There’s a hierarchy when it comes to landing that first job. Remember your first job as a teenager? Mine was slinging popcorn and sodas at a movie theater and working as a junior employee at a department store in the mall.
That First Writing Job
There’s a hierarchy when it comes to landing that first job. Remember your first job as a teenager? Mine was slinging popcorn and sodas at a movie theater and working as a junior employee at a department store in the mall.
Interview with Gwen Gardner: Fall 2020 Flash Fiction Runner Up
Gwen Gardner writes clean, cozy, lighthearted mysteries with a strong ghostly element. Since ghosts feature prominently in her books, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face—but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does.
The Little Book of Big Knowing by Michele Sammons Blog Tour (and giveaway!)
- It includes gentle reminders of why you are here, who you are at your core, and why your dreams matter to more than just you.
- This book will help you to look at life in a light-hearted, joyful way. Consider it spirituality with a playful twist!
- And the best part is, the book is written in short bursts you can read in any order. So you can pick it up, read a little bit, put it down, and come back to it when you’re ready for more!
Interview with Sue Hann, Runner Up in the WOW! Q1 Creative Nonfiction Contest
A Change
It's no secret, I've loved Cheryl Crow forever...like since back in the day when people purchased compact discs and put them on repeat in their boom boxes! I was already smitten back in 2002 when I pre-ordered a copy of the Soak Up the Sun CD and listened to it all the way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for spring break and then all the way back home to Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I'd smile so big while singing along with the sultry singer/songwriter "I've got a crummy job..." and "I'm still the king of me..." oh those were the days.
Fast forward to today's technology driven world (don't worry, I still have my old CD's in a case although my boom box has been retired) and I can listen to the wise words of Crow while vacuuming. My oldest daughter even taught me how to create an Apple playlist and my pre-teen son showed me how to adjust the volume right on my watch - who knew? I was supposed to be working on my writing earlier this week and nothing was clicking, so like any mother of 6 I took a break to clean my house. If there's ever a sure thing with this many people in a house - it's the fact something is going to be dirty and need cleaning. Even if you just cleaned, trust me...there will be SOMEthing in need of attention.
So...this song comes through my ear buds:
Maybe I'm not out of ideas. Maybe my talent hasn't faded.
Maybe I just need to make a few changes to spark my inner writer!
Shown from left to right: Delphine riding Honey Mr. Otto holding Eudora Crystal riding Marv. Thank you Forward Farm, LLC |
You can find Crystal milking cows, riding horses, and the occasional unicorn (not at the same time), taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books here, and at her own blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade and she has never (not once) been accused of being normal!
Friday Speak Out!: There Is No Such Thing as Time, There Are Only Cycles and Seasons
by Deirdra Eden
The first step to controlling time is to realize that the concept of time, as we have been taught, is only a mortal construct. It is the attempt by humans to exert a measure of control over the natural world and calculate the intangible flow of cycles and seasons.
However, this method painfully disconnects creators from natural energy cycles in order to conform to the eight-hour work shifts and deadlines of corporate and industrial productivity. Creative people don’t always work within finite mathematical boundaries.
Just like the earth, creativity also goes through seasons. Spring has fertile newness with exciting potential. Summer is the height of growth. Autumn is harvest time. And winter allows you to rest and gain strength again.
Creative cycles can be born through weeks of preparation or instantly when an idea strikes or you wake up from an inspiring dream.
This young creative idea is fresh, new, and exciting. Even though the creative project is in the fragile beginning stages, the creator feels a drive to enhance it and help it blossom into a full-grown creation that will produce beauty and/or bounty.
Summer
During this peak time, creators do their best work. You do not feel the panic or doubt of developing a newborn idea. You are often absorbed in the work and can experience adrenaline rushes and extra energy that will drive you to stay up late, get up early, skip meals, and take time off from other activities to work on the project. Sometimes you will have euphoric thoughts about the project and its success.
Autumn
A creator in the autumn phase of their cycle will often refine work and take time to critique it while at the same time admiring it. This is the best time to refine the work because creators can step back from the work and look at it with a critical eye without interrupting the creative flow. Then creators reap their own harvest and rewards by publishing the creation, displaying it, sharing it, selling it, or gifting it.
