Don’t Be Chicken

Well, it’s November.

And you know what that means, don’t you?

It means that summer is far behind us, and the slow march to winter solstice is beginning to take its toll.

Here in the Gray-t Northwest, November means gray and drizzle and gray and showers and gray and rain and more gray and cloudbursts and early nightfalls of a darker shade of ... well, gray.

Here’s the rub — if you’re not careful, all of that gray can start to affect your grey matter. And by mid-month you’re likely to find yourself listlessly sucking down Darjeeling and eating orange marmalade straight from the jar.

I’m speaking from experience here.

But this doesn’t have to be you! Your inner awesomeness and a November stretch goal will save the day... er... month!

Just say NO to listlessness by checking out this list of fabulous possibilities—

Pen a novel! (NaNoWriMo)

Create 30 picture book concepts in 30 days! (PiBoIdMo)

Research and write a nifty nonfiction piece! (WNFIN)

Or get really inventive and create a November challenge of your own...

You could draft a screenplay!

Revise those old manuscripts you’ve got hanging about!

Do daily morning pages à la The Artist Way!

You could even make it a month of poems, jokes, comics, or paintings!

Due to the fact that I write for a living and for fun, I decided to take that last option last year.

I’d never worked with acrylics, and I thought, Well what have I got to lose, but all that orange marmalade belly fat? Then I set aside an hour a day for painting.

In the end, it was great fun. And I particularly enjoyed two of the pieces I did...

 

Ahem...

Well, I guess I was a little chicken after all.

But it didn’t stop me.

PROMPT: Come up with a stretch goal and make your own November to remember...

Chickens are optional.

YES YOU CAN!

Imagine that all of your wildest author and artist dreams have come true...

I mean, really imagine it

in living color

with taste and smell-o-vision even.

What would your life be like?

What time would you get up in the morning?

What would you eat for breakfast?

What would you wear?

How much time would you put into your craft each day?

What crazy new projects would you try?

Where would you go?

Who would you hang with?

What causes or charities would you champion?

You know where this is going, don’t you?

PROMPT: All of those amazing answers of yours...yep, every one—

DO.THEM.NOW.

And once again, here’s that little bonus motivator that never fails to crack me up.

So Many Choices... So Little Mind

Here’s some news you can use —

Our good friends in the field of neuroscience have proven that the brain’s most productive time is within the first two hours of waking up.

Ah yes, smug pessimists, you’re right about this one — it’s all downhill from here.

But optimists, take heart! Applied wisely, this could be the best news you’ve heard all day.

First off, let’s explore why this is so.

Well, in not-so-super-scientific terms, your brain gets tired. 

And what makes it tired? Three things really —

Decision. Decisions. Decisions.

Okay, that looks like only one thing. But it turns out that mental energy is drained away with every choice you make — especially those that involve willpower. At a certain point your grey matter thinks nothing matters... “Like whatever, Dude. Whatever.”

The actual super-scientific term for this is called decision fatigue. And it explains why a health-conscious person will refuse that tempting bowl of donutty frosted fun first thing in the morning, yet gleefully scarf down two or three at noon.

But is this fact of life only helpful for those trying to avoid donuts?

Nope.

Arming yourself with this insight can actually help you reach your creative goals. Here’s how:

1. Eliminate unnecessary life decisions... like that pesky morning fashion dilemma. Trust me, if your closet contains only black mock turtlenecks (Steve Jobs) or gray t-shirts (Mark Zuckerberg), you’ll free up your mind for more important choices. And if you want to really go full throttle with decision elimination, you can ditto successful CEOs Alexa Von Tobel and Leo Widrich by eating the same meals each and every day as well.

2. If you spend the first two hours of your day watching YouTube videos of cats wedging themselves into teeny tiny boxes, you might want to rethink the way you start your morning.  Remember that those first two hours are 120 minutes of golden creative opportunity.

3. Creative endeavors require willpower. That is, for most of us they’re optional activities so a decision must be made daily — as in, “Will I write something today, or not?” And we all know what happens when you leave this decision until evening...Yep, you’re glazed and confused from eating ALL the donuts, and you’ve got no words in the file.

So, make the decision ahead of time. In fact, build a habit such as “Every day at (pick your favorite time) I write for X number of minutes or Y number of words.” And voila! That was just one decision, and you’ve already made it! So, if you stick to this plan, you won’t ever need to decide again — leaving your brain freed up for other important choices like...

Do I want the chocolate frosting or vanilla?

