Category Archives: A Room Of Your Own

I Google Myself, Therefore I Am" by Frank Bures; March/April; Poets and Writers Magazine

“Deep down, I know that googling myself is a pointless, vain, embarassing and existentially bankrupt exercise. Yet, I can’t help it.” Read it!

Interested in hiring me as a coach to get you boosted with your writing goals?
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Some past posts to keep you making time:
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

The Power of Play

At risk of sounding like the worst of self-help gurus, I’m going to sound off about the power of play in nurturing (yes, I said nurturing) a consistently productive creative practice. And at risk of insulting the dead, I’m calling for an end to the tortured, self-loathing writer. I’ll begin by telling the story that inspired me to write this.
Despite all my prayers that my son and only child would not struggle with the reticence and hyperconsciousness that I struggled with and that his father struggled with even more and despite the fact that at home he is opinionated and animated (and I mean animated like a cartoon character), he assures me, he is “shy”. Assures isn’t the word—he insists he is shy. So, I try not to dwell on it, not to smother him with encouragement, but to encourage him–damn it–encourage him. Though he was leery about playing basketball for his middle school because of the public spectacle of the competition, he loves to play. He was worried about being on the student news station they show every morning in home room. He was just worried that he’d be too shy to succeed. I acknowledged his feelings and made him try. Now, if he was that shy, there would have been no pushing him. It was to my relief that he reluctantly conceded the point.
How happy was I when he returned from his first practice red-cheeked and smiling? So happy! I knew he would sail through the first three weeks—only practice—and prayed that come time for his first game, camaraderie would trump “shy”. That didn’t exactly happen. The first three games weren’t painful, but I could tell from his reports that he was holding back on the court.
Now, here’s where I get to the point. Friday after the third game, his coach set up a practice based solely on play. He came home elated—chattering about kids laughing so hard they couldn’t dribble.
“You know how I’m usually so shy when I dribble?”
“Uh-huh.” I said.
“Well, today I wasn’t…and he was laughing so hard he couldn’t shoot…and I played so hard.”
“Uh-huh.” I said.
“The point guard said I should be point guard…he said I should be on varsity.”
“Uh-huh.” I said, thinking Yes! Yes! Yes!
And, what do you know? The next game he scored three points and said, “Now that everyone knows I can dribble, the expect me to…”
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I am overjoyed that he is conquering his self-diagnosed shyness, and every day when he comes home, this pattern of growth continues. Yes! Yes! Yes!
What does this have to do with writing? In order to push forward in producing work in spite of all the obstacles we face, there is this too often untapped resource—play. Here are some ways to not take yourself too seriously and so write more and feel better about it:
1. Put on your favorite dance tune. For me that’s Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”. Let loose.
2. Get outside and play first, then write. A tuned-in walk about town? Frisbee? Fetch with the dog?
3. Give yourself permission to write the worst lines. Do it on purpose. Write the sappiest, most trite, worst stuff you’ve ever written. Read it aloud.
4. Bite, poke, or otherwise harass a friend on facebook.
5. Brig a whoopee cushion to your writer’s group.
6. Kick your feet while you write, or engage in playful fidgeting of your choice.
7. Wear a funny hat while you write.
8. Write upside down (intentionally left up to your interpretation).
9. Doodle in the margins.
10. Fill a page with writing. Then, fold it into a paper airplane and send it sailing.

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Talent?

Poets and Writers Magazine March April 2008

“…At what point, I like to ask my students, does Michael Jordan become the greatest basketball player that ever lived? The tenth time he shoots a free throw? The ten thousandth? The hundred thousandth? If you’re so good at spotting talent Ms. Freed, let’s visit some high schools and you tell me who the next Yeats will be. Me, I know nothing about talent, but a lot about desire. Desire is what get you from ten to a hundred thousand; desire is what makes a poet like Yeats. When asked a question about his own talent, I heard Michael Cunnghan quote Marilyn Monroe, who said that she wasn’t the prettiest and she wasn’t the most skilled, but she wanted it more than anyone else.
What’s important, ultimately, is the struggle that desire creates in both writers and writing.”

