Trial by Fire

Much has been written about how good it feels to push yourself and test your limits, physically, mentally and creatively. I tend to agree, whether I'm doing a January de-tox, a new Daily Burn routine, or accepting a freelance job with a tight turn-around time. I just completed such a gig, an article for Yuba-Sutter Community Magazine...in 3 ½ days. And, it actually wasn't that difficult. It was easy to say yes, especially to the publisher of the mag, who is a good friend. It was easy to come up with a brief outline after reading the parameters and doing a little research. It was also easy to have the inevitable "How the hell am I going to do this??" freak out Friday evening as I looked at my very brief outline and thought about how quickly the Monday deadline was approaching.

But as I started to write, I found the words, the article took shape, and pretty soon I had a decent first draft. After a little more research and some fact-checking, I was on my way to the finished draft. Could it be that seven years of copywriting have done more than I realized to expand my skillset? Between skin care articles, press releases, and email copy, apparently so. Writers get better by writing is the simple truth. I'm not sure I'll ever face an empty page without at least a little doubt, but the time between wondering how I'm going to pull it off and hitting the final "save" is definitely decreasing. Of course I still have to admit that pushing myself sounds like a good idea after the fact...

Sooner or Later

The dictionary definition of procrastination (proh-kras-tuh-ney-shuhn):

n. the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention.

My personal definition:

n. the things I do instead of sending out more agent pitch letters, even though I really want to land an agent, and ultimately, a book deal.

I could make all sorts of excuses, like my new exercise schedule, my determination to get enough sleep, a friend sending me his novel that I want to read every spare moment I can find. But if I really want to get my novel out there, I need to send more pitch letters.

So what gives? Is it just a part of human nature to put things off and not only give in to distractions but actually seek them out? A favorite college professor once told me that to avoid grading papers one evening, she had cleaned and sharpened every pair of scissors in the house. Since then I've thought of active procrastination as "sharpening scissors." I find it creeping into my work day too (I know, shocking). Write a press release about a new brand? Sure...right after I organize my new cubicle, update my calendar, go through the files from my old desk and separate what gets recycled from what gets shredded...the list goes on.

According to Psychology Today, at least 20% of us chronically avoid what we don't want to do and deliberately look for distractions. And while the tendency to put things off is indeed part of our very nature, attitudes about it vary greatly by culture. The French nobility becoming a leisure class and distaining work created an attitude that reaches into the present, as the call for an International Procrastination Day illustrates. And anyone who has visited Hawaii has encountered "Island Time."

Is it our Protestant Work Ethic/American "Get 'er done" attitude that makes procrastination a bad thing? Perhaps it's just a matter of balance and I should make a deal with myself: One chapter of my friend's book for each pitch letter I send. Seems reasonable; I'll get on that. Right after I brush the cats...

Brand New Day

Although I understand the inclination to start a new calendar year with a new plan, I've never been one to make resolutions. There's nothing wrong with specific goals concerning diet, exercise, creative output, etc., but I don't like to stuff all of that into the beginning of January and hit start. I'd rather take some time to think about my intentions for the coming block of time we label a 'year.' How do I want to feel? What do I want to happen over the next twelve months?

Of course it's easy to get carried away, over-promise and take on too much...I'll do Daily Burn every day, and write a blog post every day, AND send out pitch letters every week...uh yeah...maybe I'll start will realistic goals. I do want to continue to make time to write, which means making space for the muse, who as any artist knows, will show up when (s)he damn well pleases.

Looking at the blank slate of the first month of the coming new year, I'm setting the following intentions:

·         Listen more than talk

·         Make time and space for the muse

·         Observe rather than react

·         Make more time for friends and family

·         Celebrate more

Resolutions need to be kept or we've failed. Intentions can be meditated upon and unfolded as we move through time. The empty page of a new year simmers with possibilities and shines with unlimited potential. 2015, bring it.

Everybody’s Talkin’

As much as I like to joke about the devolving of language being a sign of the coming apocalypse, I have to admit that I'm fascinated by slang. Typing that sentence made me think I should look into the source of the word itself. A quick search of a few online dictionaries revealed that the origin is uncertain, but I did run across a great quote by Carl Sandburg: "Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work." I'm inclined to agree; sometimes, the perfect word is an informal one.

OxfordDictionaries.com's recent quarterly update resulted in about 1000 new terms, including abbreviations and acronyms. So where do these new words come from? What makes a given term come into popular use over another? Social media is obviously the chief instrument in the perpetuation of new slang, but why do certain words become so popular? Do they show up in song lyrics? Celebrity tweets?

Here's a partial list of some of my favorite new additions:

Al desko: Adjective and adverb. Food eaten at one's desk in an office. I've done this way too much lately.

Crony Capitalism: Noun. An economic system characterized by close, mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials. Did it really take this long to be recognized?

Five-second rule: Noun. A notional rule stating that food which has been dropped on the ground will still be uncontaminated and therefore safe to eat if it is retrieved within five seconds. Again, I thought this one would have been recognized years ago.

MAMIL: Noun. Middle-aged Man in Lycra. A very keen road cyclist, typically one who rides an expensive bike and wears the type of clothing associated with professional cyclists. Anyone who has been on the American River Bike Trail has seen these creatures.

Here are a few I could do without:

Duck face: Noun. An exaggerated pouting expression in which the lips are thrust outwards, typically made by a person posing for a photograph. No. Comment.

