amwriting · Uncategorized

Sweet Butter – The Non-Writer Writer.

A friend at work asked if he could read my short stories some time. “What stories?” I said. “I don’t really write stories anymore. Sometimes I do. But I don’t finish them. I just don’t feel compelled, really.” Admitting that I wasn’t working on anything specific used to be a moment of sickening defeat for… Continue reading Sweet Butter – The Non-Writer Writer.

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ACIM Workbook …

ACIM Workbook Lesson 84 Insights
copied and pasted from http://www.pathwaysoflight.org/acim_lessons/insights/lesson_84

Review: “Love created me like Itself.”
and “Love holds no grievances.”

With every situation, it is helpful that I remember that I am Love. With every situation, it is helpful to remember that everyone else is Love. With every situation, it is helpful to remember that only Love is real. Illusions of separation are meaningless and I do not have to give them meaning. It is when I give them meaning that I forget my Self and the Self in others.

I am here to be truly helpful. I can only be truly helpful when I allow my perceptions of distinct bodies with distinct minds to be undone by the Holy Spirit. If I am not at peace, let me remember that I am holding a grievance against the truth. Let me take that grievance to the Source of Love That shines a light on it and shows me that it is not real.

Love holds no grievances. When I hold a grievance, I am forgetting What I am. I am attacking my Self. Today I am willing to practice recognizing grievances for what they are and handing them over to the Light so that they can be undone. I am willing to focus on this practice today.

Since Love created me like Itself, and Love holds no grievances, judgment is never justified. Any time I judge, it is because I have denied What I am. I have denied my Self. It is only by Self denial that I could believe that it is possible to judge. The bodies eyes were made as instruments of judgment. They show me only differences and I have learned to label these differences. I see a shape defined by differences and I call it a piano or a tree. This instrument, designed to show me differences, was made to make the illusion of separation appear real. This is denial of my Self as Love created me.

Yet even in this world of denial it is possible to let the denial go. While it is possible to simply cease the denial, in practice the denial is let go of gradually. The sudden and complete release from the image I have made of myself would be terrifying because it would appear that I am sacrificing my identity. And so the Holy Spirit is present in my mind to teach me in every moment as I am willing to be taught.

Today I would practice, with the Holy Spirit’s help, recognizing the little grievances, the little judgments that run through my mind. I am willing to turn each of them over to the Holy Spirit for Him to shine His Light upon them and show me the truth beyond the illusion, show me the unity beyond the perception of separation and differences.

Here is peace. Here I experience the joy of connecting in Love with all that is. All conflict disappears. I see that I am one with all my brothers and our interests are the same. We are all Love and our only function is to extend that Love.

“As I look on this, let me remember my Creator.”

Thank you, Jaime Kalman, for sending me this lesson today through your own beautiful recording of the mantras. And thanks to Pathways of Life for the “Insights.”

 

amwriting · dialogue · fiction · opportunity for writers · Uncategorized · writing · writing advice

The Time I called my Boyfriend “Daughter”

When trying to be cute and unexpected ends up with you calling your boyfriend “daughter.” Yep. (See picture to the right). I thought “chorri” meant bird in Nepali, his native tongue. Bird is what we call each other. Sometimes bug. Sometimes tree. Whatever flies out of our mouths. But, daughter? That’s not in my league of… Continue reading The Time I called my Boyfriend “Daughter”

affirmations · business advice · fiction · inspiration · inspirational quotes · metaphysical tools · opportunity for writers · passion · poetry · Uncategorized · women · writewithpurpose · writeyourstory · writing · writing advice

First-Time Writers: How to Master Your Craft

Many of my clients are professional consultants, healers, pioneer parents, leaders in their field of mastery… ….and first-timers in the arena of writing. It’s not a scary thing. It requires no degree or experience in publication, although sometimes those things are helpful. Did you know that Ray Bradbury never went to college? Same goes for Argentinian writer,… Continue reading First-Time Writers: How to Master Your Craft

fiction · inspiration · inspirational quotes · passion · Uncategorized · writing · writing advice

Reading as Awareness, not Escape: an aside.

