Writing character strengths and dreams

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Today is not just another holiday or day off from work, it is a day to get in touch with what resonates as your own strength of character.

Character traits are a part of what you the writer possess, what your muse highlights and you channel. Consider what character traits you like about yourself, what traits you'd like to change or enhance.

Perhaps you can find inspiration in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King?

What do you know or remember or think about when you consider the man for the reason of the holiday here in the states? What is your strength of character? Write about strength of character!

If you are in the process of writing a book, ad copy, anything at all, consider strength of character in your writing. Write in your journal; what does strength of character mean - to you?

You can read some of my story here; http://mickandhisboy.googlepages.com/home under the heading of Irene's capstone. Or you can read about our story through the dog that knows autism best, Mick; http://mickandboy.blogspot.com/ Strength of character is what comes out about someone in their writing.

Take the day to write and consider as a writing springboard what Dr. Martin Luther King wrote;

"I have a dream..."

What's your dream?

Write about it - then take at least one action to making it reality!

Resisting Reluctance

Resisting and Reluctance to write can be a huge problem.

But it doesn't have to be.

I sometimes find myself really wanting to write and simultaneously avoiding it. Know what I mean?

It’s not even like I’m telling myself, “I should”, nor is it that life throws in some obstacles that keep me from writing. Sure that happens but its not what my recent bout of inactivity is.

No, occasionally, for any number of reasons, I flat out really want to write but also really don’t want to. It’s a confusing place to be. And it's where I am right now.

Usually I’m not exactly sure why I’m even in such a quandary when I’m in the thick of it and I don’t even believe that there is a consistent reason. I think the reasons for the dilemma change and that these are usually easier to understand in retrospect.

Sometimes the reason is my ideas are still percolating internally. Driving, gardening, or beach bumming tends to help the perc along.

Other times, my brain is truly scattered with static. Perhaps the clutter has swamped me or perhaps other stressors nag at me stealing the writing away.

And perhaps, like others, I have a fear of success mixed with an equal dose of fear of failure.

And yes, there are those times when the problems are not that deep at all. I’m just busy spending my energies doing those millions of things that a mom has to do.

So in retrospect (having taken some action, I can say retrospect), I believe my recent lack of activity is all of the above. And although my lack of activity clearly demonstrates a problem, I’m no closer to locating the source, I am closer to a solution.

As things often do not happen in isolation, I’ve had a lot of things chipping away at me and I flat out haven’t written.

But this doesn’t have to be a problem. In fact it isn't a problem now.

What I have on my side is a history of writing. I know I can recreate the writing habit. And the habit of writing will put me back on course. Sure, I’m likely to have some off days, but the habit will carry me through. I tend to write virtually every morning – except on occasions when I’m in a writing quandary like this, and even then, I write – even if its just to forward email.

Grant, I may not publish every little thing I write, I will have more to choose from.

Just writing these exploratory passages, I think I now know where the source of my quandary is – and it’s not an unusual one at all for writers. I’ve a story I want to tell, but I’m unsure about committing it to a public forum such as this.

I may have to get it down in a private way, allow it to stew for a while, simmer a bit longer and rewrite it a few times before I release it, but she’s there, ready to break free.

And my problem is solved - by activity! In this case, writing, which once again proves that the cure for inactivity is activity. Just do it already!

Zen, Muse and the Art of Honda Transmissions

Honda's are the Diva’s of the mom vehicle world.

In particular they are very sensitive to the type of transmission fluid they are given.

Recently Gwen, my Honda Odyssey was given a sip of generic transmission fluid from a caring individual at one of those retail change-the-oil locations (who will remain anonymous for now). I was informed about the added fluid after the fact but didn’t think much about it.

A short time later Gwen began showing signs of distress, bucking at intersections, revving RPM (also known as transmission flaring) and not accelerating properly.

She’s not exactly young and she has seen over 180,000 miles of travel and local destinations but she’s family. She’s our transportation and travel companion. We’ve shared a lot of good memories.

The treatment for the toxic sip of generic transmission fluid is a drain of the fluid and a refill of the 3 quarts with authentic certified Honda transmission fluid, which we did.

Less than a month later on our trip to Monterey for the weekend, Gwen had a relapse and then seemed to be doing better while in Monterey. Then this morning while I was attempting to drive Red and Mick to school she seemed to be ready to give up the fight entirely.

Bucking and not accelerating the whole way to school, Gwen chugged through intersections I was sure we’d be stranded in. During the morning break, I took her to a nearby mechanic. Go figure, she drove just fine.

The mechanic wanted to charge me $225 just to put her on the diagnosis computer.

Give me a break!

I’m lucky enough to have a Honda certified mechanic in the family so I sat in their parking lot near tears and called him up.