Liz’s Comment: This resonated with me. Talent is not why I started writing. I wrote the worst stuff at first, but I desired to write, and over the years, the writing improved.

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Tayari Jones "So, You Have A Problem With Men?"

Tayari Jones blog post, “So, You Have A Problem With Men?” is worth your time. It’s specifically about the struggle of the black woman writer between self and society, but also about the writer’s struggle in general between rules and expectations and what they need to write in spite of all that. The post prompts thinking about how the writer is influenced by her community/society. Perhaps this profound influence– sometimes destructive influence–is why so many writers seek isolation to get their best writing done. Gabriel Garcia-Marquez locked himself in a room and nearly chain-smoked himself to death to write One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Thoreau, of course, everyone knows about him and Walden Pond, where he went to live deliberately. The “liberate” in that word is key. This article is about liberating the self from the world in the act of writing, about writing freely.

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Mid-winter break

Ah, a four day weekend. So far, I’ve worked on my writer’s group blog, made a few play lists for yoga class, leveled my druid, and made a list of what else I hope to accomplish. The week prior, I finished the third edit of my novel, which at this moment I think may be ready to send out.
I’m on the verge of finishing a few projects and the one thing that stands in my way more than anything: distractions. I have a few strategies for working through distractions, sometimes more effective than others. Headphones top the list of most effective. The most important piece for me though seems to be, forgiveness. The ability to forgivemyself for letting distractions in and therefore not meeting my writing goals. It’s much healthier and more productive to just start again each day. Why worry?
How do you deal with distractions?

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"What? What’s that you say?"

I was in bed by 10 last night. Though I knew I could sleep in if I wanted to and that I had the next day off, I was so tired from a long week, a great yoga class, and the half hour I spent relaxing in the hot tub at the gym.
So, this morning, I was up by 7. Now it’s eleven and I’ve cleaned my email box and the kitchen and finished a short story that I started in a burst of creativity a few months ago and couldn’t decide how to end.
Writer’s group is meeting this eve, so I think I’m just going to keep writing until then. Make a day of it, you know?

Cheers,

Buy my books here.

Ergonomics of Writing

Ergonomics: design factors, as for the workplace, intended to maximize productivity by minimizing operator fatigue and discomfort. (dictionary.com)

On my way to work this morning, ice crunching under foot, feeling sore from last night’s yoga class, it occurred to me that I underestimate the power the body holds over creativity. Considering I’m a yoga teacher, this seemed to me to be a pretty serious oversight. Of course, I know that body and mind are indisputably connected to each other and that the joining of the body and mind, as in yoga, leads to greater freedom and happiness. So, what’s the oversight? The fact that in order to walk the path to greater freedom and happiness, one must take strides, each stride represented by an aspect of life that you open to yoga. This thought led me to thinking about the ergonomics of writing and how so much of what I think is writer’s block or fatigue, is really just failure to bring my body with me to the “writing desk”, or rather that a writer can be more productive if they forgo the desk altogether and let the world be their desk. So, here are some tips that I’ve come up with as I mull this one over that perhaps can help you and me write more and more often.

1. Use props: For Christmas I got this lap desk, with a wood-hatch storage that also works to prop up books and lap and wrist foam padding. Love it! I use it in bed, on the couch, sitting cross-legged on the floor. I just had no idea. No more trying to prop books and papers up with my hands and elbows. No more disappearing laps. I also sometimes use one of those props for papers while you type. I like mouse pads with gel wrist support and ones that run along the front of the keyboard. Some of those even come filled with aromatic herbs for inspiration. Find the props that work for you and feel free on any given day to use or not use these props. Your body will tell you what you need. Don’t mistake this for writer’s block. Rearrange and prop up and then get back to the task at hand. Put your feet up. Sit cross-legged. Dictate your ideas while walking.

