MJ Monday-Motivation: Solitaire as a Plotting Device

I know I’ve written about my habit of playing solitaire while thinking about my books, but I’ve recently learned this practice is instinctive use of how my brain is wired.

This year I was unable to participate in writing retreats due to COVID-19. I found another way to work on my professional development. Now some people consider my involvement in this group a cult, and maybe it is. I do pay to take classes and have individual coaching. But I’m learning so much about myself as a person, and that also means me as a writer. I’m starting to understand the whys of the way I am and why I do things the way I do. Why I react a certain way in specific situations.

The person who runs these classes also has a series of FREE You Tube videos. Here’s the link to the one that explains my need to play solitaire while I’m plotting. It’s short–20 minutes or so–but revealing.

Playing solitaire (or hand-held Yahtzee, another favorite of mine) is a legitimate writing strategy. Who knew?

 

MJ Monday-Motivation: Lightning Bugs

Once again, my schedule–writing and day job–prevented me from getting to my patio/garden/back yard in a timely manner. It doesn’t help that the person who had all these grandiose plans for the space disappeared on me last year.

The first year of my garden was the best. It looked amazing. I had fresh herbs. I had colorful coleus, and planters of other beautiful things.

Since then, the space has become more of a jungle. I still love sitting out there, especially at night.

I love watching the lightning bugs. (Yes, I am born and raised in upstate NY, and we always called them lightning bugs. I never heard of a fire fly until I started school.) This year they start flashing early and continue to flash often.

No wonder summer is my favorite season.

Thursday Thought-Self Help: A Whack on the Side of the Head

Years ago, in my incarnation as a local TV worker bee, I went to a conference for promotion and marketing types. I wasn’t really a promo person, but the TV station’s general manager decided that since I was a writer, I could do the station’s promo. I was also a smoker in those days. I didn’t know anyone at the conference, but struck up conversations with people in the smoking section of the lobby.  Net working with those folks was more valuable than the workshops.

I ended up with my very first laptop as a result of that conference (and when I left the station, I negotiated the laptop as part of my package). And I learned about A Whack on the Side of the Head.

The book isn’t self-help for personal or even profession growth in the traditional sense. There is no advice about how to manage your in box, your email, or delegating to your underlings (of if there is, the rest outweighs the arrogance). Instead, Whack is about learning to look at situations from another angle. Turning problems upside down, sideways, and inside out. Stretching the limitations of your creativity.

I rushed home and ordered the book and the Creative Whack Pack from Amazon.  The Whack Pack, according to my favorite on-line merchant, is going or has gone out of print. It’s a deck of cards using the methods/ideas from the book to assist in choosing a method to deal with your situation. Example: I just drew the SUBSTITUTE card. There is a small blurb, then the question: “What can you substitute?” The purpose is to not only get the reader to think outside the box, but in some cases, destroy the box.

The book is full of gems, such as “Sacred cows make great steaks.” (Richard Nicolosi, businessman), and “All art is a series of recoveries from the first line. The hardest thing to do is put down the first line. But you must.” (Nathan Olivera, artist).

The book is from 1983, so parts of it are dated, especially when it comes to technology, but the premises are sound. And I believe it has been updated and expanded.

 

 

Office Update-July

I have made significant progress in my office reclamation/redo project. I completely cleared out the area in the hall where the printer and all the old RWRs sat.

Next, I tackled one of two bookcases belonging to my husband that reside in my space.

The book case hid behind the door, and was literally crammed to the ceiling.

Cleaning it off took an entire Saturday.  And yes, the shelves are warped. Replacing the bookcase isn’t in the budget right now.

The bookcase now resides in the hall where the old magazines and printer once took up space.  It took the good chunk of a Sunday afternoon to move all the books.

As the bookcase is not only taller, but more solid than the printer stand, it seems as if there is less room in hall, but that’s an optical illusion. The bookcase is actually narrower than the printer stand. It just takes some getting used, especially when coming out of our bedroom.

But it’s done!

Self-Help Review: Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do

Why Good Girls Don‘t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do by Kate White is probably the best self-help book I have ever read. And re-read. And studied. Analyzed. Used to get a raise.

It’s an older title–1996. Someone in my local RWA chapter gave a presentation on the book, and I was fascinated. At the time, I was still working in local TV and still on my Big Business Career Track. The book is full of sound advice. Years later, I still offer its wisdom to my husband when he’s perplexed by something at his Day Job.

My copy of the book is dog-eared and bulging with sticky notes. The pages are a rainbow of colored highlights because something new struck me each time I read it.

Yes, the book is geared toward “executive” women, so there’s a lot of “delegate it downward”attitude, but there is also a lot about how to hoist yourself out of the crap pile.

I loved this book so much, I bought the author’s next self-help book and was disappointed. It seemed more about how wonderful she is. When she spoke at an RWA PAN session, I purchased the recording, and while I’ve listened to her speech innumerable times, again I was struck by her almost smug attitude. She should have quit while she was ahead.

Still, the nine “secrets” revealed in the Good Girls book are solid advice. Skimming the pages as I write this inspires me to read the book again: “The secret is to stop trying to do everything and start concentrating only on the essential steps that will allow you to achieve your goal. Anything more is a waste of valuable time and energy.”

Amen.