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blogging creativity transcending writing

Gems #6 Encouragement, kindness and resilience

August 9, 2010

Some recent gems shining a whole lot of light…

If you haven’t read The Manifesto of Encouragement on Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth, rush over for the best injection of inspiration and encouragement you will have felt for a long time. Danielle’s initial post is pure light and genius. Then hundreds of people have added their words from their precious angle. It’s a string of pearls you can wear around your heart to protect you and make you shine. It also opens you up to what you might be missing around you or what you might aspire to. I hope one day it becomes a book I can carry with me every day.

Recently, I wrote a post about twitter and my positive experiences connecting up with like-minded people and the kindness and reciprocity I had found. I had just finished writing and posting, to then find Jean Sarauer’s post on Virgin Blogger Notes on a related theme: How to grow your blog with kindness. Jean provides a personal story and some excellent examples of how kindess and adding value in blogging and twitter can enhance the experience and outcome for all. Jean encourages us to ‘practice shifting your focus from what you want to get to what you can give’.  This post helps you appreciate how you can contribute and how ‘As the analytics of your heart show upticks in kindness, encouragement, and support, the analytics of your blog will also improve.’  The ‘Manifesto of Encouragement’ is a great example of this.

I only caught up this week with the July 11 ‘Creative Penn’ podcast interview by Joanna Penn: ‘Inspiration For Authors On Resilience, Accepting Criticism And Being An Introvert With Clare Edwards’.  It was excellent – one of the best of Joanna’s interviews I’ve listened to – probably because it chimed in around some personal keywords: resilience, introversion and writing. I loved the way Joanna opened up in this interview about her own experiences as an introvert with doing interviews and developing a speaking career. I related so much, being at the far end of the introversion spectrum and interacting with people all day, every day, in my work role, often standing up and speaking to many people. I have learnt to manage this but this interview provided more insightful tools for balancing between the inner and outer worlds. There is also a strong focus also in the interview on tips for resilience and staying present in the moment.

Three overwhelmingly positive gems to take us all forward with encouragement, kindness and resilience!

Image, Mother of Pearl by Westcoastrobin from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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blogging creativity writing

Shorter posts, smaller steps

August 7, 2010

My posts are too long I know. I don’t start out to write long pieces. I know what I want to say and it’s structured in my head but often ends up longer than I intend – more around 1000 words than a neat 300.

As John Sherry points in a guest post on Virgin Blogger Notes, ‘Why Bite Size is the right size content’, it’s a lot to ask of readers if we are posting 2-3 posts a week of 1,000 words. It’s also making the task bigger than it needs to be for the writer/blogger. As I have progressed here, the posts have got longer, the gap between them larger and the job of writing them has become more demanding and less likely to occur regularly.

The result is a spiky reader profile with highs and lows, naturally, as they have nothing to read between the big waves of words I carefully construct.

I’ve also been re-reading ‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott and she implores in many ways to take writing in steps. She emphasises the ‘short assignment’, chunking the work into paragraphs, the ‘one inch picture frame’, an immediate focus. She provides a wonderful quote from E.L. Doctorow: ‘writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way.’

The big lessons of life – trauma, grief, hospitals, illness – teach us, force us, to take one hour, one day at a time, to be in the moment, to work step by step, to have a vision and know where you want to go, like the car with its headlights leading the way, but to focus on now so as not to be overwhelmed.

So, taking this good advice from John Sherry, from Anne Lamott, from my experiences in life, I am going to write shorter posts, keep this work moving, manageable and meaningful to others, and connect up the small steps into a journey I can measure. (Note word count = 336)

Image, Old stone steps through thick green vegetation by Horia Varlan from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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blogging

The 7 link challenge

July 24, 2010

I only have about 16 posts so far being a fairly newbie blogger but what the hell, I am jumping in to the 7 link challenge  from Darren Rowse at problogger. I love a chance to reflect on where I am, where I’ve been and where I’m going in all aspects of life: writing, work, relationships, family, blogging. 

The idea from problogger is

‘to publish a post that is a list of 7 links to posts that you and others have written that respond to the following 7 categories. Your links should be to:

  • Your first post
  • A post you enjoyed writing the most
  • A post which had a great discussion
  • A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written
  • Your most helpful post
  • A post with a title that you are proud of
  • A post that you wish more people had read’

I first came across the challenge at Susannah Conway’s beautiful site and here’s Susannah’s interpretation. As a regular reader of her blog over the past twelve months, it was exciting to see her first post, what it heralded, the intentioned first steps and the special posts chosen from so many. There are many comments with links from Susannah’s post and many more on the original problogger site posting. You can see the effect and the excitement. This idea is so clever in so many ways:

  • it’s based on reflection on where you have been and what you have achieved
  • it has a cumulative and connecting effect with others
  • it enables you to find a whole lot of new people to read about, link to and talk to
  • it’s a way of people linking to and learning about your own blog work
  • it’s a way of learning about blogging itself: tags, memes, how the tech side works

Genius! I can’t wait to find some time soon to read through all the comments and links on both the problogger and Susannah Conway sites with so many potential treasures to be found. So here’s my list, albeit from a limited but special pool. To be honest, I have had the best time with blogging since I started nearly three months ago.

