Once Upon a Sentence.

"It was a humid afternoon in late September, the kind of weather that makes an apple feel slightly greasy  to the touch."

So begins writer John Seabrook's food piece called "Crunch" in the November 21 issue of The New Yorker.

It's a grabber, as we say in the industry.

Don't you want to read on?  

The Power of Metaphor.

Politics aside, in the December issue of GQ writer Drew Magary pens a powerful metaphor about President Obama in a feature called "The Least Influencial People Alive,"  penning "he wields all the power of a substitute teacher at night school."

You know it's apt because you get an ouch reading it.

Vanishing Points & Creativity.

In the December 9 issue of Entertainment Weekly, director Steven Spielberg talks about growing up in Arizona and how it influenced his filmmaking:

"We subscribed to a magazine called Arizona Highways.  It was always shots of roads going to infinity, going off into the vanishing points.  I tried to appropriate a little bit of this lonely road to nowhere for Close Encounters.  So the idea of a straight-line highway going to a vanishing point is compelling."

As a new resident of Arizona, I find myself staring and dreaming along these saguaro-studded straight roads myself.  I trust it will boost my creativity.

Task Vs. Time Orientation.

Freelancers, like farmers, artisans and mothers are task-oriented not time-oriented, says freelance writer Dennis Coello.

Having moved my household 2,000 miles in the past month, I agree.

The tasks when moving are many; the tasks when writing are myriad.  Time falls away.

Two Adjectives for a Hell of a Film.

The ferocious John Hawkes and the luminous Elizabeth Olsen give Oscar-worthy performances in this American horror story with a pitch-perfect script.

 http://www.foxsearchlight.com/marthamarcymaymarlene/

Gotta a "Great American?"

November is National Novel Writing Month, so get your write on with tips:  
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Timing is Everything. (But so is Experience)

Joe Klein writes about the need for experience. 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2096292,00.html

Way Opening and Way Closing.

This has been an exhausting month.

After moving across country, Iv'e become a renter after nearly two decades of home ownership in a hot market wildly skewed toward landlords (many tenants are the foreclosed, driving up demand for nice homes in great neighborhoods).

I just signed a lease on a wonderful place (though I paid more than the asking price) and I am finalizing the details for the big move.

Throughout this process, when my faith faltered, I tried to think about door closing and windows opening.

Parker J. Palmer writes in the book Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation, that we must "take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer, and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives."

Mid-Week Words With Impact.

Incorrigible
Audacious
Propulsive
Uptick
Mercurial
Dispense
Grotty

Creative Destruction.

When market forces upend the traditional order, economists call it "creative destruction."

In the simplest terms, destruction proceeds creation.  New replaces old.

As marketers, we instinctly understand this theory.  Though it's tempting to hide, it's actually a time to act.

Courage, not cowardice.  That's what ushers in creativity.

Shake It Outta My Sleeve.

That's what legnedary architect Frank Lloyd Wright said when his design came easily.

I had that experience today.  And it was glorious.

I doon't usually write in the early morning, but today, up hours before I normally rise, I just sat down.  And got to it.

Fueled by several cups of Earl Grey tea, I buzzed through several pages of web content that had been stalled.

Sometimes shaking it out of your sleeve might be a matter of shaking up your routine.

Get 'er Started.

A fantastic resource to fund and follow your creativity:  http://www.kickstarter.com/

The Fertile Void.

Suzanne Braun Levine writes in Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood about the fertile void, a bewildering but necessary hiatus.

It's a place of change where women feel stuck.

The typical reaction for Type As is to do more. Women end up spinning their wheels. When, of course, the cure for "stuck" is "still."  Saying no and letting go.

Businesses have fertile voids, too.

I know because I am working with a client who is constantly aflutter with the buzz of recreation. She is pushing quickly for a logo, a tagline, web content, seminars, flyers.

She wants to communicate--now.

Yet I have counseled her to to slow down.  To observe. To dream.  To be patient. To listen.

She's smart and spiritual, so she gets it.

The words can wait a couple of weeks until the message is clearer.  And she is more settled.