PROMPT: Give your brain a choice break and start building creative habits. For a kick-start in habit formation, check out Gretchen Rubin’s book Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives.

By the way, I am guiltily aware that one of your decisions today was spent on choosing to read this blog. For that, I am grateful.

New Directions

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say

 a hearty yes to your adventure.

—Joseph Campbell

I've just returned from a grand adventure, and it was absolutely fabulous!

But here’s the rub —

Adventure invites change.

And it is up to us to decide whether we allow that change to work its magic.

Well, I say bring it on!

Thus, for a while I’ll be exploring some new paths…

just to say a hearty YES to more of my adventure.

So, I’ll be taking a sabbatical of sorts from the good ship Elbow.

Until we sail again…

Au revoir!

PROMPT:

Waste not your Hour…

— Omar Khayyam

And as always — 

Write on!

Fear Knots

What if you were not afraid?

Would you…

Ask for a raise?

Ask for a date?

Go on a daring adventure?

Well, grab yourself some courage and do those scary things anyway.

Because as Mark Twain once said –

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”

So there.

PROMPT: Need a little bravery boost? Feel the Fear… and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers is a classic read that rocks!

Adventure Is Out There!

Are you an adventurer?

Alas, I must admit that I am not.

I mean, given the choice between camping in a snow cave and cleaning grout…

Spelunking and cleaning grout…

Or whitewater rafting and cleaning grout.

I’m going to choose the grout.

Every. Single. Time.

In the vast world of writerly types, I am as close to a card-carrying hobbit variety as you can get…

Without actually carrying a hobbit card.

Yes, I like warm fires, good books, second breakfasts, and elevensies.

Most of all, I like being home.

And yet…

I am about to embark on my most adventurous summer ever!

First, I will travel to a foreign land where my communication will be limited to toddler-level sentence structures, such as “Want coffee” and “Dinner good more wine.”

Then when I've barely recovered from the jet lag coma, I have a date with the Great White North. I’m calling this one “Ten Days No Showers.” Because really, everything else (dehydrated food, bears, whatnot) is irrelevant.

And so…

I will expand my hobbit horizons, and of course, accumulate lots of writing material.

Because even nonhobbity writerly types know…

It’s all material.

Besides,

H. Jackson Brown's mother was right —

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. 

Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover."

From: P.S. I Love You:

When Mom Wrote, She Always Saved the Best for Last.

PROMPT: What’s your next adventure?

Explore, Dream, Discover… and Write on!

Hey, Old Dogs...

What if you spent this summer learning something new?

I’ll bet there's something you've always wanted to know how to do…

Juggle

Spin wool

Perform nuclear fusion, perhaps.

Well, now is the time!

Learning something new is a terrific way to jump-start the brain’s creative engine.

And hey, there's a bonus feature to this one...

You can always give your newly acquired skill to one of your book’s clever characters.

PROMPT: Start planning now! Buy that book, make the call, or sign up for a super summer class today. For free online courses from 109 different universities, check out Coursera. Yeah, you saw that right — FREE!

My, Oh Maya

In all my work, I try to say —

'You may be given a load of sour lemons,

why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?'

—   Maya Angelou

  

How I miss her already.

This little blue planet is not the same without her…

It’s a whole lot bluer.

But still, it’s a time to celebrate a life well-lived…

And a woman who did not leave this world with her soul’s music caged inside.

So, I thought I would repost the Angelou inspiration that I wrote for April’s poetry celebration…

Today we’re celebrating Maya Angelou, a writer who had the good sense to be born in National Poetry Month.

When you consider that she achieved international success as a poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, historian, and filmmaker — there’s obviously a whole lot there to celebrate!

So, what exactly was her secret?

Well, Ms. Angelou reported that even though she lived in a fine, large home, she also rented a hotel room in town. She had all of the paintings and decorations removed from the space, so it was a lot like the blank page all writers must confront each day. In fact, the only items she kept in the room were a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a Bible.

Every morning she headed off to her hotel writing room at about 6:00 in the morning. There, she used only ballpoint pens and yellow pads to write for about six or seven hours.

So within those hours, did everything that spilled from the pen of this award-winning honorary doctorate recipient effuse perfection?

Of course not.

As Maya put it:

"What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I’ll come.'"

She also said:

“I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.”

And here’s my favorite:

“Of course, there are those critics — New York critics as a rule — who say, ‘Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.’ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing… It must look easy, but it takes me forever to get it to look so easy.”

There you have it — Maya Angelou’s recipe for success.

