THINGS THAT MAKE ME GO MMMRUH!
January 10, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh
Everyone Says So – But So What?
by Geralyn Ruane
Just because everyone says so doesn’t mean you have to believe it.
That’s right. You don’t have to believe it. Do your own research, make your own decisions and stick to your guns, even if it seems that everyone else in the room, the state, the world disagrees with you.
These days everyone is a spin doctor. And those who aren’t hire them. Information gets so manipulated that distillation of the truth becomes a Byzantine challenge. Listening to the hype is so much easier. But don’t let yourself be swayed or suckered.
I believe that The New England Patriots are cheaters undeserving of accolades, regardless of what sportswriters have decided. No matter how many people love rodeo, I still think paying and making money to watch terrified animals defend themselves is sick and should be illegalized. To hell with the FDA, I’m convinced that cold medicines are a bad idea, and so are any medicines that prevent the body from getting rid of the stuff it needs to get rid of. I’ve examined the facts and made my decisions.
Don’t agree with me? That’s okay. I don’t need mass approval in order to feel comfortable with the decisions I make. You shouldn’t either. Nobody should.
As America surges into Primary Season, my greatest hope is that voters make their own decisions. Don’t pay attention to labels and tag lines; instead, find out what the candidates are actually saying and doing. Don’t get swayed by the polls and predictions of political pundits; in the end, only the votes matter. Yesterday, the day after the surprising New Hampshire results, even NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson advised, “Throw out the polls and just pay attention to the candidates.â€
Who will run for president in 2008 is still up in the air, and we get to decide. I do, you do. We’ve got the power and that makes me go Mmmruh! So don’t let your decision get swept away by all the hype and hullabaloo. Instead, keep your decision safe, make it count and make sure it’s yours.
Geralyn Ruane co-hosts the radio show Better Times After 50 on AdviceRadio.com. She also drinks chocolate milk straight from the spoon and writes humorous women’s fiction. Last year her short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants†was published in the New York Times Bestselling anthology The Right Words at the Right Time Volume 2.
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It’s Worth It
January 10, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as It's Worth ItROUND TWO
by Kitty Bucholtz
Okay, this has never happened before – three months in a row of writing on the same topic! Shows you how passionate I am, I guess!
So here’s the thing. People are talking about resolutions every January, and that’s fine, but I don’t need any new ones. I just want to keep up with the great writing habits I’ve been forming over 2007. Christmas vacation hampered my efforts, so I was quite willing when a friend said, “Why don’t we do that NaNo thing again in January?â€
Within days, fourteen of our friends showed interest in creating a “challenge†group that posted goals and daily accomplishments. I created a new Yahoo Group and an Excel spreadsheet with a graph, and we were off and running.
The main hurdle was that while many were at a place where they were ready to start a new book January 1, many others were brainstorming or editing. So we came up with a point system. For instance, for every scene fully edited, you get 1000 points. For each blog posted on your neglected author web site, you get 200 points. For brainstorming out an entire novel’s premise, you get 1500 points. And of course, you get 1 point for every “new†word written as well.
It’s subjective, and each author gets to decide their goals and the points they believe they should earn. That’s fine because we aren’t competing against each other, but against our January 2007 selves. The goal is to do more than you did last month or last year. And boy, is it working!
One friend whose first book will be published soon, and is contracted for five more, made his goal to be 15,000 new words for the month. In the first three days, he wrote 4267 words! He said he’d never written so many words in three days before!
Many have posted to the group things like, “I only wrote 343 words today. I didn’t ‘have time’ to write at all, but knowing you all were writing spurred me on to do at least something.â€
I personally replied to one of those emails saying, “Thank goodness someone wrote only a few words! It’s 5:15pm and I haven’t written anything today, but I know I can write 344 words! Thanks for ‘challenging’ me!â€
Today is January 9th, and we should be 29% of the way to our goal. I’m less than 10% of the way there, but call me Seabiscuit. Apparently, I have to see that people are “beating†me in order to come up from behind! I’ve spent many hours creating and managing the group, hours that I could’ve spent writing. But I’m still getting more writing done than I otherwise would have. And I’m encouraging – and being encouraged by – my writing friends to kick off our new year of writing with a big bang. I say, it’s worth it!
Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, she’s pretty sure she knows at least three people who aren’t writers.