Tomoz: Adverb. An abbreviation of 'tomorrow.' You're seriously too busy (or lazy) for that extra syllable?

Xlnt: Adjective. An abbreviation of 'excellent.' Buy a vowel. PLEASE.

I don't necessarily want to see slang creeping into formal communication, and I'm well aware of the fact that the reading level of the average daily newspaper has fallen to about sixth grade, but slang is fun. Language is a living, evolving thing, endlessly fascinating to the word nerds among us.

Cold Realities

I just finished reading The Missing Place, by Sophie Littlefield, and I know it's going to stay with me. After so many decades of voracious reading, twenty-plus years in the book biz and a lifetime achievement award for book geekdom, I've read countless fabulously, well-written, totally engrossing books. I can't necessarily tell you exactly what it is about a given story that will ensure I keep thinking about it after turning the final page, but I always know when I'm reading one and The Missing Place is such a book. 

The cold, empty landscape of North Dakota is the perfect backdrop for Littlefield's tale that brings together two very different women and makes them unlikely allies. In fact, the harsh, desolate landscape of Lawton, ND is as much a character as rough-around-the-edges Shay and genteel, cashmere-clad Colleen. United by the pressing, panicked need to find their missing sons, Colleen and Shay navigate unfamiliar territory, dead ends and corporate bureaucracy as they search for their sons who disappeared from their jobs as workers on an oil rig. Littlefield has created complex characters that are at once sympathetic and bordering on unlikeable. Sharp, streetwise Shay is quick to judge and not shy about speaking her mind, and yet she insists Colleen share her tiny, rented motorhome moments after they meet. Privileged, well-heeled Colleen spends her first hours in Lawton in a daze, as if she cannot believe people live that way, and yet, she recognizes that Shay’s quick wit is the key to her survival.

As the women delve deeper into the mystery of their sons' disappearances, learn how far the oil company will go to keep secrets and discover their boys have secrets of their own, they begin to understand that their love for their sons and the need to discover the truth makes them far more alike than either is comfortable admitting. The Missing Place is not only a story of revenge and redemption, but also of confronting the realities of the self, especially those that may be at odds with what is seen in the mirror.

Paperback Writer

Book geek that I am, I still get a little thrill from meeting an author and getting an autographed book. I walked away from last month's NCIBA trade show with a nice stack, thanks to the author reception after the show. One of the writers I met that night, Sophie Littlefield, included a little note of encouragement with her signature, as my friend Cheri told her I'd written my first book. I fought the impulse to argue, to offer some sort of disclaimer, instead giving an uneasy smile. This woman is a real, published author. Proof of her craft was in my hand. My "book" is still just a word doc taking up space on my computer. Can I really call it a book? Ms. Littlefield told me she'd sent out over 80 pitches before she'd landed an agent and her first book wasn't published until she'd written another.

I wonder if she knows how far her saying "keep at it" went toward re-kindling the fire that got me to the end of my submission draft. I pushed hard, for a long time, to finish the first draft, then a second, and then another. Then, after a flurry of agent pitch letters, some that went unanswered, some that resulted in, "Thanks, but no thanks," and two that expressed a desire to see more of my work (but ultimately went nowhere), I just had to set the whole thing aside. I was tired of re-reading and fussing with it, tired of thinking about it, tired of reading about yet another "fool-proof" way to land a book deal. But something happened that night at the author reception. I looked around the room and told Cheri, that I wanted to sit in that room, next to a publisher rep (many of whom are friends) and sign copies of my book. "So make it happen," she said with a smile.

That's the plan. Authors must be their own marketers these days, and as much as I dislike marketing—I get quite enough of it in the day gig—if I really want this as much as I say I do...back to it I go. Coming up, more agent letters. Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? 

I'm so Tired

In in the midst of yet another retail holiday, I'm trying to balance left brain tasks (keeping track of the production schedule and managing the site change calendar) with right brain (writing copy and creative for graphics). Rapidly switching between the two can be challenging on a good day. On a crazy-busy day full of executives changing direction and mindset it can feel nearly impossible. My brain (both sides) is tired. I needed to write some email copy yesterday morning and I had nothing. Not a great state to find myself in at the beginning of November.

After years in marketing, I'm mostly used to trying to be creative on demand and fit into given parameters. A unique, compelling email subject line in 36 characters or less? Okay. Headlines for site graphics, six words maximum? No problem. But I'm going to be grammatically correct if it kills me, and yes, it does matter. A boss I worked for years ago liked to tell me, "This is advertising, not English class." Um, okay...but I'm not going to perpetuate any word crimes just because everyone else does. My current pet peeve is the overuse of "gift" as a verb, as in "holiday gifting." Really? My boss wanted me to use the word in that context in an email subject line the other day. I told him it would cost him and I wasn't kidding.

As I was pondering why I care, and wondering why I can't just churn out mediocre copy about products I'm not emotionally attached to, I remembered a story I heard on NPR a few years ago about a technical writer who had just won a national poetry prize, in the first contest she'd entered. The interviewer wondered how a technical writer had come to be a poet and asked if it was difficult to go back to a cut and dried tech piece after writing a poem. The writer's response has stayed with me: "You have to engage your audience no matter what you’re writing." Oh. And duh. It doesn't matter what I'm writing about, or who is (or isn't) going to read it. I just need to work my craft and keep getting better at it.