Feeling Lazy

Today is one of those days when I just don't feel like writing. I have some corporate Web copy to write and just don't feel like taking it on at all.

So, I have been surfing through other writer blogs and came upon the following on The Renegade Writer. He writes:

Remember the Rule of Three. On those days when you have zero motivation, pick three tasks on your to-do list, preferably important things, do them, then allow yourself to take the rest of the day off. I find this hack immensely helpful on the days following a vacation or illness. It’s probably not a great hack to use every day, but if you’re in a deep rut, it gets you moving.

Hmmm... I stop to ponder. This seems doable, though I'm not coming off of vacation, nor am I ill. Do these three things need to pertain to writing ?

I've re-read the paragraph and decided that since it does not specify, I will interpret that the three tasks can relate to writing, but do not necessarily need to be writing assignments.

As a result, today I've :

1) Pinged my editor to see what he wants written for the next issue with some ideas of my own of course.
2) Written four thank you cards (this is sort of writing... no?)
3) Finished a blog entry

Signing off for the day...

Reporting is Tough for Me Sometimes

I write for a community newspaper. I mostly write civic-type news and some occasional sports and human interest stories. What I hate writing is about people who have died.

I remember reading all of the follow up stories after 9/11. At the time I read the WSJ daily (had a corporate job then) and even they did a wide-range of human interest-type stories about what happened, linking together last-minute phone call conversations with when floors and ultimately buildings collapsed. I remember crying on the train on the way into the city.

I got flashbacks of this when recently a the passenger train collided with a freight train causing the largest train tragedy in the nation for many, many years. I on-purpose avoided reading many of the stories in the paper. I just couldn't bear it.

Today I had to write a story about a benefit event some local businesses are putting on for one of the local businesses owners who died in the crash. I performed my requisite research and conducted interviews learning about the legacy and family he left behind. I learned about their three special needs children -- how they adopted their child's best friend who has cerebral palsy; I learned about how their business volunteered tons of time at elementary schools; I learned how he was married for 23 years.

I learned about how these people were certifiable saints. And, how local businesses were banning together to help.

I should feel really good, I'm doing a good thing by reporting this, right? But, I don't. I just feel awful. I don't know how people can regularly report on world news, especially all the horrible stories from places like Iraq, Iran, Darfur, etc. where tragedy happens daily if not hourly.

I guess that's a big part of what journalism is about?

I guess I'd better just stick to the lighter things.

I Should Write Robo-Call Scripts

Robo-calls. There have got to be hundreds if not thousands of these circulating around – and someone is writing them! I’m a speech writer, I’m a copywriter, maybe I could write these too. It may be a very lucrative industry for me to expand into. I’ll have to consider that for the next election.

I swear for the past 3 weeks if not more our household has received at least 2-3 calls a day regarding the election. I understand a "reminder" to vote, but really, they are getting to be too much.

I get calls from the Teamsters, from local, state and national figures, from my husband’s union (these calls arrive during the day which baffles me, they know he works right?), from individual teachers and more. At least one of them a day is a robo-call. I mean, who listens to them? I’ve been in marketing many, many years now and I question the ROI on these. They may be a very inexpensive way to “touch” voters, but I seriously wonder how effective they are – or if they are even able to measure this very accurately. I just find them as annoying as hell. It would be a tough decision if someone ever offered me a job to write them.

I Heart Romance

I like chick lit and I’m not afraid to say so. My all time favorite chick lit author is the original one -- Jane Austen. My daughter’s middle name is Elizabeth (as in Elizabeth Bennet), though I do have to add it is also my husband’s grandmother’s name which made it a win-win name for me. I still read Pride and Prejudice once every couple of years. The story for me never gets old (I know, I know, I’m such a chick). I’ll admit to owning both the BBC mini-series as well as the more recent Hollywood film version on DVD.

One of my other all-time favorite authors is Madeleine L’Engle. My second daughter’s first name is Madeleine. The name was a top runner for both my husband and I. I didn’t tell him that it was the name of one of my favorite authors, not that it would have mattered. He really liked the nickname Maddie. I read somewhere that it’s starting to become a trendy name, especially spelled “Madeleine” instead of “Madeline.” They called these American parents “Francophiles.” While my husband I loved, loved, loved Paris we are not Francophiles per se, I’m just guilty of being a big-fat Wrinkle in Time fan.

While I like to think of myself as an educated fairly well-read woman, there is something about a romance, well written or not. I’m guilty of reading even the cheesier novels, you know Nikki, the PR account executive who has the strong-willed, strong-jawed, wildly successful technology client whom she hates and then eventually falls in love with romance novel.

I still cry every time I see the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I know the movie does not necessarily faithfully follow Williams original play which is much, much grittier, but I still love it.

My husband is a pragmatic scientist, he always says he doesn’t “get” romance. I’ll be watching a romance film, and he’ll make fun of me especially if it’s a light romantic comedy. He’ll gasp sarcastically and exclaim, “Oh no! Do you think they’ll end up together – I don’t know?! I’m biting my nails!”

I just ignore him.

Live It, Read It, Write It

I'm a 33 -- okay, almost 34 -- year-old stay-at-home mother of two who is still writing professionally when I get the chance. I was a marketing consultant for many years before having kids, and now I just write because I love it. What do I write? Just about anything. I write for the local newspaper, I do corporate writing (speech writing, byline articles, etc.) and advertising writing (brochures, Website copy, etc.).

I used to work for a big agency where I ran large international corporate accounts, worked 65+ hour work weeks and travelled a fair amount. Now I live in a beach town and enjoy life, hence the name of the blog, though I'll be honest, time to read anything besides research for projects is scarce these days.

What do I want to do? Well magazine writing is something I'm working at now. But, finding the time to outline and pitch story ideas is difficult to find. Expanding from a corporate writing to features/magazine writing is difficult. I'm slowly building my portfolio. It's kind of ironic because the corporate writing is a lot more lucrative, just less fulfilling for me as a person.

My pet project is a children's book I have been working on with the Santa Barbara Zoo for some time. We're hoping to go to print next year. Here are some of the illustrations.

Basically you place a photo of your child's face at the back of the book. The hole you see is a die-cut so that your child's face will show through each page. The premise of the book -- for a kid to imagine themselves as each of the animals.

I approached the zoo about writing the book awhile back when I was looking for a Santa Barbara Zoo book for my little girl. The zoo, which we frequent at least once if not twice a month is smaller than other big city zoos -- though more beautiful in so many ways. It doesn't have as wide a variety of animals that other zoos have, so I wanted to get a book that features the animals she sees regularly at "our" zoo. When I learned there was no Santa Barbara Zoo book I approached them about writing one.

This book has become something very dear to me. It will not be a money-maker for our family, but the idea is it will become something vastly more important to my daughters. It's something I've written for them.