Forgetting to Take My Own Advice

Yesterday I literally forgot to take my own advice.

I left home without a notebook. When I coach people who are writing or creating something new, I tell them to have a notebook on them at all times. (Or a cell phone they can talk into and use as a recording device.) Not only is a notebook a great way to catch ideas, thoughts and impressions, it's also a heads-up to yourself that you are officially paying attention and the world around you is your material.

The notebook can be the accessory that says: We're writing now. Or simply, We're engaged in life in a new way. Even if you don't use it for months. It will get to you sooner or later.

So there I was, chugging up a merciless hill on a  listless afternoon run, and out of the sky KERPLONK -- one idea after another. One, two, three -- they dropped like playful balls of delight from heaven into my head.

It made me think of something I read by Barbara Kingsolver years ago, in which she talks about the great writing ideas she missed when she was too busy tending to babies and other daily life stuff to write them down -- and they became dust kitties that rolled under the bed to stay. But she caught enough and made it a writing life,  obviously

Well, we all do our best.

Of course I don't run with a notebook. But it's a great idea. And as the ideas came -- for blog postings and workshop ideas and god-knows-what-else, I could feel them pass through my body and roll out onto the ground and down Madrona Hill. In a panic I started to count the ideas that traveled through. There were 3. Or 4, I think.

The only thing I could remember of all my ideas that had me energized and excited and panting with creative lust -- is the one about Forgetting.

It did get me thinking about invigorating my lackluster runs with the right  contraption that fits a tiny notebook and my camera -- now that would be a cool adventure run.

But that original run got me thinking about how slippery memory is: Forgetting how that great movie or favorite book ended; or what that book was about (I'll remember a scene and basta); what day it was; the name of my favorite song that has a "p" in there somewhere; what I did last weekend; Or, I might forget if I had that conversation or just played it out so lucidly in my mind that i's almost as if it did happen.

Then I remembered Billy Collins' poem, Forgetfulness -- which makes it all seem okay.

The Writing Gym Is Open

It's time for a little announcement: TOOT TOOT. The Writing Gym is open! This one focuses on blogging.

Here's what membership entails. Plus: It's almost stinkin' free for the month of February.  

So who joins this gym? Writers and professionals who have started a blog that supports a business, a book idea or to share ideas and experiences—and would like to keep the damn thing going!

The benefits of membership?

• You want the kind of playful kick in your pants that will get—and keep—your writing going, and help your blog grow and develop into something exciting and suprising.
• You could use both 1) coaching to move past the fear and stuck spots and 2) writing tips and creative idea generating.
• You'd like to be part of a community of writers—but without it being a time drain or even having to leave home.
•  You'd like to find the right first-person voice that feels comfortable—and supports the purpose of your blog.
• You’d like to get over the fear of being exposed in public as a writer.
•  You'd like to know how on earth you can keep coming up with ideas, topics and different ways to write your pieces.

What a Writing Gym Membership includes: 

• 1 x month group coaching call: 12pm – 1pm Pacific time, the last Thursday of the month. Includes: A short talk on a writing issue; Q&As and some writing time. Each call will end with an assignment for writers to bring to their blogs the  next month. (The calls will be recorded.)
•  Bi-weekly "try-this" emails with a tip or idea to use in your writing.
• Feedback on one one-page piece of writing/month
• Unlimited email access
• Cost: $15 for February. $32/month through July.

To get the most out of your membership 

Be  prepared to give a minimum of two hours a month to your writing. This includes the one-hour phone call. Be prepared to write a minimum of one blog posting a month.  The gym will help you find a way to sustain your blog writing in a way that works for your life, schedule and personality.  All you have to do is be committed to giving it a shot and seeing the fun in it.

The point here is to get strong, sinewy writing muscles and have a great time doing it.  To join the gym, email me to sign up:

tatyana@tatyanamishel.com

COMING SOON: Paypal and a proper online sign up form.THANK YOU! 

A Writing Kick Start: Write With Others, Alone

You know how it is when you haven't written for a while?

Sounds of creak creak coming from the creative well and whispers of Can I still do this rising from the doubting monkey mind.

On December 30, I wrote my first poem of 2009. In past years I've written almost daily and now I felt like a deer in headlights: Where to start?

I had to put on my coaching hat and do what I'd suggest others do to get back on the pony: Get on the back of another poem (you can do this for any other genre too.)