2. Write everywhere, everyway: When I’m working on a major project, I print hard copies and keep them in hard cover 3-ring binders. Sometimes, I edit or add sitting at my computer or laptop, sometimes, take that binder and write in the back yard, on a park bench, at a café, or half way through a walk with the dog. Stay flexible. If your body is telling you that it doesn’t want to sit in a straight backed chair in front of your computer, try something else, anything (suspended upside down from the ceiling?) until the writing comes.

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On Writing, plus some goals

I wrote on Saturday from 6:30 ‘til 10PM at Artisan’s Café in Downtown Olympia. I like it there. I think I’ll keep going. They have the best homemade hummus. Reminds me of the hummus Alex makes. Reminds me of the hummus Alex and I made in Arizona in 1993. Chunks of garbanzo, not creamed like so much hummus is. Wireless is free. That’s a bonus. I edited 30+ pages of my novel. On a roll. Spent a good amount of time last week researching markets and deadlines. Yesterday (Sunday), I organized my short story collection for editing.

Goals:
–Send out If 3 Is by February 26
–Send out SS collection by same date
–Send out 3rd edit of At The Pump for peer feedback and format for submission to editors
–Send out groups of 3-5 poems to various markets

I won’t be posting weekly prompts for a while. Change of format. I’ll be logging my goals, rejections and successes instead. I am; however, creating a prompt list as a link of fmy webpage that I’ll post here when it’s ready.

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A New Year

New Year Reflections 2008

Normally, I write this on or before New Year’s Day. Good thing one of my goals for the coming year is to let go of the need to control the course and outcome of everything, to let some things unfold, to save energy for the most important details, and to live with intent. I spent New Year’s Day in Aberdeen with Gloria, Winston and Emelita. We walked through the Southshore Mall, went out to a surprisingly good Thai restaurant on the south side, and saw a movie. Walking through the SS Mall was weird, but in a good way, like walking back into your first grade classroom where the desks barely top your knees, recognizing how far you’ve come, how much you’ve come through. So, no big deal. It’s January 5^th and I’m writing to express my hopes for the coming year.

As I think about what I’d like for my life in 2008, my mind hovers around the concept of samskaras. Samskaras are the mental and emotional patterns we move in. In my experience, most of these patterns are subconscious. As I move through days, I sometimes get glimpses of the truth, sometimes not so much a glimpse, but a hard punch in the gut. Honestly, when I’m socked in the gut, my first reaction is to flee to another thought, push it down. Why? Because it scares the hell out of me that I may not be in control, that my unconscious fears and desires are my copilot, my side-kick, the monkey on my back. I’d like to recognize the patterns I move in with detachment so that I can live with greater intention. Detachment is key. I can’t face the most frightening aspects of myself while driving or teaching ninth graders how to recognize and discuss symbolism. So, a goal I have for this year is to set aside time each day to just sit and breathe and observe the thoughts that pass, without reacting to them, with detachment. Meditation. I also have this experience of detachment when I practice yoga. In yoga, my attention is on alignment, on breath, there’s no room for thoughts—positive, negative, or neutral—that pull me out the practice. That’s how I am able to hold poses that seem amazing without toppling over or giving up. I’ve been doing this for years, but what I’d like to happen in 2008 is to live my life like I practice yoga, with attention and detachment, so that I can choose to move in the patterns that lead to positive benefits for myself and others. If in a week I eat a hunk of cheese, or skip a day when I said I’d write, or explode in anger, I need to return to this goal of detachment.

As for specific goals for the New Year, I have many.

