Friday, April 18, 2014

A Good Friday Wrap



The week flew by, didn't it? I started two different posts I wanted to share with you. Somehow my writer and editor selves got all tangled up trying to create and edit all at the same time. Soon the postings were all tangled up too. And so neither got finished, as we have some untangling to do.

Does that ever happen to you? You start with a simple, but lovely idea that you want to post about and then somehow it turns complicated? You start adding too much, then it gets too heavy and now you've got more ideas creeping in that could wait for another posting. And you wonder how you got off track. So while I weed out the extraneous, let me give you some snippets from my week.

It was my birthday yesterday. Had a lovely day with hubby. Rick took me out for a very nice lunch and we strolled through our local conservatory to take in the spring displays. Plus, we visited our local art gallery for a joyful look at the work of two amazing glasswork artists, Susan Rankin and Manola Borrajo, both from Canada.

It's been snowing. I'm not joking. Seriously too. Not just a few flakes. Tell me, somebody please, did I tear off too many calendar pages too soon, and it really is only February? The birds migrating into town this past week seem a little disoriented.  The Canada Geese are sitting atop frozen ponds looking forlorn. The juncos, usually feeders on the ground, couldn't find any seeds as they were all covered with the white stuff. So we tromped out there to throw some seeds around for them to peck through.

The memoir story is coming along. We have almost finished Week 2 of the little 30-day challenge to write 750 words per day, every single day, no matter what. I happily report that the momentum has been building, and some days I've not only met the quota but nearly tripled the amount. Celebration time, my dear friends. 

This is what I found works for She Who Tends To Get Easily Overwhelmed and Distracted:
1. Her goal is small enough not to feel pressured but big enough to stretch just a little.

2. Because it's small, she can do this every single day ... no matter what else is going on.

3. She is focusing on being a writer in this freefall first draft. The self-editor voice who felt it was her place to look over her shoulder as she typed to help 'fix' things... well, God bless her, the writer finally locked the door on her and kindly told her that her turn will come later and to just go relax with a coffee or something. Eat some cake, for pete's sake.

4. She remembers something she read on one site: write your first draft as quickly as possible. The whole thing. The author shared a insider tip on how to separate the newbies from the veterans. "The latter race through the first draft while the first timers belabor every word, parse thrice every phrase, and start again and again and again." ~ Gordon Burgett

5. She found a copy of Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art in which the author talks about pushing through the resistance we all face and to start acting like a professional about her writing -- which means showing up every day and getting her goal done, no matter what.

* * *

That's a little of what's been going on with me. Now I take a moment to wish those of you who are commemorating and celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, a truly blessed and meaningful weekend of reflection and celebration.

Sending you sprigs of joy and peace,
Brenda
xox








14 comments:

  1. Happy belated Birthday, Brenda! And yes, I have that happen a lot. I can't believe how much time I put into some posts and how complicated and heavy they get, then I scrap them and start over. Happens a lot. :-) Hope all the snow leaves soon. We're waiting for the snow from our storm yesterday to melt. Yikes. I thought this was APRIL! lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the good wishes. Relief... to learn I'm not alone in this struggle.
      So you've had snow too. Hopefully it melts away quickly.

      Happy Day!

      Delete
  2. For all that tangled-up-ness at the start....you ended up with a lovely posting. We can relate to that self-editor...who sure can get bothered about typos, odd spacing, and incomplete sentences, etc, etc. Hm...maybe I need to get a cake...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Betty, I'm sure cake would be very helpful!

      I had a lovely chocolatey thing for my birthday yesterday. It went down quite velvety, with mouse and fudge in layers between chocolate cake. Oh yes, it was fine. Your self-editor would really like that.

      Delete
  3. Snow there does not bode well for next week here. (We have already been warned.)

    I enjoy learning more about your writing process.

    Happy Birthday weekend to you and have a blessed Easter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really enjoyed this post! Happy Birthday and a blessed Easter to you and yours! Can't wait to buy your book!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy birthday Brenda. We are having fantastic weather. it may rain next Tuesday/Wed.
    The blogging experience is a learning curve. Not too much, but enough. Have a wonderful Easter.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello Brenda. Happy belated birthday! May your new year of life be glorious! Filled with adventure, deep fulfillment and love.

    I sure hope it stopped snowing. Also wish you and your family and very blessed, peaceful and happy Easter. Susan

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Birthday Brenda! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your nice comment. Happy Easter to you and your loved ones! And I hope that's the end of your snow.

    Blessings,
    Sandi

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy belated Birthday wishes
    I am a lay speaker who writes my own 7-8 talks. I understand what you were writing about too many ideas or paths to follow that pop up off the original theme. I have to keep tightly on-track because people don't 1/2way listen and, for my nursing home groups, they cannot concentrate.
    Your idea of just writing the first draft and keeping the editor in your back pocket works.
    Gail

    ReplyDelete
  9. Let me add my own late birthday wishes as well...as you, well, we all, "inch along."

    Appreciated reading your thoughts here, although, according to Burgett, I'm afraid I'm an insufferable newbie.

    In any case Happy Birthday, and Blessed Easter.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A belated Happy Birthday.... And an early Blessed Easter!

    ReplyDelete
  11. good ideas, happy birthday I've had family here- no time to blog yet...enjoying the grandbabies!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Of course such things happen to people, you are not exception. And I think this is more appropriate to women))) Do you agree? Our brains have excellent skills to jump from one thought to another. But this moment sometimes prevents us to be concentrated on the topic of our post. I think this service custom essay writing service will help to learn concentration in post writing.

    ReplyDelete

To My Beautiful Readers,

Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same. ~ Franz Peter Schubert

Thank you so much for leaving your 'footprint' here in my comment box. I do appreciate you taking a moment to share your thoughts today.

Brenda xo