Do y’all know me? Do you know you how I like my stability and security? You do? So it’s a surprise then, right, that change is my word for the year? Maybe it should be perspective but that only allows for a view shift. I think change is more dynamically inclusive of the unknown or irregular. And it gets the heart beating a little better.
Yeah. It surprises me too. I’m the one who likes to know things. I can go with the flow only so long as I know where the flow goes.
Life is either a daring adventure or it’s nothing. ~Helen Keller
Change is fluid. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, this or that. It can be subtle or strong. What I’m sweetly discovering is change doesn’t always mean replacement. It can mean addition, alteration, shift.
My Penny Jar
I’ve traded up my small glass penny jar for a larger plastic bottle that holds more ~ coins and bills. I haven’t stopped my saving. I’ve amped it up. That’s a change I can get on board with.
Embracing change can also mean not embracing change. I’m a creature of habit and schedule. I’ll grow my hair to almost shoulder length and then once or twice a year have it cut short and sassy. This week, I chose to change by not changing. I had my hair trimmed and colored, but not cut. I changed my habit of changing.
A Perspective Change
Last weekend I replaced the calendar pages in my day planner. I stood on the desk chair for this photo. Did my calendar change? Was there different tea in my NOLA mug? Did those thumb drives leap to life with pages ready for print? No. You already know that. But my perspective changed. Taking a step back from the task at hand allowed me to view the larger picture of my goals and tasks for the upcoming year.
Some change is necessary. If I stick my roots down too firmly in the familiar, I won’t bend but I might break with the storms. I am reminded to stop fighting and be still.
“Stop forcing a catastrophe where there’s not even a storm.”
I’m embracing change this year because I’m ready for the adventure it brings. I’m ready to move beyond my comfort zone. I’m not changing everything, but I’m refusing to remain stagnant.
As I write this, it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m watching The Poseidon Adventure with Mom. Now there’s an adventure movie. It’s our usual NYE fare, a tradition for many years. This year, I’m watching it differently. It’s the same movie, but my viewing has changed. It’s Al Gansky’s fault. He referenced it in the Spirituality in Fiction episode of the Firsts in Fiction podcast. It created another perspective shift for me.
The survivors of the Poseidon have to change their perspective, or they won’t survive. (I’d say “spoiler alert,” but I’m thinking you already know this.) The ship is turned upside down and they have to venture up which is down to find their way out. The world is in chaos, but they work together. Some make it, some don’t. But it’s the ones who stuck to their stability in the beginning, who clung to the familiar even in disarray, who never even had a chance. They believed the ordinary was still working, and they died before our protagonists’ adventure began.
The survivors realize that change was thrust upon them, and they choose to work through it, even creating some of their own. Dependencies, relationships, and strengths are born through the adventure of finding their salvation.
So maybe I’ll take two words this year. Change and Perspective. I can have one without the other, but together, it’s going to be quite an adventurous year.
There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. C.S. Lewis
The gift giving season is upon us and there’s always that one person who’s difficult to buy for. Am I right? And usually, it’s the write person. (See what I did there?)
On this week’s upcoming Firsts in Fiction podcast, we’re talking about that very subject. Over the last week, we (and by we, I mean Aaron, Al, and myself, along with our merry media elves) have posed this question:
What’s a great gift to get the author in your life?
Finding the Write Gift
While I don’t want to give away the store (err, answers) here, I thought I’d at least share some of the FIF Family’s suggestions.
So put on your Santa hat and have a ho-ho-holiday time as we count down the best gifts to get your writer.
1. A private island. (Molly)
A Writer’s Paradise – a Private Island
Seriously. How often has your writer tried to get away from it all by locking themselves in the back room, sitting in a car, or running away to a coffee shop? See No. 3, below. Seclusion is necessary for the writer. In order to create our own worlds, we have to shut out the real one. A writer’s island holds no distractions like TV, ringing phones, or ~ dare I say it ~ the occasional familius interruptus.
More practical:
noise-cancelling headphones
a gift card for a spa day or one night at a hotel
pocket notebooks to jot notes in when your writer can’t get to their workspace
GIFT BASKET OPTIONS: white noise CD, postcard, small plant, candle
2. A private jet. (Al)
A Private Jet for Your Traveling Writer
Writing isn’t just writing anymore. Now it means book signings, conferences, marketing meetings, publicity appearances and more. A private jet is the ticket to get your writer out the door and back home faster. And with no other passengers to distract him or her, it also serves as a mobile private island. See No. 1, above.
