Posted in Other, tagged death, inspiration, leadership, Nelson Mandela, South Africa, Thoughts on December 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Nelson Mandela, Inspiration To World, Dies At 95
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair.
― Nelson Mandela
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged awesome, creativity, inspiration, Maya Angelou, Motivation, Thoughts, work, yay on December 4, 2013| 1 Comment »
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.
― Maya Angelou
As an addendum, I posit that you don’t have to start out loving your work to be good at it. Pay close enough attention to a thing for long enough, and its beauty becomes clear.
Posted in Writing, tagged books, diversity, Fiction, history, literature, Thoughts, Writers, writing on November 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I’m busy working on a hard deadline so today I invite you to enjoy this great, self-reflective piece on diversity in historical fiction (and by extension, all fictional worlds) by Mary Robinette Kowal. She’s talking specifically about race but the same points apply to gender, sexuality, etc. as well.
Don’t blame the homogeneity of your novel on historical accuracy. That’s your choice, as an author.
Posted in Writing, tagged Ceallaigh MacCath-Moran, creativity, finishing, inner editor, Motivation, nanowrimo, SF Canada, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on November 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Like a lot of you I have a pretty (read very;) active inner editor. Most of the time we have a good relationship. He’s helpful when I need to find typos or structure a plot line but can be a pain in the ass when I just need to get words on the page. When writing, my strategy has been to find a balance between my instinctive urge to edit as I go and the not-as-helpful urge to redo absolutely everything all the time.
For me, that’s where speed writing comes in.
I was an archer in a former life and found that the best thing to do when I was missing my shots was to loosen up. The best way for me to do that was speed shooting. Forget the rules, forget “nine steps to the ten ring,” forget breathing and pacing and everything else. Just shoot, as many arrows as fast as you can. By the time my quiver was empty I’d regained my sense of balance and perhaps most importantly, my sense of fun. When I became an instructor I found this technique was one of my best for helping students over humps.
That’s why NaNoWriMo appeals to me. I do NaNo because it gives me a structured opportunity to focus on something that the inner editor doesn’t have a part in, word count. If nothing else, it gives me the opportunity to loosen up my writing muscles to the point where I can restore the balance I may have lost editing the rest of the year. It also gets me back in the practice of writing, rather than editing, on a daily basis. And it reminds me how much fun writing can be.
I also found that being mean to my inner editor didn’t work, I had to silence him with kindness. I mentally send him on vacation for the month of November. I thank him for being so diligent, so dedicated, and as a reward I send him somewhere warm, a sunny place with bright blue water and umbrella drinks. (Not surprisingly, he’s a lot less uptight come December.) And then I write.
I should also say that the strategic use of deadlines, both in and out of November, has been critical as well. Having a cutoff date does wonders for my sense of focus.
So, finding a way to get out of my own way, that’s what works for me.
Good luck finding a strategy that works for you:)
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* Thanks to Ceallaigh MacCath-Moran of SF Canada for the discussion that inspired this post.
Posted in Likes, tagged Castle, entertainment, gender, King & Maxwell, Nathan Fillion, Rebecca Romijn, RuPaul, shoes, Stana Katic, television, Thoughts on October 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I like practical shoes. They don’t have to be ungainly, or ugly, or orthopedic* but I do like it when shoes are sturdy yet still attractive, appropriate to the task, and preferably waterproof. A help rather than a hindrance.
Sadly, women in TV Land do not often get all of those things. Or even some of those things.
Let’s take a non-random sampling of TV shows as one small example. One of the very first things I noticed** about the private detective show King & Maxwell was that Maxwell, played by Rebecca Romijn, wears practical shoes. Finally! I said to myself (and Mr. Man and the cats, none of whom care much about shoes but should), a show that does not feel the need to undermine its own plausibility by putting its female star in impossibly impractical footwear. Who chases bad guys in stilettos? Who can possibly sneak up on a secret lair in clompy clompy shoes? No one, that’s who.***
Now, I love Castle. Love Nathan Fillion (of course, and may Serenity fly forever, but he’s carved out a nice new niche for himself… one in which he gets to wear practical shoes:p), love the writing, love the humor, but Beckett (played by Stana Katic) should get an Emmy just for being able to walk in the shoes those costumers put her in, much less run and chase and fight and snare baddies.
A frikking Emmy.
And that’s my “thing I like” for today.
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* Updated because I just received an objection to this bit because the commenter likes their orthopedic shoes, which is fine, I’m just saying that shoes can be practical without being medical. So enjoy your posturally and otherwise functional footwear, people, whatever type they may be!
** Well, after I noticed the kick-ass intro they used for the premiere, complete with great music and a car chase and a man in a furry suit. Sadly, it was followed by the snooze-inducing actual intro which, while stylish in a sedentary way, should be updated as soon as possible. Why put your audience to sleep before they have a chance to appreciate the show?
*** Well, maybe RuPaul, but she’s just that fabulous.
Posted in Writing, tagged Anne Lamott, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Writers, writing, yay on October 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
By this definition, I spent the morning singing. Hope you did too.
Posted in Likes, tagged creativity, inspiration, Motivation, neil gaiman, quotes, Thoughts on October 21, 2013| 1 Comment »
It’s Monday, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be magic:
“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.”
— Neil Gaiman
And as ruler of my very own imaginary worlds, I hereby abolish Mondays!
Posted in Other, tagged flavors, fun, just saying, Thoughts on October 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I have a *lot* of envelopes to send out today, and among the many, many things I would like to know in this life, one question burns bright:
Why don’t envelopes have margarita-flavored glue?
Tell me that wouldn’t encourage snail mail:)
Posted in Likes, tagged Anne Lamott, inspiration, Motivation, quotes, Thoughts on October 4, 2013| 1 Comment »
I’m busy, as I am most Fridays, but I wanted to send you into the weekend with this thought:
Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.
― Anne Lamott
This weekend I think the truth will taste like cookies:)
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