Attitude Adjustment

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When some people have needed my help, I have felt honored to give generously. For example, going in with others to raise money to offset extraordinary medical expenses for a family. I have campaigned and ridden my bike for such causes.

But when it came to spending time with a grumpy old man, with few teeth, who sat in a padded wheelchair, I resisted. He looked liked he'd been that way for quite a while. His clothes twisted around him, his ankles scrawny. Perhaps he'd grown used to the way he looked. Or didn't care. Don't we create our own situations? Reap what we sow? I noticed his dirt-encrusted fingernails, and cringed at the thought of germs.

I offered an artificial smile, and sat down beside him. I was only doing this because I had volunteered. My attitude could have used an adjustment.

However, after spending time with him, he became...well, interesting.

Once he ran a Ferris wheel in an amusement park. He said he used to own a red 57 Oldsmobile, and cruised downtown looking for hot chicks. I laughed at the absurdity of that image compared to how he looked now. When he was a boy, he had milked cows by hand before school. He liked his coffee strong. And he had served in the Korean War.

At some point that afternoon, I stopped noticing his shabby clothes, or the mis-shaven face.

I began to see the person instead of the circumstances.

I left there, a more caring person. And visited him the following week.

Good Book(s)

Anybody else out there need a break from stress? Three things that work for me. Read a good book, take a trike ride, and play with mini schnauzers. Because stress can get messy. Like peanuts in a blender.

Hey, even pleasure can stress us out. How many of you ever needed a vacation from a vacation? Pleasant things in excess, can tie knots in our nervous system too. That's where good books come in.

I have a passion to write, and read good books. After writing a nonfiction, two short story fictions, and one of the stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Hope and Miracles, I took a deep breath, like a runner at the finish line. And decided not to stop. I'm writing not one, but two mystery novels at the same time. Life is busy. Yours is too, I'll bet.

   transports like a good book

 We love our trikes. I used to think trikes are for “old” people. Not anymore. There's a whole world out there to explore and riding trikes is a relaxing way to subdue stress. The smell of nature, especially in spring with flowers, and the soil shifting under new growth. It's like a scene from a good book, transporting us into a new world where anything is possible.

Better than a good book, is that we will become new parents to two mini schnauzers, February fifth. Two boys, Max and Cooper. Ken has already ordered the trike cart that will carry our little guys

Good Book(s)

Focus

Learning to write, means learning to think like a scene director, who plans where the main focus runs and then skims over mundane activities, or events that are not integral to the storyline.

However, in critical scenes, the director slows the action to focus on the teeniest details of bright or muted color, looming shapes, the size of things, describing an abhorent odor or sweet aroma.

The director may itemize what disgusting articles make up the trash, if a character heard a soft whisper, or a frightening crash.

Using various senses, the director adjusts darkness and light, gives a character a pounding heartbeat, a catch of breath, a cut, a caress. Whatever it is, every nuance, every detail increases the reader's excitement and expectancy. And the master director builds her spellbinding story.

So you are not a playdirector or writer. Learn to capture the details of ordinary things anyway. It will increase your creative AWE and appreciation of life on this earth. The miracles and beauty we normally forget to see, suddenly inspire us.

An Emblematic Element for Writers

Have you ever gotten excited about something and can’t get past it? I feel I’ve discovered a real bonus for my writing, using emblematic elements to dramatically perfect those background or dry talking scenes.  It’s a lot of fun. One way to use these elements, (and this comes from my brilliant mentor, Dr. John Yeoman and The Writers Village) is setting up elements to denote the scene. When writing a background scene, which can be boring, one way to make it more interesting, is to add some action. A symbolic gesture or deed that restates the meaning in the scene.

Not only does it add tension, it emphasizes a key idea in that scene.

Suppose you have one character, Evan sitting in a coffee shop, talking to a second character and someone walks past bumping into Evan, slopping his coffee on his sleeve. That produces a little tension and adds interest. Especially if the scene is about Evan going through a tough time at work, “getting bumped around.”

If you take this idea and play with it, you might come up with interesting ways to improve your own scenes. For me, it’s like adding chords to a melody line. It fleshes out the song. Thank you, Dr. Yeoman!

Just finished reading two books that I recommend: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx and Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell. And I have to admit I love Janet Evanovich’s books. Finished Notorious Nineteen. She always makes me laugh.
Out loud!

Checkout Line Speed Bumps

I stopped to pick up a few things at the grocery store and had just enough time to dash in for a loaf of bread and some dishwashing detergent and still arrive at my meeting on time. As I approached the checkout counter, another woman with a cart heaping with groceries beat me to it. No problem, I thought, it’s still the shortest line.

The woman unloaded her groceries one item at a time, walking around her basket and back to the counter in the most inefficient way possible.  After that she stood watching the clerk ring up each item until the final tally displayed on the customer screen. Tapping the screen, the woman protested the price of one item claiming it was on sale. The clerk turned on her light for a price check, dug the item out of the bag and waited. Two minutes later a young man took the item and left, returning after several minutes later to say the item had rung up properly. Following that there was a short debate that ended when
the customer decided she didn’t want it, so it was deleted from her total.  Now that she was satisfied, she opened her baggage-sized hand bag and burrowed around until she came up with a fist full of coupons taking her time to straighten each one before handing it over to the clerk.
 
The line grew longer and her groceries sat in her cart completely bagged. Once again she dug deep into her oversized bag. After excavating her wallet, she searched her credit cards until she found the right one.  Exacerbated shoppers standing in line, shifted their weight, looked around, wondering, What’s the big hold up? The woman, oblivious to it all, made several attempts at swiping her card and meticulously wrote her signature across the screen. When I thought she was finished, she decided to reshuffle some bills in her wallet and fold her receipt into thirds. Finally burying her wallet in her purse, she adjusted her shoulder strap and pushed her basket towards the door.
 
I glanced at my watch and sighed. This always happens when I am in a hurry as if it were some law of nature. And here’s the kicker. She was not a senior citizen, just an irritating “grocery line speed bump.”