More practical:
gas cards and travel expenses
writers conferences and retreats
offer to keep them company and drive them to their next writing commitment
GIFT BASKET OPTIONS: travel journal, map, luggage tags, small photo album
3. A cafe/bistro/restaurant of their own. (Molly, Aaron, Al)
The Write Cafe
We all know writers have ink in their veins. Let’s not ignore the caffeine IV they require. How often have you stopped into a Starbucks and seen someone leaning over their laptop, typing frantically with one hand while holding their coffee in the other? A small cafe allows someone else to be responsible for the food and clean up. All the writer has to do is write. And, bonus, when that book contract is finally signed and the manuscript published, you already have a place to invite everyone to celebrate the success!
More practical:
treat them (and their family) to a nice dinner
gift card to their favorite coffee shop
single-serve coffee maker and a month’s worth of coffee
Solve the problem of running out of ink and paper by giving your writer full and permanent access to everything imaginable from a new computer to colored paperclips. No more moments of frustration when they can’t find their favorite brand of pen. And when they start a new project, they can supply their writing space in coordinating themes and colors.
More practical:
ink and paper
computer maintenance program
mailing supplies
GIFT BASKET OPTIONS: desk organizers, day planner, journal/pen set, stickee notes
5. A private library. (Aaron)
Just what a writer needs – more books.
Research is essential to writing a compelling story, but small town libraries (and some bigger ones) don’t always work out. Books are checked out by others. Magazines are ripped and torn. Plus, you can’t keep any of them. A private library assures your writer their much needed references will be available any time they need. When one thought rabbit trails to another, at least you’ll still be able to find your writer in the stacks. Information is King, and you just gave your writer the kingdom.
More practical:
new computer and software
Kindle or other eReader and a gift card for downloads
external hard drive
GIFT BASKET OPTIONS: books on writing, collector’s editions of favorite books, magazine/newspaper subscription, gift card to book stores
And since we’re in the season of giving, here’s an extra entry. Give. Most writers supplement their writing income by teaching, editing, and a plethora of other talents. It takes time, energy and resources away from their works-in-progress. You can help them hurdle over the starving artist syndrome by donating:
Time. Clean their house, run errands, be a once-a-week personal assistant.
Resources. Do you have connections or knowledge that can move their story along?
Money. It costs a lot to live the write life. Even without the big-ticket items in this post.
[If you have a question for the authors visit Aaron’s website for Ask The Author and if he uses your question on air this week, you’ll get a code for a free audio download of his novel, The Bargain. You don’t have to be a writer, and you don’t have to view the podcast to participate.]
My friends and I are huge fans of superheroes. Who isn’t, really? We love talking smack about who’s favorite could take on the others favorites. We drool in wait for new comic books to be released. I’m sure that’s a little more than some of you wanted to know about me, and I may have just lost a few cool points. That’s okay. I’ll get over it.
This week’s Five Things Friday is all about Superheroes: Who they are, how to be one. It’s pretty, well, if you’ll pardon the pun, super.
1. This video clip from Grey’s Anatomy is one of my recent favorites. (This is the best version I could find on YouTube)
It sounded so made-up, I had to research it. Turns out, it’s true. There have been studies of the Superhero Pose. So next time you’re in your morning shower, take a stand and lift your head up. See how much better your day is when you are your own Superhero.
2. SuperNip to the rescue!
SuperNips to the rescue!
NIPPERS is one of my favorite Superheros. I mean, this little frog can take me from zero to published in a single button click. Well, almost. As the mascot for New Inklings Press, how could I not adore his capabilities? Especially when he looks so darn cute in a cape.
3. Marvel’s Avengers.
Marvel’s Avengers
Don’t even try to tell me how the DC Comics versions are better heroes. Not true. My favorite is Iron Man, followed by Agent Coulson. Okay, Coulson isn’t quite a superhero, but he’s still pretty awesome. I also enjoy the Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, and well, pretty much all of them. Which leads me to the next point.
4. Comic books. It’s completely okay if you call me a nerd or geek or whatever. Hey, I’ve publicly admitted I play Magic: The Gathering. I think comic books sort of fall into that persona, yes?
Comics on the Kindle
Did you know that when you purchase certain comic books, they come with codes for free digital downloads? I didn’t, until a friend told me. Now we have an arrangement: When he buys a comic book, he gives me the download code. Of course, I still have to have my own hard copy of anything Iron Man or Avengers. The rest is just pie on the plate!
5. Flawless. Isn’t that what we think superheroes should be? Yet we’re forgiving, and even a bit more drawn to them, if they have flaws. Don’t believe me? Where do you stand on the Batman vs. Superman argument?
This video is MercyMe’s Flawless. I love the visual dynamics.
But what first grabbed my attention was a line from the chorus. And like a hero who takes the stage / When we’re on the edge of our seats saying / “It’s too late!” / Well let me introduce you to Grace.
