing in the car?
24. Do you hear voices from the past singing along with you when you sing?
25. Do you like to drive fast?
26. Do you like the silence?
27. What do you do in the silence?
28. Do you try to make noise in the silence?
29. What does it mean to say that too much of a good thing is not good?
30. What is your favorite place to spend time alone?
31. What kind of car would God drive?
32. What sets your teeth on edge?
33. How to you turn loose?
34. Are we there yet?

I have had several people tell me that they are not able to leave comments on my blog. I have also had a hard time leaving comment on other people’s blogs at times. This prompted me to think it might be a good idea to have a basic blogging workshop. We talked about this in one of our monthly journaling meetings recently and everyone agreed it would be helpful. I realized during our discussion however, that we have a lot of questions and a lot of different needs, so I thought we should break down the content of the workshop and make it really simple. I thought we should break down information about blogs and blogging into simple steps beginning with the most basic information such as how to search for blogs, save and organize blogs, and interact in the blogging community. I also realized that we would need to hold a series of workshops in order to cover all that needed to be covered and to give people time to practice what they learn and feel comfortable to move on to the next step.

A common frustration for people as they work with technology is the fact that everyone knows something different, so when you ask a question, the answer is usually filled with terms and information unfamiliar so you never really get your question answered, but instead, find yourself with even more questions. A lot of people feel overwhelmed when this happens and maybe even “stupid” and they simply resolve themselves to “not being that much into computers anyway.”

Well, I wanted to be sure that no one felt intimidated about asking any question and that the answers would help identify what terms and concepts needed to be explained. This is the premise and rationale for the first basic blogging workshop.

We held the first workshop at my house a few weeks ago. It was aimed to focus on reading and interacting with blogs, not creating one or learning more about how to improve one participants may have already created. We learned about the different kinds of blogs, how to search and surf to find blogs, how to bookmark, save, and organized blogs, and how to interact by posting comments.

After the workshop, I could see that while we had basically hit the target on what we wanted to cover, it has been a bit of a mess. People doing their own thing, people helping other people, people no knowing what we were talking about, etc. all led to an active, exciting workshop, but maybe not the most efficient. So ever since then, I have been thinking, evaluating, and processing my ideas. I am creating worksheets and handouts to make the workshop better next time, and in the process, I’ve realized that what I am really creating is an ebook of blogging basics for beginners.

I am going to post at least some of the parts here on this blog and may eventually have a free ebook for readers to download. Your feedback is very welcome as I work through this! Next week I am hosting a re-do of that first workshop to test out the curriculum materials before I post them. I would like to invite my readers to tell me what questions you have about blogging and send me tips about your own blog-reading, blog-interacting experiences. This is a learning opportunity for all of us and I am just very grateful for the questions that keep me moving forward.

* Next month the second workshop will be all about how to set up and create your own blog!

Garrison Keillor on Humor

The Excited Writer

“… the first thing a writer should be is excited.”

n -- Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is right on target! A writer has to have passion. The act of writing is tedious, gruesome, laborious, incredibly time-consuming, agonizing, painfully difficult, and down-right horrible if you don’t have passion for your topic or the act of writing.

I am using passion here as an equal synonym for excitement. A writer simply has to be excited or the pen simply does not move!

To be excited does not necessarily mean to be happy. Excited means there is heightened energy about something. It means there is interest, usually a vested interest, in something. It means you care very much about something for one or more (usually more) reasons. So I fully agree with Mr. Bradbury: a writer should be excited and this really has to come first.

When people tell me that they love to write, but they just don’t know what to write about, I’m somewhat miffed. My first thought is, are you kidding me?! And my second thought is, wow, you either don’t have much passion or you’ve buried it so deep inside that you’re all clogged up in your soul.

I’m not usually so brutally honest as to blurt those thoughts out in the air where the person who has just confessed an embarrassing secret to me can hear them, though. Instead, I usually start asking questions that are aimed at discovering some semblance of excitement. I disguise my questions so the person doesn’t even know we are talking about writing anymore. My camouflaging transition goes something like this: yeah, I know what you mean…. it’s hard sometimes… Then we talk about basketball or dogs; a new restaurant in town; music; painting a room; taking a trip; kids; maybe even politics. I dig and prod until I find some hint of excitement because I always believe it is there… And it is!