Here's how I got back on the Poetry Pony:

• Went to Poetry Daily to get  a poem. Thankfully it was a poem by a poet I love, Frank Bidart.
• Went to my local cafe and sat down with a printed out copy of the poem. I read it and then wrote to it line-by-line with this formula: I inverted every word and phrase of Bidart's poem.
• Wrote to the end and then started to revise.
• Did I feel incompetent and out of shape and frustrated? HELL NO. It felt damn good to sit there communing with poetry. If you were at the Madison Park Starbucks on Dec 30th, and saw a woman sitting by a window with tears in her eyes, well -- that was me.

Most of the time we're writing, it's the process that matters. We can pull in our critical selves when it's time to do the revising and editing and prep a piece for public viewing. Until then, what matters is the doing, discovering, playing. Lock the judge in her bedroom until you're ready for her. But back to kick starting yourself.

Use other writers and poems/paragraphs as scaffolding

Use other writers, their work -- or some of your previous work -- as support, a writing partner or scaffolding.

Write in between the lines of a poem: write your version of each image or phrase; write the opposite, (as I did in the above example); use the lines  simply as company so you don't have white space in front of you.

Or, write your version of the next line of that poem all the way through. When you're done, remove the original poem and see what you have. Even if it feels like it's going to be nonsensical, you'll be surprised.

If you're a prose writer, take a paragraph you love from an essay or novel and do your version of the same.

Even if you're spending time copying the work of a fave writer all you're doing is giving yourself a writing work out and learning from a pro. Consider it skill-building.

The point is usually to Just Write

And if it helps to write with someone else's poem or opening novel paragraph or brilliant essay passage, do it.

You don't have to do it alone, you know.

Have fun!

Because We're All Writers

Are you a writer? Hell yeah!

In today's world where most of us spend our days writing emails and status reports, texts, tweets, blogs, and simply expressing ourselves and our ideas and intentions with colleagues and friends in some form of written communication -- we're all writers. Or what I call everyday writers.

On this note, I'd like to announce that going forward, my coaching is going to focus on helping people with their writing lives.

So, Tatyana Mishel Coaching is now called Everyday Writer: Coaching for People Who Write. People who write = everyone from formalist poets to creative professionals, solopreneurs and anyone who wants to have a more confident or playful or expressive relationship to their daily writing life, whatever that may be (writing poems, status reports, emails, love letters, blogs, business Web sites).

The coaching work  focuses on everything from how to write with more ease and find your voice to personal coaching around creative blocks and time management.

One of my projects, along with coaching packages, is to create a Writing Gym -- a place where people can come together to work their writing muscle in a community and get tips and support and helpful perspectives on expressing themselves in their perfect voice and learning to fly with it. 

This is all new and if you'd like to be a part of it and let me know what you think as it moves along I welcome your thoughts!  I'm in the process of  updating the Web site content to reflect the writing focus.

Here's to all your creative, expressive endeavors -- personal and professional! Because you are creative.

The (Easy) Art of Conversational Writing

Web sites, email, blogs, Twitter, Facebook -- everyone's a writer these days. And it's a good thing. The tricky issue becomes: How do you sound like you when you write?

The growing trend of entrepreneurs means a lot more people are going to have to do writing that really matters. Because Web-based bizzies are built on words rather than brick and mortar. And for any of us moving through the modern world we know it: Words matter.

First things first on the topic of finding your voice:

You already have a voice.

And now you get to learn how to harness that perfect unique voice and put it into your writing.

So we can really call this How to Sound Like Yourself When You Write and Not Sound Like Your Copy Came out of Some  Biz Writing Manufacturing Plant. A few things happen when you start writing in a natural way. The process becomes easier, the flow is more conversational and everyone gets along better. And … you may even (get ready for this)  like it.

Remember, you’re having a conversation

Here at Write Now, we concentrate on crafting profitable and engaging conversations between you, the brilliant creative biz owner and your perfect customers. The more naturally you write, the better the experience for everyone involved.

So, here are some tips for conversational writing.

Rule #1: Write the way you speak

If you find yourself writing sentences you wouldn’t say out loud in a million years, scrap ‘em. If you’re stuck, pretend you’re speaking to your perfect customer. Speak out loud. Write that instead. When you write how you speak you are literally catching your voice. 

 Remember: If you throw your personality out the window when you sit down to write (and you’re going to hear me say this a lot), you sound like everyone else out there. And probably like you have a twig up your arse and don’t have many original thoughts or ideas. When you get comfortable writing closer to the way you speak you sound like yourself. Voice!