The fertile void doesn't last.  But it must be acknowledged and honored, both personally and professionally.

Indeed, the Sum is Greater Than Its Parts.

It's slim in size and each story is a sliver: two pages or less. But the impact is mighty. 

Truly, the Sum is greater than its parts.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by neurologist David Eagleman, is so clever, so thought-provoking, so audacious, I wanted more. 

In some tales of life after death, God is a She.  In others, you get to be all ages simultaneously. In the aftterlife, he imagines we are all part of a cast, be in Congress, a play or a company.

And then there are the Death Switches that use passwords to help us communicate from beyond the grave.

Far from grim, often witty, this is a wonderfully imagined collection of wistful tales at the intersection of death, hope, love and technology.

http://www.amazon.com/Sum-Forty-Tales-Afterlives-Vintage/dp/0307389936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315503725&sr=8-1

Some Days You Sweat It.

I don't usually use this space to write personal missives.  I'm on Facebook for that.

But this past week was consumed with buying a car.  In 115 degree heat. 

I don't advise this. Especially if you are OCD.

After consulting friends and doing all the Internet research, I drove seven SUVs. I paid attention to TV ads.  I scoured parking lots for like vehicles. I weighed options, I crunched numbers.

Finally, I made a decision and began negotiating.

I wish I could say I enjoyed the experience, but honestly, I found it mostly tedious, often aggravating and once, infuriating.

Now that the process is in the rearview mirror, so to speak, I am taking my new Forester to The Grand Canyon.

I think the heat and the frustration will fade when Arizona's beauty unfolds in my windshield.

And all the sweat will have been worth it.

   

Are You Real?

Authenticity is an experience:  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joseph_pine_on_what_consumers_want.html 

Buy This Magazine.

Found this brillantly written quarterly from the editors of The Economist last month in the Frankfurt airport ...still reading it.

http://moreintelligentlife.com/

Four Words to Kick-Start Your Week.

Riposte
Snarl
Preen
Muster

Details are in the Dump Truck.

Economic, but colorful.

In the August issue of Men's Journal, Josh Eels delivers a spot-on physical description of musician Jamey Johnson:

"Johnson is the antithesis of a polished pop star.  He has a body like a dump truck and the facial hair of a Himalayan yak." 

Tell me you can't picture that. 

http://www.zinio.com/article/article.jsp?popularityExcerptId=791000

Get Your Mind Dirty.

Ever heard of childhood nature-deficit disorder?

Neither had I until I read Richard Louv's article in the May issue of Outside magazine.

Seems the more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need.  Research shows that nature restores concentration, allows for clearer thought and boosts creativity. 

But as adults, too  many of us are separated from nature.

I believe this.

Having just moved from Atlanta to Arizona, I understand the restorative power of nature. 

On a daily basis, I am more connected to the physicality of place.  I admire rugged mountains while sipping tea on the patio, breathe in earth before a sand storm, celebrate a stray javelina or lizard.  I am riding my bike again.


http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/media/books/Get-Your-Mind-Dirty.html

The Fourth Turning.

My fellow writer and friend Jake introduced me to the book, The Fourth Turning:  An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny by William Strauss and Neil Howe.

Though it was written in 1997, it seems especially prescient in 2011, discussing economic, cultural, ecological, military, and political distress.

The idea that your generation isn’t like the generation that shaped you, but  rather has much in common with the generation that shaped the generation that shaped you, seems dead right to me.

So does the labeling of archetypes as nomad, artist, hero and prophet that rise in each generation.

http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311879984&sr=1-1

 

Three Words to Launch Your Week.

Thrum
Toothy
Feckless

Use them with flair!

Grat Tagline. But Not for Toothpaste.

Crest's "Life opens up when you do" is a bit Hallmark-ish, even Oprah-ish, but it works on the level of feel good-ity. 

Just not for toothpaste.

Damn Fine Writing.

I have long subscribed to "men's magazines" because the writing is infinitely more intelligent that the pap directed at women.   