He was aghast at the high fee for basically using a hand held device one can buy from Snap-On Tools for $75! He suggested I bring Gwen to him, which I did. So for the price of a tank of gas (pricey but less than $225!) to get there and back and $30 for 6 quarts of Honda certified transmission fluid (3 for today and 3 for reserve), a couple bucks for a slice of pizza, Gwen is running happy again.

The 3 extra quarts are to use next time Gwen needs them. She may need another transfusion because only half of the fluid gets changed at a time as half remains in the transmission somewhere while half is available to drain.

My family Honda Mechanic also states that transmission fluid in Honda’s should be changed about every 3rd oil change, automatic transmissions being the “weak link” in Honda’s. A dealer mechanic wont verify this, but after close to 30 years of servicing almost exclusively Honda’s, my mechanic knows them well.

And I sure as heck will take his word for it over the guy charging $225 just to look.

Oh, the relation to writing or Muse? Travel time baby! Long car rides are Zen for writers and I got 5 hour's worth today.

Refreshing Air and Writing

Summer is fading away into Fall rapidly - on the calender. We are still expected to hit 100+ degrees again today. School started this past week and our classrooms were beyond uncomfortable. 

The person in the thankless position of monitoring the use of utilities which includes our room temperatures sent out emails about the doors being left open while the air conditioners ran. 

Well due to some funky rule that was put into place to reduce sick building syndrome, close to 30% of our room air is brought in from outside and mixed with the circulated cool (or warmed in winter) air. 

Well, 30% of 100+ degree air mixed with 70% of the air cooled with 10 year old AC units makes a real warm stinky mess in an enclosed box-like room when co mingled with a teacher and 30 or so middle school students with changing hormones and hygiene-in-training. Are you breathing in the details?

So what does this have to do with writing or musing?

Glad you asked!

There's been some really great zinger emails circulating. 

Guys, this is great material! I save these zinger emails because they reflect real characters, real issues with great descriptions. 

Emails are real and they can be very fresh! They can refresh your own writing!

Save those emails that contain zest, zing and angst! These are good material to use as motivation, style, character development or any number of ways in your own descriptive writing. You can even use them as springboards. 

How would your character describe a really hot day? 

How would your character (or you) respond to a certain email?

What might cause a rift between 2 reasonable professionals? Whose perspective is "right"? 

Can you see characters that you can use in stories based upon their emails? Sure they will need to be fluffed and altered a bit to protect little things like a current J-O-B but there's good meat in emails.

The best thing is that you can save them without taking up garage space! 

(more to come on this subject later).

Rev Up Your Writing Habits

Today was the first day back to school for my family and me. I work at a middle school in a special education classroom. I'm also working on an MA in Special Education through the University of Phoenix online, although I won't start back to class there for awhile longer.

Thank goodness! So much to do and adjust to. New people, schedules, routines, actually having to get up by a certain time and more demands of time all around.

I like to get up before anyone in the home. This morning I spent the time watering my plants, watching the sun rise, and scrambling with last minute back-to-school details. Not exactly my preference.

I'd rather spend the time writing. Well, watching the sun rise and writing. I have my favorite chair set up in the picture window and the sun rises over the meadow across the street.

I make a pot of coffee and sip and write until its time for my son, Red to get up. I sometimes set the kitchen timer if there's a chance the time will get away from me so that I remember to get him up. Yes, that's happened before. I tend to hyper focus sometimes.

I've spent the whole summer getting up and enjoying my mornings all by myself. Now, I've got to set a time limit for writing, get Red up, do the rest of the morning routine to get us out the door and to school.

Ironically, I tend to write more when I know that I have a limited time. What about your writing? Do you have writing rituals, habits, or tendencies? Are you content with your writing practices or are you looking for some changes?

Try something - anything. You may discover your writing hits a higher metabolism. The primary thing to do is to create a writing habit that works for you. Sometimes an external schedule is just the ticket for greater productivity.

Write Here!

Surely there is an inner god or goddess in us all who deserves the luxuries this world has to offer.

Irene and her daughter, Kasmira and I took a tour of this central coast castle's gardens and may I just say, Wow! Oh how we wanted to loose ourselves from the group and play among the grounds, take a dip in the pool, and luxuriate in the spender. Sigh.

Blooms were everywhere, flowers and color supported by statues, and garden structures unavailable to most mortals. Butterflies drifted and flitted in the sun and there was a Kodak opportunity at every rove of the eye.

We took as many pictures as we possibly could and practiced the art of pre-writing under the limited time we had. Fortunately there are many pictures to jog our memories, and research tools available on the web or in books to further assist us in our writing.

The point? Get outside of your normal routines and jostle your muse of course!