Write Well Me

The Writing Hour

Lots of stuff going on here, and, unfortunately, writing is dropping off the wayside.  Now that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about it, a lot. I’ve actually done a lot of thinking about my book, and I’m considering making some huge changes to it – big changes, yeah, but I’m excited about it. Now, if I could just get to writing!

And that happens. Sometimes we can’t always meet the goals we’ve set, and sometimes those are for very good reasons. 

I just have to make sure I don’t let the writing slip away completely.

But while I can’t always do this for myself (how typical is that?), I can help others keep their writing goals in front of them. If I can help you meet your writing goals, I’d love to talk to you. I’m hosting the Writing Hour on Tuesday, February 3, at 7:30 p.m. eastern. 

Every month I get on the phone and talk with folks who have questions about writing. As a matter of fact, I just talked with a woman who has a book she wants to write, and she just couldn't figure out how to get started.  Within 15 minutes, we had a strategy and milestones for her to reach.

How can I help you?

Sign up (so I know who’s coming), and I'll send you a confirmation with date, time, and call-in number.  What are you doing on Tuesday?

25 Random Things About Me

There's this thing going around on Facebook where you write 25 random things about yourself and then tag 25 of your friends to do the same.

Whatever.

I sooooooooo was not going to do this.  Heck, I just did the 7 random things that people don't really care to know about me. Now I had to come up with 25 things people might want to know about me.

But then people kept tagging me, and I found myself actually enjoying reading these things about them. Whether I knew these people well or not, I always got a much better sense of who they were as a result.

So I caved and wrote my own 25. And it does give a better of sense of who I am, if you didn't already know these things.  I'm not going to tag you; I've already done that to my Facebook pals.  This is just a way for you to get to know me.

1.  I like asparagus.  Yes, I know, but I like it anyway.

2.  I'm a writer, and I love words, but I suck at word games like Scrabble and crossword puzzles.  My mind just doesn't work that way. Go figure.

3.  I can still recite a portion of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales - in Middle English.

4.  I have a huge capacity to feel and to love.

5.  My biggest fear is that I'm so intense that people will walk away from me. 

6.  I know very little about my biological father, other than his name and that I have a half-sister somewhere.

7.  I've been stabbed with scissors, bitten by a Doberman Pinscher three times, run straight into a glass pole and lost a couple of hours of my life, sprained an ankle, had two cuts that required trips to the emergency room, two eye surgeries, one laparascopy, and one surgery to remove tonsils and adenoids. Oh yeah, and two babies. It's a bit like the joke of the sign at the trailer park:  200 days since the last tornado.  In this case, it's been 339 days (and counting) since Dawn's last trip to the hospital.

8.  I was the most popular when I had to start 3rd grade in a new school with stitches on my face from said dog bite in #7.

9.  I have an eclectic taste in movies.  I like chick movies, action movies (go Die Hard!), comedies, dramas, classics, horror flicks...

10.  My taste in music is just about as eclectic, from classical to 80s to easy listening to heavy metal to Celtic.

11.  I dress up for the Maryland Renaissance Festival every year.

12.  I'm a morning person and a night person.  I am not an afternoon person.

13.  My favorite style of decorating is heavy baroque, which is much nicer sounding than French whorehouse.

14.  I can tell you what a predicate nominative is.

15.  I make a mean banana bread as well as yummy yeasty white bread.

16.  I watch movies (see #9), but I'm an abysmal tv watcher.  I cannot commit to shows for very long.  Reruns and the summer hiatus are the kiss of death for a tv show as far as I'm concerned.

17.  Books are crucial to my happiness.

18.  I'm short, 5' 1", but I've developed a big personality to counteract the shortness.  Just ask my former 7th and 8th grade students who were afraid of me (and were way taller than I).

19.  I'm most grateful for the number of people in my life to whom I can say, "I love you." I'm pretty lucky.

20.  I'd go to Dallas in a nanosecond just to eat at Snuffer's.  Probably a good thing I don't live there anymore.

21.  When I get turned on to a new food or drink, I buy copious amounts of it.  Invariably, I get tired of it, and I'm stuck with a gigantic, Costco-sized pack of whatever it is.

22.  My greatest physical assets are my hair, my smile, and my, oh well, never mind.

23.  My greatest desire is to become a published author.

24.  I'm one of the strongest people I know, which can get me into trouble.  I just keep dipping into that well of strength, always expecting it to be there until it runs empty and I crash - SLAM - into a brick wall.  This is all figuratively speaking, of course.