I visualized all of us sitting in our own darkness, watching scenes unfold, biting our nails. Then from up above and to the side comes our hero shouting “Here I come to save the day!” And in one fell swoop, he conquers or enemies. Blasts them off the playing field and secures our safety.
It’s pretty amazing to have a Hero like that. And I bet at times, we can be that for someone else.
So pay attention to the world around you. There are more ordinary heroes than you might think. You’re one of them.
SuperMoJo to the Rescue
And now it’s your turn.
Who’s your favorite Superhero?
How can you be a hero in your ordinary environment?
Has anyone been your ordinary Superhero in a tough situation?
On this week’s Firsts in Fiction podcast, we’ll be chatting with author/editor Kathy Ide about Holiday Fiction and the dos and don’ts of writing about popular holidays. You can watch the live stream and join the chat every Tuesday evening at 6:30 PST.
On today’s blog, Kathy shares her ideas for maintaining your credit as a writer:
The buzz word in publishing is platform. And for good reason. Authors need to get the word out about their books. After all, if no one knows about them, no one will buy them.
But there’s another “p word” that, in my opinion, is even more important than platform. It’s proofreading. No matter what you write or how you choose to publish your work, typos, inconsistencies, and mistakes in punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling (what I call “PUGS”) will brand you as an amateur. And that will affect your sales as much as, or more than, your platform.
Proofread your manuscript.
Before you submit a manuscript to a publisher (book, magazine, or other), check it carefully for typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors. And make sure you use the appropriate style guide and dictionary for the type of publisher you’re submitting to.
If you plan to self-publish, you’ll need to proofread even more carefully, because you won’t have a publisher’s in-house proofreaders to check your work before readers see it.
Proofread your queries and proposals.
The content of your manuscript might be brilliant, and you could have a fantastic platform. But if an acquisitions editor notices typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors in your query or proposal, you won’t be presenting a very polished, professional image. And the editor will likely be thinking about how much time it would take their proofreaders to fix all those mistakes. If another proposal she’s considering has fewer errors, she may very well choose that one instead of yours.
Proofread your galleys.
The term galleys refers to the final version of your manuscript before it goes to print. This is your last chance to catch typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors before your readers see what you’ve written. Don’t rely on the publisher’s in-house editors or proofreaders. Even professionals can miss things.
Proofread your back cover copy.
A friend of mine once picked up a book at a bookstore and noticed a typo on the back cover. When she reported it to our critique group, she didn’t say she’d found a mistake on a book published by “XYZ Publishers.” She said she found the mistake on a “Jane Doe” novel. She didn’t connect the error to the publishing house but to the author.
Proofread your promotional material.
As you’re creating promotional flyers, blogs, social media posts, handouts for your talks, even e-mails you plan to send to colleagues in the industry, read through them multiple times to check for typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and PUGS errors. Your reputation, and your book sales, will be affected—positively or negatively.
For a lot of avid readers, typos and inconsistencies practically jump off the page. And many are familiar with the rules of punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling. If your reader knows the rules and you don’t, that’s not going to make you look very professional.
Readers who find a lot of mistakes in a book will not be as likely to recommend that book to their friends. And who knows? A creative writing teacher might just read your book and want to recommend it to her students . . . but she probably won’t do that if there are a lot of mistakes in it.
Most people have a hard time finding typos and inconsistencies in their own writing, because the eye tends to see what the mind expects to see. And many new writers aren’t familiar with the reference books that publishers use for punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling. That’s why I wrote Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors. It has tips from multi-published authors on how to catch typos, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies. It also contains industry-standard guidelines on the PUGS issues that most writers struggle with.
Once you’ve got your manuscript, galleys, or promotional material as polished as you think they can be, you may wish to consider hiring a professional proofreader. I’m not talking about your neighbor who’s a high school English teacher, but someone who knows and understands the publishing industry’s requirements. You can find professional freelance proofreaders at writers’ conferences or by filling out the form for Authors Seeking Editors at the Christian Editor Connection (www.ChristianEditor.com).
The investment you make in proofreading could make a tremendous difference in the success of your writing journey.
Kathy Ide is a published author/ghostwriter, editor/mentor, and writers’ conference speaker. In addition to being the author of Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, she is the editor/compiler for the new Fiction Lover’s Devotional series. Kathy is the founder and coordinator of The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network (www.TheChristianPEN.com) and the Christian Editor Connection (www.ChristianEditor.com). To find out more about Kathy, visit www.KathyIde.com.
21 Days of Christmas
Kathy’s newest book, 21 Days of Christmas, is now available through her website, Amazon, and many bookstores across the country.