I never bought into the idea that reading was an escape. Sure, you go somewhere and visit with new characters, get “lost” in worlds and made-up dramas. But ultimately (as all things do) it just brings you closer to yourself. True escapism, in my book, would be reading for the sake of falling into a coma:… Continue reading Reading as Awareness, not Escape: an aside.

cliches · common pitfalls · fiction · inspiration · poetry · Uncategorized · writing · writing advice

An Easy Polish for the Lazy Words

from Pinterest.com
from Pinterest.com

Make your [message][questions][descriptions][verbs][analyses][symbols][references] WORTH IT!

(Especially if you are sharing with others!)

How to go from half-hearted to full-hearted writing?

One friendly button: the strikethrough key.

When self-editing, it’s more effective than a highlighter. Take your cursor (or a pen) and drive a line right through the words, phrases, and details that do not ADD TO YOUR STORY.

This is not just a love of minimalism; it is a requirement for tight writing.

ASK YOURSELF:

  • Does this [word, sentence, dialogue] illuminate something important for my story [poem, non-fiction, essay]?
  • Is this decision fresh, or obvious?
  • Is my language precise and compelling?

Cleaning out what isn’t enhancing your story will poke holes through the narrative. These holes are a LENS for you to plant something fresh, fun, dramatic, organic and enlivening (aka what your readers pine for when they open a—your—book!).

Don’t know what to strikethrough?

I’ll give you a hint: strikethrough LOVES clichés! It eats them up like candy like salted-caramel macaroons.

Let’s look at clichés versus writing that reflects the idea in the cliché (or relates to it), but is absent of cliché.

 

  • There is no time like the present. 

 

“There was no time for kissing but she wanted him to know that in the future there would be. A kiss in so much loneliness was like a hand pulling you up out of the water, scooping you up from a place of drowning and into the reckless abundance of air. A kiss, another kiss.”  -Ann Patchett, Bel Canto

 

  • Love is blind.

 

“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”  -F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

 

  • Ignorance is bliss.

 

“People hide their truest nature. I understood that; I even applauded it. What sort of world would it be if people bled all over the sidewalks, if they wept under trees, smacked whomever they despised, kissed strangers, revealed themselves?”   -Alice Hoffman, The Ice Queen

 

Right now, we are just building awareness. All you need to do is strikethrough and then ask, what would make this more interesting, or have a deeper impact? I’ll provide a checklist of questions and considerations in an upcoming blog that will help you fill in the holes that the strikethrough created. But for now, stay tuned for pt 2 of your next strikethrough task: vague language! 

 

teaser!! :

awalktoremember

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

affirmations · business advice · inspiration · Uncategorized

Expanding Comfort Zones — The No-Nonsense Way

Business gurus like Ali Brown swear by the notion that your success, money, opportunity lies right outside your comfort zone.  In order to create different results, you must take different action.  Scary, close-your-eyes-and-hope-you-make-it action. I agree with this —there’s an insane bustle of energy right outside the perimeters of what you find cozy, that often… Continue reading Expanding Comfort Zones — The No-Nonsense Way

affirmations · amwriting · inspiration · opportunity for writers · Uncategorized · whatsyourstory · women · writewithpurpose · writeyourstory · writing

You are Here, And Here, And Here

Tip to bridge gap between where you are and where you want to be: sit with the energy of the future-you that you wish to cultivate. You with the published book.  You with the speaking gigs. You flying across the country for book tours. Maybe your goals are smaller in scale. You with the relaxed… Continue reading You are Here, And Here, And Here

affirmations · amediting · amwriting · fiction · Uncategorized · whatsyourstory · women · writewithpurpose · writeyourstory

Affirmation for every hour

At the top of the hour of your writing day, remember this affirmation: I am a well of positive energy and light; creativity reaches me easily. There is nothing I can’t do in my writing, in my life, and in my work. No matter what, I speak my truth with grace and imagination, in a… Continue reading Affirmation for every hour

amwriting · business advice · opportunity for writers · Uncategorized

About Me – Revisions, Because I Edit Things

Thanks to advice from fellow blogger Daniel Dow, I realized I was skimping y’all on my “About Me” page!  Can you believe I didn’t even have a photo of myself for any unsuspecting visitor to judge?! 😛 (Jk, Jk…heh).  Hopefully what’s there now provides better insight on my background in editing, writing, and why I… Continue reading About Me – Revisions, Because I Edit Things