An article in the August issue of Men's Journal (which I am proud to have contributed a story on Jordan to) demonstrates why.

Even though I wasn't remotely interested in Steelers linebacker James Harrison, writer Paul Solotaroff's opening was a grabber--and not just because I live in the same town:

"Up here, in an end-of-time exurb called Troon, carved high into the bluffs above Scottsdale, Arizona, it's all Charles Darwin and sun-split rocks, life forms baked to the core.  Diamondbacks and scorpions slip through the gates of the copper-colored homes in these hills, while wild boar joust with gaunt coyotes over trash cans pushed to the curb. Even in May, the heat is a monster, pressing its breath on you in the haze."  

Hooked? Read the rest:  http://www.mensjournal.com/jamesharrison   

"When in Doubt, Leave it Out."

My friend Phillippa singsongs that phrase whenever I am waffling about..well, anything.

Coco Chanel famously loved to pile on accessories, but she still recommended that stylish women remove one item before leaving the house.

They are both right.

Whether it's holding one's tongue, dressing for success or telling a compelling story, a (little) bit less is often a whole lot more.

Of Self-Possession.

Watched the new-on-DVD Barney's Version last night. Call it a study in karma, the film is a beautifully caustic and sobering look at the consequences of our choices.

What struck me most was the economy of words that actress Rosamund Pike's character, Miriam, uses to get her point across. 

Effective and moving. 

So often, less is more in dialogue.

Underused Words. July 4th Edition.

Create your own verbal fireworks with these dazzlers:

Scrum
Conurbation (hint:  most of us live in one)
Mercurial
Gusto
Rubbish
Coddle
Canny
Esconced
Verdant
Sonorous (we'll experience a lot of this over the holiday)

Ask Well & You Shall Receive.

Speaking up for what you want is hard for many of us.

Check out this four-point plan for ask success: http://l3wilso.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/ask-and-you-will-receive/

A Cheeky Confirmation.

Sign up for an e-newsletter and you get a confirmation. 

But not like this one from Phoenix's 944 Magazine, which is genius:

You have just registered with 944.com. This is the best thing you will ever do. Your whole life is going to change. You just became 48% more popular and twice as good looking.

Congratulations.

Your login information is as follows:

Email Address: writesquared@att.net

Password: ----
To get you started, you may login here - http://944.com/member/.

You can stalk your exes, look for new prospects and totally avoid getting any work done at your job by compulsively checking our website, which is constantly updated with new events and photos from each of our markets.

You can also subscribe to any of our pages' RSS feeds for the latest updates, or find us on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

Thank you,

944 Magazine

Never Hire a Social Media Expert.

Everybody and their brother (and sister) are on the social media bandwagon. 

But is it all just smoke and mirrors?

My friend Susan sent this provocative article along with the note:  "makes real sense."

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-will-never-ever-hire-a-social-media-expert-2011-5

She's Funny, and a Damn Good Writer To Boot.

In the June 17 issue of Entertainment Weekly, actress/comedian Aisha Tyler chronicles a day in the life of a traveling stand-up. 

It's a laugh-out-loud piece of writing.

To wit:  "Stand-up is not galmourous.  People are used to seeing celebrities on the red carpet, lip gloss poppin' like a backup dancer in a Gucci mane video.  They are less accustomed to seeing celebrities in line at Starbucks with a murderous cowlick, or stumbling through the Detroit aieport with a four-alarm hangover, moaning like a zombie on the hunt for brains."

In her essay, Ms. Tyler also works in such underused words as braying and raw boned.

Buy a copy of the mag.  

The Tao of Willie.

Willie Nelson--cowboy, poet, outlaw--is also a philosopher as I discovered reading The Tao of Willie.

Says the singer/songwriter:  There is no single definition of the Tao, but I like to think of it as finding a balance between resistance and surrender.

There are many sage nuggets in this small volume such as: 

I believe the truth is found in your own heart.  The trick is to shut up and listen.  The trick is to believe.

There's too much and too little.

