Social Distancing and Staying Busy

Photo by Leeanne Dodge

As we all do our part to participate in social distancing and stay at home, the issue becomes how to fill our time and stay productive.

I think the biggest thing we can do is to develop a routine for the day. This happens to also be one of the things that successful people do anyway, so why not.

I've decided that this is an excellent time to develop a daily writing habit. Between working a full-time job for over 40 years and last year's medical issues, I had not worked this into my regular schedule. This year, however, I am changing everything. I put in for retirement and started doing water aerobics. Then comes the social distancing, and out goes the water aerobics. There are, however, yoga and exercise videos on Youtube. Not quite the same, but they work.

For me, the routine I'm developing is a daily exercise video, an or more hour writing, a little housework (have to keep up the basics anyway), walk to the mailbox, read a book. They say if you want to write, you need to read. The other thing I'm doing to keep busy is online courses. I've been interested in creating one, so I've been researching that as well as taking some. Time is also filled up with Facetime calls to the grandkiddos and texting with friends. I even watched a live Facebook video when a friend fed her goats. Okay, okay, watching goats eat breakfast can get you off schedule a bit. Apparently, goats aren't into social distancing.  I'm still working on doing these things every day, but at least I'm heading in the right direction.

Another way to keep on track with your writing goals is to use NaNoWriMo. They are currently running a program called StayHomeWriMo (Stay Home and Write More). Their website has lots of information and checklists with ideas. You can join one of their communities and converse with fellow writers about things that interest you, including general conversation, characters, and more. They are providing daily writing tips for both your creative well-being and your social well-being, examples are below.

Creative Well-Being 🧐
Writing Prompt: Interview one of your own characters about what their social-distancing experience would look like.

Social Well-Being 👋
If you're not a caretaker and you're able to, offer to video chat with a toddler or child. Sing songs, play a game, let them give you a tour of their toys.

Have a productive and safe month.

Linda Sue

Writing is a craft

Margie Yee-Webb, Marsha Dowd, Lynn Tosello, Teresa LeYung-Ryan
March 2016 North State Writers meeting

A couple of years ago I had the privilege of listening to Teresa LeYung-Ryan and Margie Yee-Webb when they spoke at a meeting of North State Writers. They gave us a presentation on Teresa's book "Build Your Writers' Platform & Fanbase in 22 days". It brought home this blog post I wrote but hadn't posted yet so I decided to go ahead and post it.

How many times have you heard that writing is a craft? I'm not sure I truly understood this until I started writing myself. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. In other words, write, write, write, the more you write the more creative you become and the better the end result will be. I am loving the journey I've started. It helps to consult with the experts and I wanted to share a few books that have helped me.

There are so many books out there it's difficult to make a list of all of them but here are a few I've read over the years that I feel have helped me with life in general, business or the craft of writing:

Probably not complete and in no particular order:

• The Secret
• The E Myth, Michael E. Gerber
• 10 Things a Millionaire Taught Me, Richard Paul Evans
• Multiple Streams of Income, Robert G. Allen
• Between the Lines, Jessica Morrell
• Writing Subtext, Dr. Linda Seger
• The 3a.m. Epiphany, Brian Kiteley
• Book in A Month - Great tips on organizing your process and on creating characters. Once I retire I should be able to I can find the time to write one in a month. I'll have to try Nanowrimo someday.
• Anything in the genre you are writing in

If you have any other suggestions please share them, I am always looking for the next great read. Hope these help you on your own journey wherever you are headed, keep writing and reading.

Linda Sue Forrister

Author of  "The Poisoned Queen, A Joe Fish Adventure" (coming soon)

Powell's Books

Only half thinking it would be a different experience I walked into Powell's flagship store in Portland, Oregon and immediately knew it was unlike any other bookstore.

Lost in color coded rooms, it's much  more entertaining to explore them rather than asking directions. Except perhaps when you need to find the restroom, then ask for directions.

The Rose room on the first floor with light streaming thru the windows. Children are invited to just sit and read on the reading carpet. Tables and chairs just their size.

Floor to ceiling and shelf after shelf, volumes of books to escape in, travel to another world or another time.

The Gold Room has cookbooks, gardening, home repairs, music and more.

The Blue Room for Sci-Fi (my personal favorite for reading).

We all know people (including ourselves) who need help but who knew there were so many books on psychology in the Purple room.

Police procedures, murder mysteries, plot design, publishing guides, amazon marketing, character creation, it goes on and on. It was interesting to see that I already owned about five of the titles on writing.

I will make a trip back when I can spend more time browsing. The daughters and the grandchildren were patient but probably enjoyed the trip to Voodoo Donuts more than the one to
Powell's.

Bucket Lists and Zip Lines

Skamania Zip Lines - Washington

Bucket lists can include many things. It never occurred to me to put zip lining on my list and I never thought it was something I would actually do.

Peer pressure applied by grandchildren is a powerful motivator, along with the fact that the opportunity would most likely never arise again.

Hannah and Savannah, our zip line tour guides, were patient, kind and helpful to a Grandma with bad knees. It wasn't easy to climb up the steps to hook up to the line.  Let alone "zip-away" as our guides would say to each other.

"Let go of the rope" the son-in-law says.

"Easier said than done" I squeal in mid-zip.

The most difficult task was the transfer to the ground  after zipping to the first few platforms and letting go of those pesky control issues. Stepping off a perfectly good platform high above the ground and trusting that the tiny little rope would actually lower you gently to the ground. Turns out I was right, well at least half right, as I landed on my rear end instead of my feet. Fortunately, only my pride was injured but I was vindicated when the son-in-law had a similar landing. BOOM!

Seven platforms into our adventure I was able to open my eyes and at least let go of the rope with one arm for a few seconds and then we were done.

While zip lining is not for everyone, and I did enjoy the swinging bridges, however, I don't think I will repeat the experience. I'm glad I was able to finish the entire course and face some of my fears and let go just a little bit.

Pink

Pink is such a beautiful color for flowers (it happens to be my favorite) and May is the perfect time to “stop and smell the roses” as my husband is always telling our grandchildren. Try to find time to sit a garden. Close your eyes and use your senses. What do you hear? What do you smell?

You aren’t done yet, get out your pen and paper (or laptop/tablet) and write it out. Describe it as though you were telling someone who couldn’t see it, hear it or smell it. Good writing includes sensory descriptions to pull the reader into the scene and keep them engaged and interested.

Writing is an expression of both who we are and who we want to be.

Enjoy your month writing and work on those sensory descriptions.

Linda Sue Forrister

Co-author of "Those Meyerson Women" (a work in progress)