Join Kathy Ide, Aaron Gansky, Alton Gansky, and myself for this week’s Firsts in Fiction podcast on Google Hangouts. Have a question for the authors? Visit Aaron’s website for Ask The Author and if he uses your question on air this week, you’ll get a code for a free audio download of his novel, The Bargain.
Let’s be real clear about something: Medical depression is a chemical imbalance, it’s a body malfunction that makes it hard to function. The same way a broken thumb makes it hard to hold a mug without a handle. You learn other ways of managing, and you know that some day the thumb will heal. It may not always work perfectly, but it will work. And if it doesn’t, you learn other ways of managing, of holding your mug.
People who suffer from depression are not weak in faith. It’s not a spiritual deficiency. Sometimes holding on to that mug takes all the strength a person has, but at least they’re holding on.
So stop telling them they’re doing it wrong.
If your thumbs are working, if every atom in your body and brain are working at full capacity, congratulations. Your name is Jesus.
Guess what. My name’s not that.
My thumb may be broken, but the rest of me works just fine.
I see a lot of memes about “share this if you know someone who suffers . . .” but we don’t, do we? We don’t “share” because we don’t want to be associated with “that”. We glance, nod, think of someone else, think “there but for the grace of God go I.”
We think, “If only they did this, tried that, went here, skipped there . . .”
We make our own judgment calls of how their life could be, should be, better.
We hide, we’re embarrassed. We think we’re less than perfect because it comes down to “us” and “them”, where “us” are the “normal” people and “them” are the ones who suffer.
We/Us avoid getting too deep with we/them. We/us are uncomfortable, can’t comprehend how this thumb doesn’t work, we/us don’t really want to know how the thumb broke to begin with, we/us offer solutions. The problem is, we/them can’t always pick up your solution. Sometimes, we/them are so used to the broken thumb, that we/them sometimes don’t remember it will heal. We know how to compensate and make do. We don’t always know how we broke it. We sometimes feel it’s always been broken, or we forget it’s broken. We think this is the way it’s always been. But it isn’t. We just don’t always remember “normal”.
We/us can’t understand why we/them just can’t “get it together”. We think they aren’t strong enough, they must want this, or not want God. We think there’s a disconnect between their body and their soul and they don’t want to mend it.
We/them can’t express ourselves. We/them know we ask too much, and we/them put we/us in ridiculous positions where we/us have to say no which perpetuates our/their sense of alienation.
We/them feel combative, defensive . . . and always alone.
We just want to be invited back to the normal table.
Sometimes the problem isn’t we/them. Sometimes a thumb break is the kindest thing that can happen to us/them because it’s at that point that there’s a conscious realization that something’s not right.
Sometimes the best help we/us can give us/them is to not to splint the thumb, but just ask, “Can I hold that mug for you, for a little while? Can I stay here and watch you try, and learn how you cope so I can see more of how you are? Can I be with you, in case you start to drop your mug and I can help? Can I be normal around you and not make you feel less normal? Can I do that for you? Will you let me?”
And we/them will say, “No. It’s awkward. I’m embarrassed. I’m supposed to be strong. I’m supposed to have my own thumb back right away. It shouldn’t take this long to heal. I should know how to do this by now. It’s my thumb that’s broken, not yours. You shouldn’t be here for this. Go away. Go away. Go away!”
That’s when we/them need we/us to say, “Yeah. I’m gonna be your thumb for a while. I’m gonna be your normal.”
That’s when we/them need we/us to stay. No matter what.
That’s when we/them will drop the mug, push we/us away, say things we/them don’t mean, do things we/them shouldn’t do.
That’s when we/them need we/us to stay. NO MATTER WHAT.
And sometimes say nothing.
But just stay.
And when we have our thumbs back, we/them still don’t want you/us to leave. Because it can be really scary to admit we were broken, but that’s when you were there. So it’s also hard to admit while we want our thumbs back, we’re afraid you’re going to leave. Because some people like us when we’re broken. It’s the only time they hear us. So sometimes, we stay a little more broken, a little longer, so we don’t have to be alone.
And then we know. We don’t like being broken. Not really.
We just want to be back at the normal table with our normal people and forget there was a time we weren’t normal.
You don’t understand. And that’s okay.
Our normal isn’t your normal and it may never be.
We don’t want to be unique. We can’t help it.
We’re different. We’re not always broken.
It’s our faith that things will get better that keeps us holding that mug.
Depression isn’t a spiritual deficiency. It’s just a struggle.
Without faith, I wouldn’t be here to tell you these things.
Without faith, I wouldn’t believe it will get better.
Depression isn’t a spiritual deficiency. And it doesn’t define me.
Like a thumb, it’s just a small part of my body.
Some days it’s more useful than others.
It won’t always be broken.
I won’t always be broken.
You won’t always be broken.
Have faith in that.
