Please Mr. Postman – Putting Pen to Paper to Keep in Touch

 

                                            Photo credit: Pixabay, via Pexels

We've all had to adjust our social habits and find new ways of keeping in touch with friends and family this year. And as winter approaches and it's becoming clear that normal is still off the table and the pandemic is going to continue to dictate our behavior through the last few weeks of the year, staying in touch is even more important.

Back in the spring, about a month or so into the shelter-in-place order, I bought some vintage-design postcards, thinking it would be fun to send them to friends as an alternative to a social media ping. (It also became a way to support the post office, but that's another story). It was an enjoyable distraction while I got used to working from home and began to realize just how different this year would be.

An interesting thing happened the more postcards I sent. I stopped thinking of them as an analog answer to a Facebook post, and started thinking about crafting an actual message within the tiny space provided on one half of a postcard. Mark Twain is credited with saying he didn't have time to write a short letter so he wrote a long one. I get that, and I like it. The less space you have, the more important each word becomes. And physically writing a message feels so much more personal than typing a few words on a screen.

So I'm going to keep at it. If you'd like to hear from me this way, text or PM me your address. I'll put pen to paper and let you know what's going on with me. Maybe some of you will even write back.

Creativity and Chaos in California

 

                                            Photo credit: PhotoMIX Company via Pexels

"I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times." – Willie Nelson

It's easy to say that 2020 has been a year like no other. I've neither heard nor read the word, 'unprecedented' so much in my entire life. (Who's with me on permanently striking that one from the dictionary?) Any one of the major events of this year—-a global pandemic with 1.3 million casualties, economic upheaval, catastrophic fires on the west coast, an extremely volatile political climate and civil unrest—-would be horrifying. But all at once? How are we to respond, apart from large quantities of profanity and alcohol?

We're home sheltering in place, not going out to movies, restaurants, or concerts. Is that sparking creativity? We've all heard that great art comes from great adversity, and history has proven that to be true. But what does that look like in 2020? I'm curious to know if my fellow creative types are able to concentrate long enough to make art. It's been hit or miss for me. One day I feel that 'now or never' passion and the next I have the attention span of a gnat. So, my creative friends, are you painting, recording music, writing? Or are you staring at a blank canvas or blinking cursor?

Another concern I've struggled with is how to avoid appearing tone deaf. The pandemic is far from over, with new cases on the rise in staggering numbers across the country, the sheer ugliness and dangerous division the election brought to light make our democracy feel extremely fragile, fires were raging from San Diego to Seattle in September and October, and here I sit, saying, "Hey, I wrote something. Wanna read it?"

So what's the answer? I have no idea. Crises cause a deep emotional response, which can lead to beautiful art, amazing music, and stirring poetry, which we certainly need right now, don't we? It doesn't feel like we're coming out of this anytime soon. Seems to me it's time for more art. I'll be here attempting to summon the muse. Who's with me?

Sister to Sister

 

                                          

I recently joined a fabulous organization, Sisters in Crime, that supports the professional development and recognition of women crime writers. I've known of the group since my bookstore days—it was founded in 1986—but never felt worthy of joining, even though you don't have to be a published author. A truly supportive community of siblings (yes, men can belong too) you can join as an aspiring author, editor, bookselling professional, librarian, or fan of mysteries. So, what took me so long? Not sure I have an answer to that, except to say that this year has ignited an "if not now, when?" passion I've not felt before. I joined as an aspiring author, a designation I hope to change soon.

One of the many benefits of being an active sibling is access to the webinars hosted each month. Yesterday's event, "SinC into Great Writing: Creating Authentic Characters," featured K. Tempest Bradford, who spoke about representing characters whose gender, sexual orientation, racial heritage, or other aspect of identity may be very different from your own. Lou Berney and Walter Mosley discussed character, making the very valid point that character must come first, even if you have the idea for the plot first. Without a believable, realistic protagonist, your readers won't care how great you think the plot is. How do you begin to reveal character? Think about what your protagonist is doing when the readers first meet her. It should be a situation that makes them wonder what's going to happen next.

Their conversation was full of insights into their process. Berney starts each book with an outline and loves to set his characters up so they reveal to him what they're going to do. Mosley reads his dialog aloud to fine tune the voices for his characters, and said, "A single word can unlock a character." He also reads his prose aloud, because it needs to be "beautiful," and suggests that fiction writers read poetry. One of the most encouraging parts of the conversation was about how many drafts they write and how they both feel like the last draft is never done. Yep, the pros struggle too, at times.

When asked about how much time they put into research, Mosley cautioned going overboard and said, "I'm a fiction writer so I can make stuff up." Berney agreed with a smile and said when he's asked about writing techniques or how to solve a particular problem, "Whatever works" is almost always the answer. It's an interesting dichotomy, because writing is work, and it does equal butt in chair, but what Berney said is also true, "Writing should be fun. No one is forcing us to do this."

Splendid Isolation

                                          

                                           Photo credit: Vlada Karpovich via Pexels

Writing is a solitary craft, as are many artistic pursuits, so it's a good fit for an introvert. And 2020 has certainly turned out to be a banner year for solitude, no? As if a global pandemic weren't enough, nearly the entire west coast is on fire, creating unhealthy to toxic air quality. What better time to stay indoors and be creative? So here I sit, drafting, writing, rewriting. And then...it's time to go public and put whatever I've written "out there."