Winter
A natural end to a creative period is normal, yet sometimes creators will feel guilty for not working on a project or they may miss the excitement of a new project. Sometimes creativity is dormant, especially during times of stress, depression, fatigue, or illness. Sometimes creativity evolves.
Some people call this writer’s block or artist’s slum, but it is part of the natural cycle of creativity and should be embraced.
For creative people this is the time to prepare for the next project. Generally, the better the preparation, the longer the next creative lifecycle will last.
The Natural Cycle
We enter these same seasons and cycles in different phases and contexts throughout our lives and our creative journeys. Asking the question, “What season am I/is this in?” can bring a reassuring clarity to a convoluted situation.
In every phase it is important to remember that this is just a season of your life, and not your whole entire life. Give yourself grace and permission to slow down or pick up the pace depending on what is happening in your world right now and the season of your personal and creative life.
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Deirdra Eden is a social and behavioral scientist and the author of Time Management for Creative People, in which she explores the seasons, cycles, and how to be in the right mind for right-brain creators.
Website: www.DeirdraEden.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeirdraEdenWatchers/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deirdraeden/
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Preciousness of Every Word: Interview with the Mostly-Poet Olivia Braley
Do You Know What Your Story Is About? I Mean, REALLY About
Thinking up a story idea is simple. You’re staring off into space, or maybe a bizarre lovers' scene plays out in front of you, when wham-o! Now you have the spark, a gem of shining brilliance, and you know exactly what you want to write about. It’s a sultry romance! No, it’s more of a Gothic romance… or really, it could be a time-traveling horror story.
Interview with Teresa Boardman: 2020 Fall Flash Fiction Contest Third Place Winner
The Invisible Vegan Blog Tour
About the Film
The documentary begins with the personal story of Jasmine Leyva, a 30-year-old Black actress and filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles. Over the past seven years, Leyva has committed herself to veganism, both in lifestyle and research. Taking Leyva’s unhealthy childhood growing up in Washington, DC as a point of departure, the film interweaves her narrative with the professional and personal experiences of a prominent group of vegan activists. The film integrates interviews with popular culture luminaries including Cedric the Entertainer (actor and comedian), John Salley (former NBA player and wellness advocate), and Clayton Gavin (aka Stic of the hip-hop duo Dead Prez).
Statement by the Director, Jasmine Leyva
The Invisible Vegan is my first feature length film documentary project, and its emergence stems not only from my commitment to veganism, but also my investment in the possibilities of film as a medium for raising awareness, inspiring consciousness, and creating collective social experiences. It is my hope that the film will receive the widest possible audience, and catalyze productive debates about the future of food in African-American culture. I feel tremendously privileged and humbled to be working with a group of talented people whose opinions do not always reflect my own, but nonetheless, sustain the very spirit of dialogue on which this film is premised.
You can watch the film right now on TubiTV and stream on Amazon Prime.
About Jasmine Leyva
Activist, actress, and documentary filmmaker, Jasmine is passionate about veganism, social justice, and telling her own stories. With a Bachelor of Arts in TV, Film and Media and a Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting, Jasmine is unapologetically an artist. She has worked as an associate producer on a NAACP-winning docuseries entitled Unsung and has written and produced for Being, a docuseries highlighting dynamic entertainers in film and music.
Jasmine ultimately decided to let go of her nine-to-five and focus on her goals with no boss except for her own creativity. She went on to produce her own feature-length documentary, The Invisible Vegan, a film that chronicles her personal experience with plant-based eating. The film also explains how plant-based eating is directly linked to African roots and how African-American eating habits have been debased by a chain of oppression.
You can find her online at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasmine_c_leyva
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminecleyva/
WOW: First, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today! What inspired you to create the documentary The Invisible Vegan?
-----Blog Tour Dates
Emmy-Nominated Writer Discusses Her Runner-Up Essay About Her Brother
We are happy to talk with Debbie Kasper today--a two-time Emmy-nominated writer, comedian, and multiple award-winning writer/performer. Before you read the chat below, please click here to read, "My Big Tree," her runner-up essay in the 2021 Quarter 1 Creative Nonfiction Contest.