My first post: Welcome to Transcending – May 2, 2010

The post I enjoyed writing the most: Why Transcending?  – because it coalesced months, maybe years, of thinking and feeling and it felt very right when it came together

A post with great discussion: I loved the comments from my key influencing people on My seven stars – I was so honoured by the warm and encouraging responses from people I had learnt from. It was like meeting my favourite celebrities 🙂

A post from someone else’s blog I wish I had written: Many posts from my seven stars inspire me but I loved the post Transitions by Chris Guillebeau on The Art of Non-Conformity for its sheer brilliance in articulating an intensely felt thought I could relate to. Chris is excellent at that special skill. I constantly marvel at his writing and reflect about what he has written.

My most helpful post: I am noticing some interest in the post Planning to be fluid about goalsetting. The links in that post are very powerful sources of information that have helped me immensely.

Post with a title you are proud of : The value of howling into the wind – on one of her wonderful podcasts, Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn talks about the feeling of ‘howling into the wind’ to describe how she felt as a blogger when she started. I loved the phrase, it captured how I felt and I used it to think about the value of this space where you finally launch off but you know so few people are reading your words.

A post that I wish more people had read: It was difficult to write and probably difficult to read but The healing power of family history was about a critical journey for me through a (still) difficult time. I hope that it might help other people to find an anchor through their grief.

Off to read some other fantastic 7 link challenge posts! Thanks Darren and Susannah for all the fantastic leads!

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blogging writing

Gems #4 Putting yourself out there

July 9, 2010

 Some gems shining a little light this week.

I loved Justine Lee Musk’s recent post on Tribal Writer on ‘5 ways to put more ‘soul’ into your writing’ . Justine reflects on what makes writing invoke an emotional engagement, how to make writing original and distinctive and issues of vulnerability in writing. I found this post to be an insightful and deeply reflective piece, enacting the ‘soul’ in writing it was talking about. There are also practical tips and exercises for how to put more soul into writing. These tips are around the adage of  ‘show rather than tell’ but Justine fleshes this concept out with fresh perspectives you can apply to your writing.

Pushing Social post  ‘Lady Gaga’s 8 point guide to larger than life blogging,’ has attracted a lot of interest in recent weeks. Stanford Smith cleverly unpacks the genius of Lady Gaga’s  business and social media presence and how this might apply to blogging and your own ‘digital show’. The message is about being distinctive and unique, and the outcomes from a combination of hard work, clear vision and an incremental approach.  Lady Gaga has just reached 10,000,000 fans on Facebook, the first person to do so, so she certainly has some tricks up her sleeves for building an online presence that we can learn from.

I enjoyed the recent Creative Penn podcast interview with Dan Poynter on self-publishing and book marketing tips. Dan is a long-time player in self-publishing having started in 1969. From his long and varied experience, the interview provides valuable tips on self-publishing options, digital publishing, business models, marketing options and multiple streams of income from writing and related activities. As always, Joanna Penn’s podcast interviews open your mind to a wealth of possibilities for where your writing can go and how you can carve a writing life based on these options.

 Image, Gypsy Gem by Robyn Gallant  from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license.

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blogging creativity planning & productivity writing

Planning to be fluid

June 14, 2010

I have a plan for this blog and where it’s going, and part of the plan is to be fluid but focussed. It’s open; open to intuition, influence and the flow of other thoughts. I have a sense of structure, of where it might lead. You can see this in my category headings  on the right and also in the first post explaining its raison d’etre. All this I will explain and probably understand further in time as it evolves.

The planning underpinning this involved many months of reading, writing, brainstorming, mind-mapping, researching, learning about the blogging process itself and also engaging in the experience of reading blogs and and connecting through social media. I’m still learning so much but it was all about reflecting on my key message, what I felt I had to tell and contribute and learning how to do that in practice, at least enough to begin. Then, getting the courage to start.

But it all needs to remain fluid, to be able to evolve and to take in the constantly new perspectives and thoughts from reading including those from online sources. It is an infinitely fascinating space, the online space, especially influential in how it can shape your thoughts in a positive way.

