Little Gems

I was reading an article by a professional organizer today and it was fun to see how much of her advice applied to writing. Here are three paraphrased gems:

1. Don’t begin by thinking about the entire task in front of you because you might feel overwhelmed.  Instead, begin by thinking only of what you’ll tackle that day.

2. Don’t wait for motivation to hit or you might never get started. Action many times precedes motivation.

3. Knowing when to become attached and when to let go is the difference between cluttered and tidy.

After rereading, I think these three apply to MANY things in life :).

On strutting, hair like corn, and stinking up the air...

A few weeks ago, my son told his teachers that I'm a published author. Although it’s technically true, I prefer to describe myself as someone with an overactive imagination who is still trying to learn the best way to get the stories in her head down on paper. But that’s a mouthful. Anyway, my son’s teachers invited me to come in to talk to the kids about writing. Honestly, because I’m still learning so much, I felt ill-qualified and the thought of trying to keep fifty-seven fourth graders entertained was daunting. My son begged me to say yes and so I went (cue many “what have I gotten myself into” sighs).

I prepared a little interactive speech about showing vs. telling and…the kids and I had a BLAST. No matter what I threw at them, they came up with the funniest, most creative ways to “show” me the stories they were dreaming up. One little boy told me our protagonist’s hair felt like corn. I loved that. They had the principal strutting down the hall (because they’d all gotten perfect scores on their state standardized tests), their teachers storming into classrooms and thundering out of the school (because they’d all failed the state tests), and a little girl’s jaw rattling because she was thinking about cheating. Plus, they acted it all out and loved how by simply changing a verb or adjective, they could change the entire picture in a person’s head.

A few days later my son brought home a manila envelope full of thank you cards from the kids. The cards were so sweet. One boy wrote "I learned that perfect people are boring." A girl wrote, “Thank you for teaching me that it is better to show my mom that my little brother is annoying instead of just telling her. I told her that he stinks up the air instead of just saying he’s annoying.” 

I’m so glad my child convinced me to go, but I wonder if the parents of those two kids feel the same way.

Aghhh!

So...I thought I was pretty savvy with Word, but it turns out I have A LOT to learn :(. I still don't know how it happened, but I saved a manuscript as an RTF file, and somehow created two RTF files with the same name. I didn't think that was possible. I used to constantly alphabetize my files, but I don't anymore, which is why I didn't notice I had two identical files.  I have one folder for each ms, but each folder has many files. Some I save by date, others I save by chapter, in case I want to go back to an earlier version, etc. This is on top of relevant articles I also save for research purposes.

The mess I'm in now is...some days I opened one file and did my final edit on it, and other days I opened the other file and did my final edit on that one. I sent one of them off :(. I won't even go into the fact that I compounded the mistake before I realized I had been editing two separate files.

I'm sharing this so my author friends who read this don't make the same mistake. Maybe you're way more savvy than me, but if you're not...keep your folders squeaky clean and organized, and check for duplicates. Also, it's not enough to hover over the file with the "correct name" and to look at the date. Look at the time, too. If anyone has a tip they'd like to share, share away! I love learning from you and I hope someone learns from my mistake.  Meanwhile, aghhhhh!!!!

Is there a lesson here?

A well-known, preachy health guru recently wrote an article detailing some pretty scary facts about certain foods. He included pictures of foods we should NEVER, EVER eat. I tried to read the all the stuff about the horrific calorie count and the fat… but I couldn’t take my eyes off the pictures of the foods he was talking about. Everything looked so delicious! Those nachos! That stuffed calzone! That crisp fried chicken! I’d happily skip breakfast and lunch, and then maybe breakfast again the next day, to eat any of the foods he was criticizing.  My mouth watered for some heart attack nachos. I forced myself to read the entire article to see if it would disgust me enough to get me off evil food forever, but it didn’t work. So I started reading the comment section expecting to be shamed by all the super healthy people who agreed with the guru, except… EVERY single comment was for the evil food and against the guru. And the comments were hilarious. Guru be damned! So I don’t what the lesson is here. Don’t preach on Yahoo? A picture speaks louder than words? I think it may be: never say never, ever. Of course we know we shouldn’t make a habit of eating evil food. Just don’t tell us to NEVER, EVER eat it J.

"This Mom is on Fire!!!"

This morning, I was talking to my high-spirited, impulsive, super fun and imaginative nine-year-old son about how important it is to make good decisions. I was telling him about mistakes I’ve made, and the consequences of those mistakes. Anyway, when I was done (and feeling as if I’d been going on and on like the nagging mom I swore I’d never become), he said, “You give good talks. Can you come talk to my kids when I grow up if they do something stupid?”  

My inner self pumped a fist into the air and began singing “This mom is one fire!” (Advantage of singing in my head: I sounded EXACTLY like Alicia Keys when she sings “Girl on Fire!”).  I usually feel like 'this mom' is exhausted and ‘this mom’ doesn’t know what she’s doing, so it was a happy moment. Of course, I soon began wondering if ‘this mom’ is just really gullible. Hmm…


I will choose to believe my son was being totally sincere and not at all trying to get me to shut up.

Makes me wonder...

I remember when this song came out (feels like forever ago). It really captured my imagination, making me wonder about the story behind the beautiful lyrics. I recently came across it on Pandora and loved it all over again, so I decided to share :). Plus, the setting for the video is breathtaking.

His name is Hobbit, and he's been on an unexpected journey...

This twelve-week-old puppy was born in a beach town in Puerto Rico. A family friend found him shivering in the rain when he was only nine weeks old. He was malnourished and flea-infested L. She found out who the owners were, but the owners no longer wanted him. This family friend couldn’t keep him, either, so she gave him to my mom, who knew my kids wanted a puppy. So, to make a long story short, we flew him to Atlanta, and we picked him up on our way back to Ohio from Florida. Poor Hobbit went from sunny, tropical weather to the coldest Midwest temperatures in five years, but he’s really happy. He’s strong, healthy, funny, and playful. I’m sure a few of his antics will make it into upcoming books!