Be Prepared

Always, always, ALWAYS carry a pad of paper and a writing implement with you…

Yes, I mean at ALL times.

I’m not sure if I’m being clear enough here – but really, you should have paper and pen pasted to your person perpetually.

Why?

Because you just never know when that flash of inspiration, that GREAT IDEA, is going to come flying into your head.  And when it does, you must be ready for it.

How many times have you been out and about, minding your own business, when that perfect poem, fabulous character dialogue, or kick-butt story ending comes to you out of the blue?

Well, if you’re unprepared, the next thing you know you’re scrawling across perfectly good checks, your forearm, or your son’s stellar report card.

I am speaking from experience here.

And you can never really count on electronic devices to serve as your GREAT IDEA catchers. They’re too easily affected by dead batteries, sunspots, magnetic pole shifts, and dog spit.

Anyway, I was glad I had my trusty pad and pencil on Friday when a new GREAT IDEA came through as I was driving. Disclaimer: DO NOT draft and drive.

I was pretty pumped because the particular Muse that tends to appear only while I’m driving always produces favorable results –

And while all five of the poems she has offered in the past have been pretty religious in nature (yeah, I’m aware that that says something about my driving), every one of them has gone on to be published. Sweet fancy Moses!

Well, imagine my surprise on Friday when I learned that I’d actually been fired by that particular Muse.

I mean, that’s the only explanation that I can come up with.

Because this pressing piece of poetry, this thing that simply HAD TO BE WRITTEN (in a supermarket parking lot, at stoplights, and at speeds of 50MPH –See Disclaimer above) had NOTHING whatsoever to do with Jesus or Buddha or Krishna or some Great Big God...

and EVERYTHING to do with, well –

 

Banana slugs.

PROMPT: Have you ever experienced that pressing idea that simply HAD TO BE WRITTEN? Challenge yourself to carry a pad and pen all week to catch those GREAT IDEAS as they occur. Who knows, you may be lucky enough to find yourself trailed by a mollusk Muse, too!

 

Golden Moment

Still Pokey, but not so “Puppy”

(P.L.P.: The Senior Years)

 

Do you remember those Little Golden Books?

Do you wax nostalgic when I mention The Pokey Little Puppy, Scuffy the Tugboat, or The Happy Man and His Dump Truck?

If you have NO IDEA what I’m talking about, then go ask your parents to tell you about that rock you were raised under.

This month, while many are making merry about Vegetarian Awareness, the folks at Little Golden Books are celebrating 70 years of publishing for the preschool set.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by Diane Muldrow, the Golden Books Editorial Director. So I put on my reporter hat and brought back some news you can use.

If writing a Golden Book is on your bucket list, Ms. Muldrow says to focus on 2 to 5 year-olds and what is going on in their lives. Write about the construction site down the street or the new baby in the family. In fact, she says she would really like a new baby story (picture book writers – are you listening?).

Also, she highlighted a couple of new Christmas books, so they do not shy away from holiday stories.

Ms. Muldrow suggests that you try your hand at comforting, charming writing – the kind that offers that Golden feeling.

Further, she loves to publish first-time authors, so Golden Books is a great place for rookies.

By the way, here’s a bonus tip – when Ms. Muldrow was a child, her FAVORITE Little Golden Book was Goodbye, Tonsils.

I don’t know about you, but I think I Lost My Appendix in the Great Recession might be right up her alley.

 

PROMPT: If you’d like to write a Golden Book, then get out this weekend and read 50 of those little wonders. By the time you’re finished, that Golden feeling will be oozing from your pores. Then you’ll be ready to create a read-aloud classic that your great-great grandchildren will one day be clamoring for – those golden puppies stay in print for a long, long time (Cha-CHING!).

By the way, get ready for the fun and funny 2013 release of Diane Muldrow’s own golden adventure – Everything I Need to Know, I learned from a Little Golden Book.

  

A Great Day to Get Happy

Congratulations!

If you’re using The Mind’s Elbow to jump-start something creative today, then you’re celebrating World Mental Health Day in just the right way.

Our friends in the world of science have found that expressive writing, poetry, painting, and playing music all help to keep folks sunny and stress-free.

As a former psychologist, I would really, REALLY love for you to be sunny and stress-free EVERY day…

That said, please take note that I DO NOT recommend that you give up your quirky craziness in order to become “normal.”

After all…

If you are always trying to be normal,

 

you’ll never know how amazing you can be.

~Maya Angelou

 

But if you sometimes worry that you’re a bit on the nutty side of the food pyramid…

Trust me, you're in good company –

A question that sometimes drives me hazy:

am I or are the others crazy?

~Albert Einstein

 

Yeah.

And I’ll bet your poetry’s a lot better, too.
 

PROMPT: Celebrate World Mental Health Day by taking a “health” day just to play! Seriously, this one should be a mandatory international holiday full of Frisbee, Simon says, Twister, Tag, Hide and Seek, Duck Duck Goose…

Meanwhile, here’s a great book that I’m sure would get Maya Angelou’s stamp of approval – Better than Normal: How What Makes you Different Can Make You Exceptional by Dr. Dale Archer.

 

Chocolate Satisfaction

Okay, yesterday I mentioned that 2 out of 3 great discoveries involve chocolate and BAM!

The next thing I know there’s breaking news from the International Culinary Olympics –

Apparently, the gold medal in the single exhibitor category was awarded to a sculpture… made of chocolate.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Sure, it may have helped that the figures depicted the Rolling Stones (see it for yourself here), but still –

The chocolaty goodness of that creative connection was not lost on me.

And yet, there’s more –

Did you know that it was NOT a French chef, but the French Painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who created that little dab of heaven on earth – Mousse au Chocolat?

And writers – get your noggins around these best-sellers:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Hmmm…

Chocolate –

It's obviously not just for breakfast anymore.

PROMPT:

Sculptors – You know what to do.

Painters – I see mousse in your future.

Writers – Warm up today with a cup of cocoa and a Rolling Stones rewrite – Ain’t too Proud to Beg (for Chocolate), (I Can’t Get No Chocolate) Satisfaction, Get Off of my (Chocolate Mousse) Cloud, Start Me Up (with Chocolate), and, of course, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, but if you try sometime you just might find some Chocolate… and a whole lot of creativity!

 

Calling All Discoverers!

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” but “That’s funny...”

~Isaac Asimov

Ever since Christopher Columbus set off for India and arrived in the Americas instead, folks have been discovering great things by mistake.

Most of you probably know the story of Ruth Wakefield’s cookie revelation of the 1930’s. After finding herself fresh out of baker’s chocolate in the middle of mixing a batch of Butter Drop Do, Ruth chopped up a bar of semi-sweet and tossed it in. The rest is history – I mean, who even bakes a Butter Drop Do these days? Chocolate chips are where it’s at!

Then in 1945, engineer Percy Spencer was messing around with a magnetron when he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted faster than he could say “radar love.” Goodness knows what the beam did to his liver – but no matter, the microwave oven was soon to be one hot item.

Fast-forward to 1992 when the men of a small Welsh village were asked to test a new drug for angina. It was a total failure. However, even though the men still complained of wicked chest pain, they refused to part with their new meds. The researchers suspected that something was up.

Yeah.

Today those angina duds are called Viagra.

 

PROMPT: Discover some new stories this week the indirect and surprising way – use a free writing technique. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write nonstop. Put down whatever comes into your mind without censoring or editing.

For more information about free writing, check out The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

AND, since it appears that 2 out of 3 discoveries involve chocolate, make sure you have plenty on hand!