She has written for the seminal TV shows, Roseanne and The Rosie O’Donnell Show. As a solo artist, Debbie won the prestigious Drama Logue award for “Best written solo show” in Los Angeles, and last year, she was honored with the “Best Comedian” prize at the United International Solo Fest in NYC for her performance in Has Anybody Seen Debbie?
Her humorous personal essays have appeared in multiple anthologies and on numerous websites. Her solo shows, two-person shows, stand-up, and her musical, BoomerMania, were reviewed as, “Brilliant,” “A masterpiece,” “Hilarious,” “Fresh, and standard-setting,” by over a dozen major papers across the country. Debbie’s recently published memoir, “You’re Not That Pretty,” & Other Things My Parents Told Me is also garnering rave reviews. She’s already been hailed a “female David Sedaris.”
Debbie is also a renowned comedy and writing teacher who currently lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at: www.DebbieKasper.com. She’s happiest writing and performing her personal creative essays, and spreading joy, one story at a time.
Debbie: Yes, 1000 words is a challenge, but so is 2000, and 3000--it’s all a challenge. You have to just keep re-writing, and whittling it down. I basically started with my brother’s death, and the subsequent penny in the shift plate, which was all true, and exactly as written, then traced back to what it might’ve meant. I let things percolate; I walk away until something forms creatively, and hopefully metaphorically, and then I go back in. I have many, many more stories about Reid which are in my memoir. He is definitely worth much more than 1000 words.
WOW: I like that you started with a point you knew you wanted to include and let things percolate. That seems like a very good method for writers, actually. Your essay is touching and funny! How did you work humor into this essay and why?
WOW: So true. I love the moments with my friends and family when I am laughing so hard that I am crying. Tell us about the title of your essay, "My Big Tree." I love it. Did you come up with the title right away? Or did that take some brainstorming? How important are titles for personal essays?
Debbie: Sometimes my titles literally come to me in an instant, and I can write from there. Other times, I write the story, and start searching for what it is, and what to name it. I’ve tried out a few titles for just about every creative essay I’ve written. I’m a chronic rewriter. I rewrite more than I write, it seems. As I was working through this particular story, the symbol of the tree in Yosemite being so big and eternal, and my brother being this larger than life “tree” in my life, came into focus through the storm of ideas. There, they both remain, always standing, always protecting, always eternally with me, even after death.
WOW: So beautiful, and we are so glad you entered it into WOW!'s contest. You have quite a bio, including writing for TV shows everyone has heard of and being nominated for Emmys. So what kind of writing are you mostly doing now? Has the pandemic affected what you are writing?
Debbie: Having “quite a bio” is French for AGING!!! I have a lot of friends, too. Things collect and gather as you spin past decades. I’m currently working on a screenplay based on the story in my memoir about finding out I had a half-sister when I was thirteen, and the impact she had on me—growing up in a houseful of boys, and two extremely critical parents. And ever since I discovered my inner essay writer, I have fallen in love with the freedom of that genre. I like to tap into my rebellious artistic spirit and just WRITE…..
WOW: That sounds so interesting--finding out about an unknown sister. I know that'a a thing that girls with only brothers often hope for. So let's talk about your recently published memoir. Congratulations! How is that going? What are some themes in your memoir?
Debbie: My memoir, “You’re Not That Pretty,” & Other Things My Parents Told Me (perhaps my proudest accomplishment to date) is a collection of personal essays (stories) with the theme of bad advice from parents, and how that tangles me up throughout my life. It’s funny, poignant, and ultimately very tragic at times. It’s really about my indomitable spirit overcoming some very old and limiting beliefs. Children hear everything you say to them from the moment they begin to comprehend, and it gets lodged in their sub-conscience. That becomes the weave of who we are. The feedback has been beyond my wildest dreams, hearing over and over again, that I have moved people, emotionally, and that it's not "just funny." When you perform (which is my background), you can only entertain and move people at that moment. When you publish something, you’re able to reach out and touch someone while you’re in bed, sleeping. I love that.
3 Things to Do When Your Routine Is Broken
... something new and amazing. |
Step Back from Your Routine
Talking to Your Fellow Writers
Be Willing to Improvise
Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 27 books for young readers. To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.
Sue is also the instructor for Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins April 5, 2021) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins April 5, 2021). Her new course, Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work will begin on June 7, 2021).