25.  I'm working on happiness, BEing, self-evolution, balance, and I don't see that ever changing.

Tracks

I was pretty young when I started college, 17 years old as a matter of fact.  Soon after starting my freshman year, I met Chris and started on a track.  In my mind, I could see that track going and going and going.  I knew exactly where it was headed.  No doubts at all.  Marriage, kids, and, well, that was the extent of what I could see, but it was the main map of the track.

Over the years, the track has expanded, or the vision has become clearer, to include a business or two, a house, friends... While I couldn't necessarily predict each turn of the meandering route, I was pretty certain what the route was and some of the various stations along the way.

And now, that track no longer exists.  My life is unrecognizable. 

Even with Write Well U, I thought I had that track all figured out.  Develop programs, teach them, bring on trainers to teach said programs, continue to develop even more programs... Now, I realize that maybe that track as well isn't set in concrete (or with iron and railway ties, if we decide to adhere to the initial metaphor).  Maybe Write Well U morphs into something completely different.  I don't know, but I'm leaving my options open.

Funny enough, even though I've been a track girl (believe it or not, I also coached track along with teaching English), I've never been one to make specific plans. You don't catch me making five- or ten-year goals for my business.  I like to keep my options open.  Heck, I closed my VA practice for a couple of years and then reopened it.  I never saw that one coming!  I HAVE learned that life can change in a matter of months (in some cases in Dawn history, weeks and even days).  Yet those various tracks were always there, providing comfort and familiarity and a safety net and even complacency. 

I guess I just never expected that big picture, that track, to all of the sudden disappear.  And I'm leery of creating a new track.  Because I wonder if that gets me into trouble.  I like routine.  I like knowing what to expect.  I want clarity.  Yet, being on a track... can you keep your options open when you've already bought your ticket and boarded the train?

Maybe we NEVER know what the future holds for us in anything. We just think we do. Maybe we never really know what that track looks like or how it will morph.

Maybe there is no such thing as a track.

Marketing with Coolness

In the same vein as AirTran (before they pissed me off), Snickers is getting creative with their language.

Peanutopolis ~ A state of mind making you feel very strong and powerful, almost mayor-like.

Nougatocity ~ A heightened yet fleeting state of accomplishment that makes you realize how unbelievably unmotivated (or lazy, depending upon which definition you decide you like) you normally are.

(Snickers words brought to you courtesy of Laura Allen. She promises she doesn't actually eat the Snickers bars, just reads the marketing on the wrappers.)

Stop Me If You've Heard This One

Whenever we drive somewhere, medium child has been reading us jokes from her joke book.  Some of them are true groaners, and I try to tune them out.  Every now and then, however, she comes across one that is a true gem.

Did you hear about the delivery van loaded with thesauruses that crashed into a taxi? 

Witnesses were astonished, shocked, taken aback, surprised, startled, dumbfounded, thunderstruck, caught unawares...

Happy Tuesday.  :)

Words Vs. Numbers

I'm usually a word girl ("Really, Dawn?  We would have never guessed." Yeah, yeah. Be quiet.), but every now and then I can be moved by numbers.

At Write Well U, I offer a weekly free writing prompt series called WOW! Writing On a Whim.  Since they go out weekly, I have to make sure there are plenty in the tank.  Every now and then I get close to running out, and I have to replenish. 

Since I use 1ShoppingCart, it's nice and easy to set these up to go out automatically.  The first one goes out on Day 0 (the minute someone subscribes).  The next week's goes out on Day 7, then Day 14, and so on.  When I added my latest bunch of WOWs, I was up to Day 567.  That's pretty cool.  Now, those aren't 567 prompts total; there are really about 81.  (Dawn can do math, too.)  Still, the fact that I have 81 weeks' worth of prompts, or 567 days of prompts feels pretty impressive.

Here's to numbers!

Three Words

In keeping with trying to push past the fear, I'm trying to focus on positive attitudes.  One thing I'm doing is to keep three magic stones next to my bed so that they're the last thing I see at night and the first thing I see in the morning.  (Okay, well, sometimes my Blackberry is the last thing I see at night and the first thing in the morning, but I'll only admit it here.)

The words on my magic stones?

Bliss

Magic

Abundance

Fear and Courage

Life is always interesting and pitches curve balls every so often.  Life is certainly taking the roller coaster approach for me lately, and it's brought up all sorts of questions.

Does one ever stop being afraid? Do we stagnate and live on the surface for so long because there's no fear there, or not much anyway? Can I go deep and intense and not be afraid? Or just feel the fear and do it anyway?