I heard the term “anger junkie” today and something resonated with me. The woman who said it was naming her own problem and explained how she puts off actions and decisions until she gets angry enough to do something. This had created a pattern in which she loves the anger because it allows her to do, to act. She didn’t even give examples. She didn’t need to. I saw myself. I saw myself denying or holding back my feelings so as not to inconvenience, hurt or anger someone else. But, I can’t do that for long. Two time, three times, maybe—and then—BLECK–I”m on autopilot, acting through a pattern that I know is destructive, that I’ll have to apologize for later. So, what’s my goal? To be direct and upfront about my feelings whenever appropriate regardless of whatever my fears might be about the consequences. To verbalize those feelings in an appropriate way—in a way that expresses that they’re my feelings, not an assertion of judgement or truth.

For three weeks, I’ll eat only whole foods and no dairy, eggs, or gluten. Why? To cleanse. To see how it turns out, how it may change my eating for good. So far, so good on this.

I’ll refine my writing practice. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday will be my official writing evenings, also Friday mornings. Of course, summer is fair game. I’ll write every day. This year I’ll finish my short story collection, At The Pump, and If 3 is a Spiritual Number and send them out to publishers and keep sending them out to publishers. Again and again and again. Writing sessions will last at least two or three hours at a time.

I will work out before yoga class at the gym on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. I’ll run with the dog on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I’ll take the dog for a long walk on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and also some time on Sunday. On Saturday, I may practice yoga or meditate, but I’ll feel free to not exercise at all.

I will take a trip some time this year to see a friend I have not seen in a long time.

I’ll read at least one book for “pleasure” each month. Books I read for school or work don’t count.

I will spend time working on the positive, nurturing relationships in my life, not the reverse.

I will be a better parent. I will be intentional in my communication with Winston and communicate in ways I know to be good. In this, I’ll turn to the advice of the now classic text How to Talks So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Faber and Mazlish. I’ve read this book several times. I think the advice is good and important.

I will find a volunteer opportunity that Winston and I can participate in together over the summer.

#10

I will continue to update and expand my blog and will complete my poetry Powerpoint project.

All of these things will lead to my goal for a happy and healthy New Year.

Namaste,

Liz

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Knee highs, puddles, multi-tasking and a writing prompt

Emy and I went shopping at Tuesday Morning last Friday. Man, I love that store. I bought all sorts of xmas gifties, including three toys for the dog. I think he’ll be most interested in unwrapping gifts this year. ☺ He’s curled up in a perfect ball in my line of sight right now. We just went for a walk in the cool night air. Fog hovered in the air at the track. I let him run off leash. He ran in circles, sniffed around and sprinted through puddles. Ah, to be a dog. Mostly, I bought gifts for people, but I did buy a couple of items for myself, including a pair of knee-highs. Now, I haven’t worn knee –highs since probably the third or second grade. Do you remember how good they are? How they don’t bunch around your ankles or slide down your shoes? I didn’t. How did I ever come to think I was too young for cable-knit knee-highs?
Puddles. We’ve had some trouble with those around here with streets closed and people flooded out of their homes. Personally, I was barely impacted by the storm early this week. It did, however, inspire me to buy a pair of rain boots, which are a perfect combination with my knee-highs. From now on, when I walk the dog in the rain, no more walking around or stepping over puddles. Splish. Splash. Fun!
This time of year is always a bit of a romp. It’s a busy time at school, but I have almost no interest in school at all and am keeping my eye on December 19 (winter break) at all times. I have the usual projects going on: decorating for Christmas to complete, Christmas cards to fill out, presents to buy, crafts to make and the usual projects to complete. In fact, I’m currently seeing double. If I could just forego sleep…

Prompt for this week:

Write about a gift or write something that can be given as a gift.

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Make Time.

Liz Shine: Author, Editor.

Category Archives: A Room Of Your Own

I Google Myself, Therefore I Am" by Frank Bures; March/April; Poets and Writers Magazine

The Power of Play

Talent?

Tayari Jones "So, You Have A Problem With Men?"

Mid-winter break

"What? What’s that you say?"

Ergonomics of Writing

On Writing, plus some goals

A New Year

Knee highs, puddles, multi-tasking and a writing prompt