Still is still moving to me.  http://mayamystic.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/tsalagi-tale-who-wins/

And my favorite:

Ninety-nine percent of the world's lovers are not with their first chocie.  That's what makes the jukebox play.

Writing That Transcends the Blues. And Continents.

I've recently moved to Arizona and have been gobbling up everything I can find on the Grand Canyon state.

While browsing at the Mustang Branch of the Scottsdale library system (shout-out for great architecture and a super-friendly staff), I ran across The Anthropology of Turquoise by Ellen Meloy.  Meloy writes that "turquoise is the wealth of the nomad, portable and protective."

She says that if you "Poke a shish kebab skewer through a globe at the Colorado Plateau it will come out the other side on the Tibetan Plateau.  More than all others, the cutlures of Tibet and the Native American Southwest have absorbed turquoise into their traditions, ceremonies and folklore."

I know this is true, for I saw women in Tibet--and men, too--with lengths of turquoise braided in their jet-black hair. 

Tibet changed my life first.  Now Arizona is changing it.

Nearly every page of this extraordinary essay collection slayed me with gorgeous prose like this:  "Here I was in Texas, remembering that I was conceived but not interested in Texas and instead was once crazy to go to Egypt or Persia or the Arabian deserts to live on a caravan and how such dreams, as forlorn as they now seemed, were fed by light."

She also references the great female nomad Isabelle Eberhardt who roamed Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria--places I have also wandered and loved--and was labeled for her "radical individualism."

If you love the desert--any desert--buy this book. 

http://www.ellenmeloy.com/turquoise.html

When Your Reach Exceeds Your Grasp.

Newly minted country star Luke Bryan is appearing in print ads for Reach dental floss.

The strained copy tries to liken the proper guitar strings to the right floss.  And Bryan as a spokesperosn for oral hygiene?

I'm not buying this awkward overreach.

Though I do love his song "Rain is a Good Thing." 

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

The Zen of Living.

According to my friend Marcie, all one needs to achieve the Zen of Living is: "A cat, a cup and a yoga mat!"

Word Power.

Here are the latest words worth dropping for your weekend:

Smitten
Bejeweled
Ferocious
Careen
Rapturous
Incisive

Old Rules.

Researchers has recently discovered ways that older minds hold their own against younger ones, according to an article int he May issue of O magazine.

Among the advantages: 

* Your hemispheres--left and right--sync up
* Your reasoning and problem-solving skills get sharper
* You focus on the upside
* Your priorities become clearer
* You can see the big picture
* You become an instant expert--even in new situations

Take that, whippersnappers!

http://www.oprah.com/health/Aging-Brain-Facts-Do-You-Get-Smarter-as-You-Age

5 Easy Ways to Snap Out of a Bad Mood.

1. Watch an episode of Saturday Night Live featuring Molly Shannon as Sally O'Malley or Bill Hader as Stefon

2. Blow bubbles

3. Eat a popsicle

4. Wear something orange or yellow

5. Have a glass of champagne

Happy weekend!

Of Sleeping Children and Glass Hearts.

Did you know that when little kids get lost in the woods they do something really smart?  They find a snug place, curl up and sleep. 

Adults tend to keep moving, keep trying to find their own way out.  Kids wait for the grown-ups to solve the problem.

I learned this and so much more from a slim, beautiful memoir called Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup. Braestrup is a chaplain for the Maine Warden Service, comforting people who have lost a loved one.

Nearly every page caught me with a startling truth:  "Eventually, my heart--my fragile glass heart--would again be offered to the mortal hands of another man guaranteed to break it, one way or another, since that is the lunacy and loveliness of love."

Or an observation:  "I can't think how many people I've had to tell about a death, how many people have that memory of me standing there, saying those words.  It's really something, to be on the hinge of so many stories."

And especially this about moving past grief:  "Then light your candles to the living.  Say your prayers for the living.  Give your flowers to the living.  Leave the stones where they are, but take your heart with you.  Your heart is not a stone."

http://www.amazon.com/Here-If-You-Need-Me/dp/B0030EG156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303145448&sr=8-1

The (He)art of Storytelling.