Since I'm in this mindset, of course, everything seems to apply.  Just a few items that came across my field of vision the day I wrote this:

• Daphne Gray-Grant, in her recent issue of Power Writing, talks about Frank Langella's portrayal of Richard Nixon in Nixon/Frost.  She writes, "Langella, who teaches master classes for actors, then went on to add a more personal and even more interesting digression. 'When I do master classes,' he said, 'what I say is: 'Never give in. Try with every fiber of your being to push past your window of terror.'"
• Next was Christine Kane's newsletter.  As is appropriate for January, she talks about goals and how scary they are for people.  "The only block is your ego.  Your ego wants it to be done now. Your ego wants to move through life risk-free, foolish-free, discouragement-free, mistake-free, tired-free. And the best way to trick your ego (and yourself) into letting go a little bit is to take baby steps. If you read the comments on my blog post on New Years Day, you noticed that many people chose the word "Courage" to guide them through 2009." This was the first loud message that courage goes right along with fear.  Yippee.
• And the next came a newsletter (I swear these were all just back-to-back - at least it seemed so at the time. I'm sure it was just my mind being open to these messages) from Cheryl Richardson.  She talked about seeing the movie Dreamgirls and what a strong reaction she had to it.  "I'm sure you've had a similar experience where you find yourself deeply influenced by a theater performance, a great song, or the stunning beauty of visual art, only to be transported to another place that connects you to your highest potential... It's the energy of inspiration that can be used as divine fuel that keeps us moving in the right direction."  What I got from that was the idea of movement, connection, potential.
• Last, this message from Abraham-Hicks:  "Whatever you are giving your attention to is already vibrating. And when you give your attention to it, if you maintain your focus for as little as 17 seconds, you begin to include its vibration, whatever it is, in your vibration. When you see something you want, and you give it your attention, and you say yes to it, you are including whatever its vibration is in your vibration. When you see something you do not want, and you shout no at it, you are including whatever its vibration is in your vibration."

Where does this leave me? It varies from day to day. Today, I'm trying bullet #3 - connecting with my highest potential.  I'm working with amazing clients, and I'm refocusing on Write Well U (look for more info on that in the next few weeks).

Tomorrow?  Who knows?  Maybe it will be a day where I pick another bullet point and go with that.

Sometimes Small Child Is More Clever Than She Thinks

I picked up small child from school today, and, as today is Friday (known as Movie Day in our house), she started planning what movie she would pick out.

"Kathryn and I have completely opposite tastes in movies.  She likes people movies, and I like violence."

My Professional Mommy ears perked up, and I replied, "You know, you might not want to say you like violence. How about that you like 'action' movies?"

"No," she said.  "I like violence."

"That makes you sound deranged."

"I am deranged."

"You're too cute to be deranged."

Quick as lightning, she replied, "A deranged cuteness.  'There was a strange, deranged cuteness about the curly haired girl.'"

Where does she get this stuff?  And is she really that clever? 

7 Things You Didn't Need to Know About Me

I have the privilege of being the first and only person tagged for this brand-new meme.  Actually, I think it would be kinda cool to see this meme that Stacy started moving across the 'Net.  So, play. Okay?

While you can read Stacy's entire post here, Stacy started this meme in reaction to the game we play at AssistU DC Metro events in which we have to share things that no one else would know about us.  They don't have to be deeply personal, just things.  So, Stacy always says that I know everything about her, and every now and then something will pop out of her mouth that I didn't know.

If you want to play and do the meme yourself, link to Stacy's original post and then add your own 7 things that people didn't need to know about you.  Finish it off by tagging other people.  Easy breezy.

7 Things You Didn't Need to Know About Dawn

1.  I was bit by a Doberman Pinscher three times in nine months.  One of those times required me to get plastic surgery.

2.  I almost got bit by a rattlesnake.  It was poised to strike, and might have, until my grandfather killed it with a broom.  (The broom part is the most unsexy thing about this story.  If only he had killed it with something else.  His bare hands, maybe?)

3.  I was born in the back seat of a car.

4.  I've lived in the following states:  Mississippi, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas, and now Maryland.  All of them, except Maryland, by the time I was in the fourth grade.

5.  I'm fanatic about tweezing my eyebrows.  (See?  This really is appropriately titled "things you didn't need to know about Dawn.")

6.  If I go out of the house without any makeup, I will, at least, put on lipstick.

7.  I have a thing about trees.  Preferably, large, healthy oak trees.

Go off and let us know what we don't really need to know about you.