Here’s the thing: humans have thoughts, ideas, opinions, feelings, and in there, we have excitement. Something gets your goat. What is it? Whatever it is that boils your blood and causes your voice to rise in conversation is the source of your passion.

To be excited about something can mean that you are really happy and are experiencing some kind of euphoria; but more often than not, you get excited about an injustice of some sort. Whatever it is, Ray Bradbury is suggesting that this passion is what initiates the movement of expression for a writer. I am suggesting that we have this unrealistic ideal about writing that it has to be pretty, or nice, so we think we can’t write about that rise in emotion that is ignited by anger or pain. No! Writing is about being real and being honest about that realness. So my contention is that we are excited, but we don’t always recognize it because it isn’t always pretty.

My challenge to you is to look inside and find that excitement. Then rip it out of its hiding place and slam it onto the page! Be brave; be bold. Write it raw and let its stench consume you. Write it raw and let the emotions overcome you. Write it raw and ride on its momentum. Write it, because as you do so, you will discover and claim for your very own this excitement that tells you without a doubt that you are a writer!

Mind Harnessing Strategy #2

The first strategy I came up with was rather eclectic and running on the high energy of a mind explosion. This second strategy is more subdued by comparison. It may require less coffee than the first strategy, and more control of conscious decision-making. (I know, I’m getting awfully close to the concept of “discipline” but think of it as a choice to grow, not to close anything off..)

OK. Here it is:

Take on the role of observer. Sit back and watch the thoughts and they appear. Just watch. Settle down and watch them dance around in front of your eyes. Smile at them. See which ones call your attention to them longer than the others. Follow one or two of them as they present their potential. Don’t worry about trying to capture them just yet; just watch and follow them with your mind.

When you have observed a bit, begin to jot down some ideas, images, impressions, whatever comes to mind. As other thoughts that are not relevant to the one or two that you chose come into focus, just let them come and let them go. Don’t stress over how incredibly fantastic they are because unless they grab you with an unreleasing grip, this simply isn’t their time. Even great things can be distractions when their timing is off, and when you are in the throes of a mind explosion, everything is great, and therefore, everything has the potential to distract and destroy. So let them go. You do not need to force them off the edges of consciousness or chase them away, just let them go.

Mind Harnessing Strategy #1

I recently wrote about the mind explosions I often experience in the mornings. It feels like I’m being so bombarded with creative ideas that I am in a state of major overload. An in the manic high that often greets me with the rising sun, I am absolutely convinced that every one of those ideas is a rare gem that I have to harvest from the walls of my mind and polish into the ever-ellusive masterpiece.


While the experience excites me, it also kind of disturbs me because I am simply not capable of extracting every single one of them and spinning them all into the diamonds they promise to become. So I’ve been thinking about the idea of harnessing my mind.


I’m not sure that is the best way to describe what I’m thinking of, but I sure don’t want to use the word “discipline”. So for now, mind harnessing will have to suffice.


Here is one strategy that settled on my consciousness one cold, snowy afternoon:


Write wildly and eclectically to capture ideas with no reason and no intent. Just grab and run. Do this by writing whatever you see and think; do this as a collection of random words and occasional snippets of more complete ideas, but don’t worry if nothing becomes complete. If time allows, change colors, but don’t be so concerned about writing in different colors for every different idea that you stop the flow of thoughts.


All of these things can be returned to later and explored as writing prompts. Beware of course, that later the original potential will be dissipated. Let go of that with the belief that whatever comes later is what was really supposed to come anyway.
Note that this strategy has to be prefaced with an understanding that even though the onslaught of ideas feels so fantastic and incredible, the result on paper will be puny and insignificant by comparison. Maybe, just maybe, by writing frantically in the midst of a mind explosion, you can experience the whirl wind in a new, more holistic way. Maybe by capturing bits and pieces here and there, you will feel the joy of dancing in a midsummer rainfall. Maybe jumping in with pen and paper will allow you to feel every cell in your body saturated with a creative quiver. Ooh! That sounds electrifying! I think this is a strategy certainly worth exploring!