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A Writer's Dilemma

Fred: If the days were just longer, I could get more writing done.

Nan: I get plenty of writing done.

Fred: Since my book came out, I’ve been marketing. The publisher said that everything depends upon networking. I love my readers but at this rate, I won’t ever finish the next book.

Nan: That is a problem, isn’t it?

Fred: How do you find the time to write?

Nan: I write.

Fred: How do you fit it in?

Nan: Fit it in?

Fred: Yes, between facebook, pinterest, twitter, blogger, tumbler, klout, networking, commenting, email, pinning, tagging, circulating and then of course there are meals, getting dressed and errands…

Nan: I just write.

Fred: Well, yeah, I’m writing all day but not my manuscript.

Nan: Rearrange your priorities.

Fred: Really? It’s that easy?

Nan: It’s not easy but it is simple.

Fred: Okay. Thanks.

Nan: You’re welcome.

This isn’t the only conversation about priorities that has come up lately. As life gets more complicated with more gadgets and connections, the easier it is to lose focus. Hopefully, awareness and good friendships will keep everything on track rather than letting other stuff get in the way of what’s really important.

Ode to An Understanding Husband

Where oh where are you going to be?
Depends on the time she said to he

From seven til eight we get ready to go
Eight til nine we go with the flow

Organize, Interview, Imagine, Produce
Correct, Revise, Emend, Reduce

Defend, Allow, Yield, and Bend
Critique, Rebuff, and Do It Again

Go the store it’s food that we need
Then back for the kids: three of your seed

Drop off the laundry, Drop off the mail
Pick up the dog, wagging his tail

Wave to the neighbors, Smile at the cop
I just ran a light! I’m too rushed to stop

On to a meeting, then off for dessert
With clients, then friends, my feet start to hurt

Rush through the door, I’m late once again
Notes flying around as I slump at the end

In my chair with cup of the hottest cocoa
New stories spring forth and thoughts start to grow

Oh he said kindly, I’ll see you tonight
I know how it is when you’re wanting to write

I’ll get the groceries, the kids and the dog
You sit and create because that’s your job.

Business Review

Bottom Line it's how you treat your customers that counts.

Loyal customers are essential for a company's success especially when the economy is stressed.

Business: Starbucks

Situation: I had complained & they compensated me.

Continued Customer Service: A month later, I received a promotional coupon for a breakfast.

Review:
Starbucks Oatmeal is served in a small cup container with a lid. In a to-go bag to the side are fruit chips & a spoon.

Perspective: I'm an oatmeal eater. I cook oatmeal from scratch and in a rush, I use instant oatmeal.

The oatmeal was good quality. It mixed to a smooth consistency. The temperature maintained throughout the bowl. Flavorful oatmeal had a robust taste and didn't need any added sugar.

RECOMMEND: Starbucks Oatmeal for breakfast.

Tagged

I’ve been tagged!

1. How old were you when you started writing?

I wrote my first short story with illustrations in 6th grade.

2. If you could talk to a dead person about writing, who would that be? Just one person?

Oscar Wilde

3. If you were the main character of a book, what genre would it be?

Romantic Fantasy

4. What genre do you write in?

Non-fiction: History, Women, Family, Herbs, Wild West, Writing
Fiction: Juvenile Literature
Playwright: Comedy

5. If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?

I’d control time, to get more done.

6. What do you like to read?

I’ll read anything, everything but I most enjoy well-written history.

7. What is something unusual that you've done?

Birthed my babies at home.

8. How do you get names for your characters?

They tell me their names as part of the story.

9. What one thing in the grocery store do you always want to buy?

I always want to buy, but seldom do buy the Candy, especially Hershey bars at the check-out.

10. Besides reading and writing, name two other hobbies you have.

Cooking & Eating, Quilting & Sleeping, all my hobbies come in pairs.

11. Where in the world would you like to go?

Europe.

On Being a Writer

Writers are creative people. In the beginning they created writing as a means to calculate and communicate directly. From parchment to digital, the writer is the conduit of ideas and information.

What makes a writer?

The technical part of writing consists of the words, grammar, and document structure.

The components of the structure depend upon the information and the audience. Is the document medical or legal in nature? Is the document a story meant to entertain? The answers to basic questions about the audience and information determine which tools the writer will pull from their tool kit.

Everyone has a least one story to tell. Some writers have many. These stories may materialize in novel or memoir form. The challenge of an autobiography can be invigorating or terrorizing.

Bottom line, the determining factor between writers & wish-to-be writers is the writing.

So you want to be a writer? The quick answer is to write.

For those who have a writer in the family, it’s easy to see what is required to be a writer. For those who haven’t observed the writing process, it may be hard to envision how to go about the process but it can be done.

Begin with studying the tools necessary to write well.

Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is one book in every writer’s library. In the forward written by E.B. White, he suggests the writer should stick with the rules of rhetoric. To do otherwise, requires superior merit from the writer to compensate the reader for having broken the rules.

Writing and rewriting becomes a well-trodden path for the writer. Eliminating the unnecessary to reveal the essence of the piece turns the writer into a good writer over the course of time.

Ultimately, the writer needs to like what is produced in order to continue. In Elements of Style we're told: “The whole duty of the writer is to please and satisfy himself."