One of life's great joys is losing oneself in a great story.  This is true whether you are 4 or 40 or 80.

That's why storytelling--in both oral and written forms--is common to every culture.  It's the oldest form of entertainment, education, illumination and connection.

An article in the March/April edition of Psychology Today called "The Inside Story" explores the powerful link between effective stories and our brains. 

As writers, if we can harness that power in authentic ways, we can move readers to action.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201103/the-inside-story

The Value of Editing.

For the last week, I've been trying to watch the movie Burlesque. 

I say trying because it's been so boring.  I literally stopped the movie after 10 minutes or walked away for a half an hour while I did laundry or paid bills. 

The characters a cliche, the performances are flat (or worse) and the dialogue is banal.  But the leaden pacing really did me in. 

Let's just say it's no Chicago.

So where was the editor?

Watching bad movies--or, rather, abandoning them--is no fun.  But it's a reminder that regardless of the medium, snappy editing gives fizz to your content.

Without it, all that glitters isn't gold.  More like fool's gold.

Weekend Words

Sparkling conversation is a skill.  A skill that can be learned.  And once learned, must be practiced.

When you can talk with anyone, about anything with charm and verve, you'll be in demand as a companion.

Just for fun, why not drop these underused gems into conversation:

Countermand
Deluge
Raffish
Wily
Decamp
Baraonial
Feckless
Baleful

Dolts, Omelets and the Art of Knowing Oneself.

When asked whether she would prefer mushrooms or aspargus in her omelet, 19-year old food writer M.F.K Fisher mumbled that she didn't care.

She got schooled by her Uncle Evans during her first-ever train ride.

Evans said she ought to care when offered a choice of any kind of food or drink, lest the "attentions of your host are basically wasted on you."

The exchange is included in the marvelously entertaining book Appetite for America:  How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire that Civilized the Wild West by Stephen Fried.

Evans added that it may "someday teach you the about the art of seduction, as well as the more important art of knowing yourself."

Fisher got the message:  "I either care or I'm a dolt, and dolts should not consort with caring people."

http://www.amazon.com/Appetite-America-Visionary-Businessman-Hospitality/dp/0553804375/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301931246&sr=1-1

What a Poem Can Do.

I published my first poem as a junior in college.  It was a mature work:  muscular in its language, with powerful imagery.  I am still proud of it.
  
That poem came to me in a rush.  I may have tinkered with the line breaks, but the words were perfect on arrival. 

Just last week, another fine poem tumbled out of me in the early hours of the morning. Waking me from sleep, every line flowed with ease.

It was a gift.

Prose can be more difficult.  Fretting over every word, every comma. The endless negotiation between sentences.  The tug of war between lyricism and pragmatism.

So when my creative batteries need recharging, I often turn to poets: David Whyte, Mary Oliver, Yeats, Dickinson, Rumi, Wendell Berry.

As writers we can became tangled in our thoughts, halting in our words.  We often second-guess ourselves.

Poetry has the power to release us.

Impulses are Your Key to the Miraculous. (Welcome to Your Tribe)

This video eloquently argues that the world's greatest visionaries are moody, addictive and rebellious.

People like Joan of Arc, Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart and Leonardo da Vinci are Wayseers.

Are you?  Check out this You Tube Video, take the online quiz and take heart that you are changing the world:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPR3GlpQQJA&feature=youtube_gdata_player.  

Hope's Poet.

I regret not seeing 79-year old Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver when she came to Atlanta last month to speak. 

In the April issue of O, Maria Shriver interviews her.

Oliver celebrates the natural world in her poetry, preferring optimism over the darkness of such confessional poets as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.

Call her a praise poet. 

"I don't usually mess around with what makes me unhappy when I'm writng.  I want to write poems that will comfort, maybe amuse, enliven other people.  I don't mean that the world is all great and wonderful.  But I'm careful to--I try to keep the emphasis on the good and the hopeful."

Start The Thing. Any Thing.

I've seen this Goethe quote in numerous versions.  I like its simple truth.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”

Mythic Words.