So celebrate her today by whipping up a batch of it for yourself —

Create your own special space, and then…

Just write.

Happy travels, Maya.

Godspeed.

PROMPT: If life has handed you lemons, use them to create a fine meringue pie or pound cake. Remember, it’s ALL material. Then try making this your new daily mantra — just write, just write, just write. And before you know it, those words of yours are bound to sing…

just right.

Heads Up

Your head is fabulous.

It’s a great place to park your brains.

It’s quite useful for sporting that favorite hat…

Or sporting in your favorite sport, if that happens to be soccer. (But given the pesky brain factor mentioned above, I can’t really endorse this one.)

It’s also great for keeping your face in place.

And without it, your neck would have nothing to do.

But alas...

A head is actually a horrible, no good, totally rotten place for completing your great manuscript.

PROMPT: For goodness sake, get it out of your head and on the page!

Yeah, it’s WRITE— not think— on!

Short and Sweet

Would you like to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week AND win a nifty key chain?

This week, the online magazine Smith is sponsoring a writing contest about teachers.

The catch?

You can only use six words.

You see, Smith is famous for its six-word memoir challenge —

The clever test of wordsmithing based on an old tale about Earnest Hemingway.

Legend has it that Mr. H. once made a bet that he could write a complete story in only six words.

His winning tale?

For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn.

While it’s most likely that the legend itself is actually a work of fiction, you can bet your bottom dollar that the six-word story is a terrific writing exercise.

Here are few fun memoir examples to get you in the swing —

The miserable childhood leads to royalties.

~ Frank McCourt

 Well, I thought it was funny.

~Stephen Colbert

Couldn't cope so I wrote songs.

~Aimee Mann

Mine?

Grew taller. But, alas, never matured.

And for all of the wonderful teachers in my life —

What?! They DON’T live at school??

PROMPT: Enter this week’s six-word teacher appreciation contest here. Or if memoir is more your cup of tea, enter your super six-word life story here.

Who knows? You might win a fabulous prize or end up in Smith’s next compilation! For inspiration, pick up a copy of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith.

And how can I resist a “six pack” of instructions just for you?

Life’s all material — so write on!

These Brains Were Made for…

Walking!

This just in from Stanford —

Walking boosts creative inspiration!

Clever researchers Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz examined the creative output of folks who walked vs. folks who sat around.

They found that a person’s creative output increases by an average of 60% when walking.

What’s more, the effect held up whether the subject was walking outside in a stimulating environment or on a treadmill staring at a blank wall.

This last finding was a big surprise to Oppezzo. "I thought walking outside would blow everything out of the water, but walking on a treadmill in a small, boring room still had strong results,” she said.

And with increased creative output in the robust 60% range, you could say this study has some serious legs!

But writers already know this, don’t we?

In fact, you could say we've known it for over a century…

“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move,

my thoughts begin to flow.”

― Henry David Thoreau

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

 “Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas.”

― J.K. Rowling

Walk on…

Write on!

PROMPT:     Take a ramble or stroll — see what is does for you.

But be sure to pack a pen and a page or two!

Random Acts of Poetry

Dinosaurs, road kill, grumpy basilisk,

Wontons, cherry pie, itchy kitchen whisk,

Orange pants, hula hoops, purple-backed sphinx,

Hopscotch, Frankenstein, bumpy roller rinks.

Cranky Sue, pitch forks, fabulously green,

Fruit cake, super glue, captivated spleen,

Dragon eye, night crawler, sticky candle wax,

Bubble gum, firefly, broken income tax.

Ain't it funny, ain't it cute, ridiculously true —

The whole world finds a way to live inside of you!

Yep, we're continuing our celebration of National Poetry Month with a whole heap of serious foolishness!

I hope that you've been getting your poetry game on each and every day.

But alas, I hear that some folks out there are trapped within the box, cage, and compound of highfalutin poetry.

Is this you?

Well, Cupcake, I am here to set you free!

Any poetry will do — whether it’s a rhymer, no rhymer, sometimes rhymer, or two-timer. Just throw words together and aim for the heart.

And remember —

There's no such thing as bad poetry…

Just bad people

who think

poems stink.

PROMPT: Boy howdy, it's random poetry day! So, dig around in your cupboards, peek under beds, and clean out the kitchen sink (that’s where I found my basilisk) — no doubt, you’ll find words in these places that have all the makings of a good poem. Sure, you can look to the speckled heavens, chuckling brooks, and barefoot meadows, too. It’s up to you. Simply smack some phrases on your pages — just for the JOY of it!