The other day, I caught up with Chris Guillebeau’s recent post, ‘Transitions‘, a very powerful and beautiful thought piece about holding onto the space of transition before moving on. He encourages focusing on the moment of transition rather than rushing to move on, be it in the sphere of work, travel, relationships or anything else…‘hold on to the moment as long as you can…’, the sheer poignancy of it and what it means.

Somehow from this, I started thinking about the space between planning and intuition. How you need to plan, schedule, have a strategy, know what success looks like, set objectives and set the measures for how you know you have arrived, but that you also need to remain open to intuition, what the stream of consciousness delivers, the post that asks to be written despite your original plan for the day, the work project that needs to be messy and possibly get worse before things can be resolved and moved on.

Allowing a space for openness and  intuition within a plan can only enrich it in the long run, as long as you know where you are heading. The plan is important to keep your overall direction intact but it’s also critical to avoid being rigid and immune to influence once you have a plan and are on your way.

For setting goals in the first place, I have found the following posts and processes useful:

Chris Guillebeau’s annual review process

Chris again and the importance of strategy vs tactics and the need for clear strategy – love the quote in this one.

Paul Myers’ ‘A simple system to achieve your goals’ – great for identifying your contacts and resources amongst other things

Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte’s book, Style Statement’, I absolutely recommend for understanding your authentic self as a tool for life choices

Shanna Germain’s  musing on goal-setting as a writer – she sets high goals for output and achieves much in the process

The communicatrix’s take on her experience with the goal setting process and what it brings up in its wake

It’s fascinating to see how all the stars who have influenced me are working on goals and strategy. It seems once the direction is set, it’s easier to engage with and reflect on the journey wherever it takes you; easier not to get lost in the important sidetracks or paths that might come up; and easier to assess if a new direction is required.

What’s your take on planning vs intuition?

Image: Fluids’s reflection, by Sergio Tudela via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license

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blogging creativity poetry writing

Being a work in progress

May 26, 2010

Image, La felicità – work in progress by stefozanna, via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

I am reminding myself it is okay to be a work in progress: to begin, to carve and craft as I go, to collect and synthesise, to draft and revise, like forming a poem. It is worse not to begin.

With writing a poem, you capture the image, the association, the string of words that comes in the middle of the night. And from that, you start, draft, craft and revise again. Miss that spark of ignition and you might miss the critical association that could begin your poem. Then, you might hold back from developing it for fear of not achieving the illusory perfected whole poem in your mind.

In a recent inspiring post, Starting with what you have, Chris Guillebeau provides a valuable way to break the feeling of paralysis around starting something: ‘Don’t look at what you think you lack, look at what you have and find a way to make it work.’  He provides some excellent examples about how and where to start for business, writing, art and travel and they are mostly small, focussed, like a kernel, something obtainable or possible.

So I am reminding myself,  it’s okay to be a work in progress, starting with a piece, a step, a chunk, an idea and learning from there. You might need to do some planning, preparation, reading and research to guide how you start and where it leads, but make a start from that essential spark.

Take this blog, for example. I have learnt from reading and watching others and their blogs, from listening to podcasts and reading blogging experts. I have the spark of a connecting idea. I’ve worked it over time, mined it, mind-mapped it, associating and gathering ideas. But starting here each time,  there is more. I am engaging with writing, blogging, flickr, posting, comments and generally putting what I have learnt into practice. Already the connections and response have been beyond my dreams. I have talked about stars and their shining light and I feel very illuminated. Where the light goes and what it illuminates is another thing, but it’s out there, into the dark, an offering.

Not starting is about a lot of things: a desire for perfection, what Danielle LaPorte in an article in fear.less calls a fear epidemic: ‘Everyone is struggling with the same thing: ‘fear of being his or her true self’, a lack of authenticity and all this becomes a form of resistance that can develop a perfectly normal appearance that absolutely freezes you. Creative work suffers from this incredibly and can seem unnecessary or frivolous. You wonder why you would do it and undermine your own creative thoughts and plans.  

Apart from finding a small way to chunk your start and become a work in progress, Steven Pressfield, in the final words of his wonderful book about resistance ‘The War of Art’, suggests that starting is a responsibility: “Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

So let’s get that work in progress. Before you know it, the posts are connecting around a theme you can stitch together into some larger work; the poems you are posting could become a self-published book and in any case, you realise, more people are reading them this way; you find you are writing a novel or a memoir through what you post; getting your photos up there makes you start thinking in images again; you find a  reason to write and that breaks the hiatus of many years; you find a business idea developing from the responses coming back to you; you create a creative course to get people writing or moving through something. Suddenly you are moving, not frozen.

So what are you considering starting? And what happens if you don’t?

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