My dear friend Phil--who's a hell of a writer--recommended this book to me. 

I recommend The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler anyone who wants to explore the relationship between mythology and storytelling. 

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Journey-Mythic-Structure-3rd/dp/193290736X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300371909&sr=8-1

Teeth Barred, Lips Pursed.

I've eaten a lot a mediocre meals and written a lot of restaurant reviews in my career but none as damning as "Tour de Gall" by A.A. Gill that skewers a French institution in the April issue of Vanity Fair.

The withering prose includes passages like the following:

"The cramped tables are set with labially pink cloths, which give it a colonic appeal and the awkward  sense that you might be a suppository."

Snort.

Just be glad you didn't suffer the indignity of actually eating there.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/lami-louis-201104

I Love This Promotion.

From Asheville to Atlanta, with love, comes this great marketing campaign:  http://www.exploreasheville.com/30days/index.aspx.

A Good Read.

Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway by Matt Dellinger has it all: heroes, villians, greed, passion, a decades-long struggle over asphalt that, if completed, will run from Michigan to Mexico.

The reprting is first-rate and the writing is unexpectedly colorful:

"I have seen, in the suburbs of Houston, crowded strip-mall parking lots where the unfortunate driver who takes the last spot in a row crowded with muscular pickup trucks and SUVS must shimmy out of her half-open door like Houdini."

Read this because it's about much more than a road:  it's about the fortunes of the towns that line it.

http://www.amazon.com/Interstate-69-Unfinished-History-American/dp/1416542493/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1299261213&sr=8-3

Cool Words.

Crafty
Sheepish
Mien
Brassy
Suss
Outlandish

Netflix for Books.

Even though I'm a writer, I keep a check on the books I acquire. 

I used to have shelves heaving with volumes; but over the years, I've pared down to favorites and frequented the library.

But, in an age of cutbacks, libraries can't keep the newest titles--or most obscure--titles on the shelves.  And though it's tempting, I don't own a Kindle or iPad.

Enter Bookswim: bestsellers delivered to your door.

Check it out:  http://www.bookswim.com/plans.html.

Cool Words.

Caul
Lush
Conax
Saucy
Imprinteur

Setting the World Right.

My longtime pal Annie introduced me to the Fibonnaci Sequence.  My newer pal Gordon confirmed it as "math in motion."

It's kinda complicated.  Google it.

But in short, it's about aesthetics.

Stuff that adheres to the FS please the eye.  That includes many things in nature--spiraling shells, flower petals, pine cones--and in our man-made universe--the layout of a room, the design of a business card, a patterned sweater.  Even tattoos.

Things that don't make us a bit squirrelly because they just don't "feel" right.

Then there's the Gruen Transfer.  It refers to a psychological phenomenon of how a store's intentionally confusing layout causes us to...zone out.  We forget what we came for and become impulse buyers.

Some of us, overwhelmed, simply bolt.

Interesting to discover both these concepts in the same week.  Underpins the idea that we are all susceptible to cues and spatial arrangement.

If-Then Solution, Part 2.

Got an interesting reply to the last post.  Here it is:

I concur with you, Suzanne, that the Psychology Today article shed a clear light on a very effective "getting things done" method.

The author, Heidi Grant Halvorstan, is a research psychologist. She has a new book on findings related to goals, setting and attaining.

It is easy to miss the very subtle power of the if-then solution. David Allen, the Getting Things Done productivity guru, makes the same point in his critique of "to do lists," which are generally a accumulations of "amorphous blobs of undoability."

The if-then solution works if we break the "if" down into a specific situation or and exact time/date and we break the "then" down to a specific action.

Oh, but how reluctant we are to take these steps.

Dan Damerville
Professor, English
Communications and Humanities Division
Tallahassee Community College

Creative Mortification.

In the February issue of O magazine Peggy Orenstein writes about unleashing creativity.

She was struck by the idea of creative mortification, a term "so evocative I will carry it with me to my grave." 
I found myself nodding as she described moments when a burgeoning interest and a meaningful insight in music, sports or science were struck down with a too-harsh evaluation. 

