Handwriting Intimacy

Remember the days when we used to know what our friends’ and loved ones’ handwriting looked like? I recently received a postcard from a friend I’ve known for a while, who was traveling overseas. I’d never seen his handwriting before. It felt like such a personal, intimate expression, especially in this modern age of emails and texts and  Times New Roman font.

This reminded me of how years ago, after the end of a relationship, I felt saddened by the fact that I had no idea what my boyfriend’s handwriting looked like -- like something vital was missing.

Handwriting feels intimate. That’s probably why you can’t beat the impact of a handwritten letter.

I wonder if I’ll ever get to know my niece and nephew’s handwriting.

Do You Stay in the Room?

A quick story of practical wisdom:

A couple years ago I was at a writer's conference, where a novelist talked about one key ingredient that makes a writer a writer -- and it wasn't about craft.

He told a story about finishing the very first paragraph of a new novel and how he wanted to race out of the room that moment and celebrate for a year. But he didn't. Instead he stayed in the room. And he returned to the room. And everytime he sat down to work on his novel and wanted to leave he stayed. Even if he didn't write.

Staying in the room is a great metaphor for anything we do with mastery and commitment. Sometimes it's called "showing up." The room can be a writing den, your job, the gym, a classroom, the kitchen--and then sometimes the "room" is the day: getting up and going out into the world when you don't want to.

Where could you stay in the room more -- to get to the next level of mastery?

Have fun -- and know you'll be squirming with many others all over the world who have chosen to stay in the room.

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! 

The Passion Problem

A while ago I was at a dinner and got cornered by a woman, newly divorced after a long marriage and a bit tipsy on wine and tequila who was in that What-Do-I-Do-Now threshold. She asked me this  question:

"Tell me, what are you passionate about?"

Oh, Jesus, I thought. Really? Aren't we past all that now? Instead I  mumbled back, "Oh, I've stopped hanging my hat on that kind of thinking." It seems everyone was chasing after passion around Y2K and now the frenzy has died.

Passion. Everyone wants it. And why? Did you know "Passion" is from the latin word "Passio" which means to Suffer? (To suffer for what you love, actually; I learned this on an Easter radio broadcast of Bach's Passion of the Christ.)

Here's my 2c: Passion doesn't have to be about WHAT you do. Why not make it about HOW you do; how you exist inside your skin and move through life and absord the world around you, connect with people you care about. Look at kids and how passionately they express themselves. They're not hanging their hats on one THING that makes them passionate. It's just how they are.

OK, so yes, I get it --  it adds purpose to life to be passionate about something. But if you can tap into a current of deep feeling and caring inside yourself, you'll find passion is tied to the simple things in life starting with being alive and connecting to whatever it is you find beautiful.

If you've lost your passion compass, my advice: Slow down and start paying attention to the little things that bring you into the moment with deep appreciation: a beautiful piece of writing, music, the sunrise, a conversation with someone you love, rewatching a favorite movie, staring at the water or your child's face. You name it.

Passion? It's inside you. Find it there first and then protect it and share it and nurture it.

And have fun with it, LOTS of fun.

How To Talk About What You Do

I wrote a post a while back on my dislike of the elevator pitch. Why do we have to sum up What We Do and Who We Are in one canned self-promoting snap? So hallelujah to my smart biz/communications consultant friend Therese Beale who helps businesses get their stories straight. She writes a great blog post on a kinder, gentler more human approach to how we talk about what we do in Skip the Elevator Pitch: What's Your Sentence?

It's important, especially as a small biz owner or an entrepreneur, to speak clearly and visually about what you do, why you do it and the killer benefits. And to convey the juice of what you do in a way that raises intrigue and antennae and gets people thinking about everyone that might need your services.

It's also important to find a way to talk about what you do in a way that feels natural and conversational and includes the other person in the conversation.

A parting hint: How do you answer "What do you do?" in a way where you're talking with someone rather than at them?

And how about experimenting  and playing around with your sentence(s) in a fun and creative way?

Have fun talking about what you do this week!

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!