I’m on a mission, I admit, to free the entire world of this kind of shit: Our B2B bandwidth modalities incentivize our customers to reuptake their inhibitors through maximizing our polarity torts. This kind of writing is a sin against nature, and I don’t even believe in sin.

Rule #2: Use grammar-of-the-day

If you’re at a grammar crossroads, go with conversational grammar over Strunk & White or AP rules. Again, we’re having conversations here, not applying for a copy editor’s gig at the New York Times.

 Example: Instead of writing With which hand did you pick up the tennis ball? go with Which hand did you pick up the tennis ball with? Yes, we can end sentences with prepositions.

This is not to say I approve in any way of this kind of thing: Me and my partners would have went to the end of the world for your success …. That’s just plain bad and wrong.

Rule #3: Know when to add the needed dirt details — don’t withhold Make sure you offer information to support a detail, concept or idea when it’s needed — just as you would in a conversation. As you revise your writing, imagine the place where a live person might interrupt you and ask for more details or an explanation.  Example:

Instead of: I’ve discovered three unique ways to help business folks kick ass and move to the top of the mountain in their working life. To quote a Dale Carnegie … Write something more like: I’ve discovered three unique ways to help business folks kick ass and move to the top of the mountain in their working life. They involve discipline, a keen sense of play and wearing pink shirts, but we’ll go more into detail on that a little later. There’s this  Dale Carnegie quote … 

Whoever’s reading this will want to know something about these three unique ways ASAP. Screw Dale C. And by addressing the unique ways up front (being withholding is not a great writing tactic by the way) you get to express yourself in a true voice, just as you’d do it in conversation. And your audience can trust you’ll be hanging with them and anticipating any questions, and answering them along the way. And being yourself = authenticity = building trust.

Rule #4: Have some fun for goodness sakes we’re not saving babies here

Well some of you may be saving babies because the written word has this kind of power. But the message here is: Relax. Be yourself. Enjoy this new way of doing business that embraces authenticity and a natural writing voice. Transparency is in. And so is appropriateness and respect — as in, you may swear like a sailor with your pals but maybe not with clients – but you already know that.

Let yourself play around, experiment and enjoy the process of letting your voice out in your writing. You never know what — or who — you may discover along the way.

Truth or Dare Writing Prompt

Here's a writing prompt that's also a dare.

Write about the thing you don't want to write about.

If you need some nerve to go for it -- as I did yesterday morning -- tell yourself you can throw the pages away or delete the files the minute it's done. (Mine is still there, and not so scary or threatening or embarrassing.)

Some years ago I noticed something while standing in my kitchen staring out to the lake. There were some things -- personal traits, qualities, longings, secret desires -- that I was embarrassed to admit to myself. And at this time there was this thing aka a moment of truth I was letting myself see. I'm not going to say what it was, but seeing it let me also catch it and deal with it and move on in a positive direction. 

Once you bust something, it's hard for it to take hold of you. It can't sit there in the dark corner scaring and taunting away.

Make sense?

If it doesn't, which makes sense, it might if you start writing down all the things you don't want to write down that you might find inside that beautiful Gucci luggage.  Open it up and let yourself see something you really want or desire or dream about or are afraid of. Write out every stinking detail.

Then tomorrow, you can write about what you found there.

You may be a bit more liberated.

If you need a prompt, start with:

Nobody knows about ... or I will never tell anyone including myself about ...

Remember: writing isn't lethal. It doesn't cause illness or obesity or natural disasaters. You won't get arrested (at least in this country) for writing it down. 

Think of your writing as the key that takes you to new places: scary, perhaps -- but always someplace new and unexpected.

Happy adventuring!

What's Your Story -- In Six Words?

Hemingway allegedly said his best work was this six-word story:

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Here's one by Margaret Atwood:

"Longed for him. Got him. Shit."

Which makes me think about other ways to use a six-word story.

And when I say "story" I mean anything.  Your life story. Your state of mind; your work-life manifesto; a new-biz plan. 

The six-word story of who you are, what you're doing,  what you're trying to create, or what you've been up to for the last six months.

So what would a series of six-word stories say about your life?

OK, I'll start:

Fired! Now I can be me again.

Just launched biz. To be continued ...

I coach. You can do it.

People say they can't write. Bullshit.

After my heart broke, compassion entered.

How to start writing? Move fingers.

Time to write blog. Aaaak! Done.

Why go walking? To see herons.

So those are some of my six-word stories. How would yours go?

Drop off any of your stories in Comments.

Thanks to Sonya for inspiring the post of Six Word Stories.