Such humbling evaluations result in shame, researchers say.  Shame that often stops us cold from doing what we loved. 

Step one to reclaim creativity?  Jettison shame.

Read the story here:   http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Unleash-Your-Creativity/1

Use Your Feeling Words.

Words are good for shaping feelings, but words without feelings are like clothes with no body inside--cold and limp.  (unknown)

The If-Then Solution.

By now, so many New Year's resolutions are abandoned on the shore of our good intentions.

In the January/February issue of Psychology Today there is an article that suggests a useful technique when it comes to resisting temptations and building good habits.

Why?  Because our brain understands contingencies:  if X, then Y. The If-Then solution offers greater specificity. And, by extension, greater success. 

Regardless of the goal, reserchers say that using If-Then planning boosts success by two to three times.

And get this:  it requires less willpower than mere resolutions.

Consider, for example, the resolution to eat less and exercise more.

So, the eat less resolution becomes, When the dessert menu comes, I will refuse it and order coffee.  The work out resolution becomes I will work out at the gym for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays before work.

I've been applying If-Then in my work of late.  It's working.


 

Walk, Don't Run.

A few years ago, I journeyed to Saigon on a travel writing assignment.  I stayed at the luxurious Park Hyatt in the center of the city.   After sleeping off my jet lag, I set out on foot to explore.

The traffic in front of the hotel was dizzying:  cars, pedicabs, bicycles, motorcycles, mopeds, trucks.  And a few brave (crazy?) pedestrians.

I'm pretty fearless, but this looked daunting.

As I hesitated on the steps of the hotel, the doorman offered this sage advice:  "It will be safe if you walk slowly. That way everyone will see you." 

Counterintuitive, isn't it? 

So much in our world encourages us to hurry up.   But when we act deliberatively and calmly, others see us.  And we see others.

My heart pounding, I crossed that Saigon street.  Not once, but dozens of times during my stay.  All without incident.

Not only did I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, I learned something valuable that informs my relationships and my work.

Two Words That May or May Not Be Used Together in a Sentence.

Indelible.
Cocksure.

The Clank of Narrative.

In a review in Entertainment Weekly of director Mike Leigh's new (and critically acclaimed) movie, Another Year, writer Owen Gleiberman praises the movie as free of "the clank of narrative." 

He's talking about a loose style of filmmaking, driven not so much by action as by observation.

But this applies to writing as well.  If words clank, then they clearly don't work.

My advice is to loosen up.  Listen to each word and determine if it dances on the page, on the tongue, in the ear.

The Battle Over Huck Finn.

NewSouth Books has released a tidied-up version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, sanitizing the classic by removing the “n” word.

The tweaking is an attempt to reinstate the oft-banned book, first published in 1885, back into curriculums. Incidentally, "injun" has also been replaced.

Writers are truth-tellers. The "n" word in this story is honest and appropriate. The censors, who have replaced the offensive "n" word with "slave" have completely destroyed the book's rhythm. 

As a writer, I find the reworking of a book without the author's permission disrespectful.

More than a century later, race remains a hot button issue in America. But instead of evading it, wouldn't we honor Twain--and readers--with an honest discourse?

Check out Harvard University professor Randall Kennedy's book for a contemporary take on this controversial slur: http://www.amazon.com/Nigger-Strange-Career-Troublesome-Word/dp/0375713719/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294686639&sr=8-2.

Splendid Beginnings.

Great opening lines are known among writers as "grabbers."

Beause a reader, once hooked, hungers for more words.

I was reminded of this as I read the opener of the book Furious Love:  Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century:   "I am forever punished by the gods for being given the fire and trying to put it out. The fire, of course, is you."

Tell me you wouldn't want to read more.

I did.

New Words for the New Year.

After the sluggishness of December, January sure comes off the block in a hurry!

Here are a crop of cool new words to consider using this year to enliven your writing: 

Discomfitted
Blistering
Goad
Lassitude
Plangent
Breezy
Ensnare
Sumptuous

Happy!  New!  Year!