That's something I've struggled with over the years, for a few reasons. Besides constantly wondering if my writing is "good enough" (whatever that means. Good enough for what?), it sometimes feels counter-intuitive to go public with that which is created in solitude. I struggled with the decision to launch this blog, ultimately deciding that while there was certainly no shortage, I needed a place to point potential freelance clients.

Blog aside, what about other types of writing? I attempted to write a novel several years ago, revising and polishing until I felt it was ready to pitch. I spent a few months being rejected by agents, finally deciding it wasn't meant to be (and no, I didn't want to put it on Amazon), but the process was invaluable. The exercise of developing plot and characters and creating a story with a beginning, middle, and end led to a second, much better novel. So, what's next? Time will tell.

Darkness on the Edge of...Everything

After finishing a lengthy and involved project—-more on that later—-I took a mental break. Said break happened to coincide with a break from social media and a news fast. And then 2020 began to unfold... W.T.A.F??

Between getting used to working from home, being reluctant to leave my house, wiping down groceries and mail, peaceful protests being met with violence, and the dangerous ridiculousness of the current administration...I've had NOTHING to say. I don't want to write, and I'm sure no one wants to read, posts full of angst-ridden whininess and gallows humor. And then the entire west coast burst into flame. It's just TOO FREAKING MUCH.

A friend shared this, much of which resonates with me, especially the concept of "surge capacity," and how people fall prey to magical thinking. We're all anxious, frightened, irritated-to-furious on a daily sliding scale, and completely mind-numbingly exhausted. Is there hope? I believe there can be, but the time to wait for others to act to make things better has passed. It's up to every damned one of us to take action to affect real change.

One bright spot: art tends to flourish in trying times. Many creatives I know are hanging onto their sanity the only way they know how: making music, taking photographs, drawing and painting, and writing. Will 2021 be a banner year for art? I believe it will. And I'll have something to share in the spring. Stay tuned...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Winner Is...

Anyone who works with clients, be they external or internal, is bound to have moments of frustration, when you think, "Did you really just say that?" Or, "Which meeting are you in? Because it's clearly not this one."

Over the past few years, I've had to learn new ways to express (read: not express) frustration, as well as mind my mouth. (You can take the girl out of Tower...) I can only walk around the building so many times, and have yet to figure out how to do so during a meeting or a webex, so indulging my innate snarkiness, is once again the chosen path. I give you the current list of the top five annoying things my clients do:

5. Schedule meetings to talk about upcoming meetings. Seriously. This happens far more often than you'd think possible.

4. Invite me to meetings I know nothing about for projects I'm not involved with out of the blue. The usual culprit in this case is someone forgetting to inform me that I have a new project.

3. Ask for constant status updates but consistently fail to get me approvals or information on time. Um...you know how this works. Right?

2. Ask me to move meetings to times they aren't available. The old "find time on my calendar" trick—psyche!

And the number one annoying client behavior is...contacting multiple people in my department in an attempt to get the answer they want. If Mom says, "no," go ask Dad. Yeah, this happens.

I do realize the above is pretty mild compared to what many people deal with on a weekly basis, and humans are humans. Hang around each other long enough and we'll likely get on each other's nerves at some point. I'm very grateful to be employed, and that I had the good fortune to land at a great agency led by a team that truly cares about the workforce. For the most part, my clients are very easy to deal with, and we do good work together. It might be more fun to be  snarky, but I'm smart enough to realize how lucky I was to land this job. And that's winning no matter how I look at it.

It’s Just a Matter of Time

When I started my current job, I showed up with a few pre-conceived notions. As I set about learning the language of workers' comp insurance and state-speak, and trying to acclimate to an entirely new workplace vibe, I felt like a retail bum who was likely in over my head. Retail jobs were the sum total of my work experience, and I was suddenly working with people who’d been in government their entire careers.

Then I began to notice some stark differences in those vastly different worlds, the most surprising of which is how fluid deadlines seem to be. Coming from a world of seasonal campaigns, newspaper and radio ads, and you know, holiday promotions, I thought "deadline" was a pretty universal concept. As in the due date of a given project is agreed upon at the beginning, and that's that. (Fun fact, the historical meaning of the word is "a line drawn around a prison beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot.")

On more than one occasion, I've found myself nearing the end of a project only to be informed of a major shift in direction. When I calmly point out that if we do that, the project timeline will need complete revamping, and the agreed-upon deadline will be impossible to meet, I'm told, "okay." Um...What?? And there I sit, searching for a reasonable response and biting my lip so as not to blurt out, "Oh, let me just move Christmas because you people changed your minds!"

It's taken a while, but I've come to realize that my humble retail beginnings actually did plenty to prepare me for the real world, including teaching me how to stay calm when someone is ranting about things that are completely out of my control, how to multi-task, and how to get. Things. Done. I suppose that really shouldn't surprise me, given how hard my former colleagues and I worked, especially to set up and execute holiday campaigns. And it's not news that government timing is...different...

I've often thought a mandatory two years in retail would do wonders for this society, especially when I see customers going off on minimum wage clerks. Maybe we'd all be kinder and more understanding, but maybe not. In any case, I can be proud of my retail roots and thankful for the collective experience that brought me this far. Will I ever get used to deadlines as mere suggestions? Time will tell...