Writers and Solitude
By Deb
The gently inspiring video below is of the poem “How to Be Alone.” It affirms our need as human beings to let go of our fear of aloneness, as though it were a totally unnatural state.
“How to Be Alone” was written and performed by poet, singer and songwriter Tanya Davis. The compelling music was composed and recorded by Tanya and Timothy Crabtree. Animation, photography and editing were done deftly by Andrea Dorfman. Enjoy!
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The Healthy Writer – 10 Tips for Healthier Eating
By Deb
Eat Healthy! Eat Smart! Reduce Carbs! Cut the Fat! Lower Your Cholesterol! For the past twenty years we’ve had these, and similar, headlines screaming at us, all with a view to make us healthier. So why, 20 years after we all jumped on the low-fat bandwagon, is obesity considered an epidemic? What’s wrong with this picture?
I’ve had to resort to Continue reading this post »
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Instant Gift Ideas for Writers
By Deb
For the writers in your life — especially anyone who wants to write a book but hasn’t yet — here are two links.
The first takes you through a quick 2-step process. Sign up for the free writing course “How to Write a Book in 14 Days,” delivered via email, and then click the verification link in the confirmation email you’ll receive. This will take you to the real holiday gift, a phenomenal writing course recommended by Mark Victor Hanson, co-creator of the blockbuster “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, and that has been taken by over 5,500 aspiring writers worldwide.
The author is offering excellent bonuses worth many times more than the cost of the course.If you love the writer in your life, this is a great gift that will show your support for the writing dream in your loved one’s heart.
Go here: http://www.write-a-book-now.debgallardo.com (opens in new window)
The second link is for a series of free writing gifts and access to other writing support services and software. The actual value of these gifts is in the thousands of dollars. I know you might be hearing that a lot lately, but the value really is there. And with a price tag of $0.00, you can’t go wrong!
Go to: http://www.writing-giveaway.debgallardo.com (opens in new window)
Whether these gifts are for yourself or someone else, you can quickly and easily make a writer happy this holiday season. Happy Holidays!
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Writing Life-Style – Another Great Randy Pausch Video
By Deb
It’s no secret that I have become a huge Randy Pausch fan. For those of you who don’t know of him or maybe don’t recognize the name, Randy is the former Carnegie-Mellon University professor who is dying of Pancreatic Cancer. His now famous “Last Lecture” has been viewed on YouTube (as of June 11, 2008) 2,668,135 times. But other incarnations of this last lecture abound on the internet, and all the views totaled as of April 2008 (according to Diane Sawyer) were over 10,000,000. Having said that, I’m guessing everyone reading this has at least heard about this guy.
What does a dying professor’s last lecture have to do with story ideas and writers? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.
What I think Randy has to offer beyond sheer inspiration, which is a huge thing to begin with, is his heartfelt message for ALL of us — not just his kids, his students, his family — but for all of us: to dream, to be, to do and to achieve according to our passions and those all-important childhood dreams.
Writers work in isolation a good deal of the time. We also must experience life to have something to say in our writing. It should go without saying that our mental health and spiritual health are just as important as our physical health. Unfortunately it NEEDS to be said explicitly.
In a world without hope for so many people, we all need to hear Randy Pausch’s story.
I don’t believe in large coincidences. I believe that things happen in the time they are meant to happen. Consider this: Just twenty years ago, although academe was familiar with the internet, there was only one Windows-based internet service and that was AOL. You almost had to be a geek to be online at that time, that or a new computer owner with AOL pre-installed. CompuServe and Prodigy were DOS-based, for heaven’s sake, and relied heavily on — I want to say — Telnet, but that might be wrong. I just know they were quite different from AOL.
So twenty years ago, cancer treatment advances notwithstanding (and in the area of pancreatic cancer, the funding has been less than stellar, meaning imited funds = limited research), without YouTube, without blogs, without broadband, how many people would have learned about Randy? Would Good Morning America, Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Oprah Winfrey Show and ABC’s Diane Sawyer have even known about him, let alone featured him? Probably not.
I believe that Randy and his special life view are having an impact now because our world needs more people with his special qualities, his verve for life and his desire to leave a legacy to his children while also reaching the rest of us in the process.
It’s said that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Randy Pausch may have lectured to thousands of students over the years, but today he has millions of students who never entered his classroom. I appreciate that he is mostly concerned with only three “students” — his children. But if Randy had been interested in showing only his children who their dad is, he could have set up a video camera at home. His kids may become adults before they understand the depths of who their dad is. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to share him with them.
My favorite quote from Randy is:
“Never, ever under-estimate the importance of having fun. I am dying soon, and I am choosing to have fun today, tomorrow, and every other day I have left.”
Other favorites:
“The brick walls are there for a reason…The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
“It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed. It is the things we do not. Find your passion and follow it.”
“You will not find that passion in things. And you will not find that passion in money. Because the more things and the more money you have, the more you will just look around and use that as the metric, and there will always be someone with more.”
“Don’t let tomorrow wreck today.”
“Somebody’s going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon, and I won’t be there to catch them and that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall, so that seems like the best and highest use of my time. So I can curl up in a ball and cry or I can get to work on the nets.”
“This lecture is not about achieving your dreams, it’s about living your life.”
“And this lecture is not for you. It’s for my kids.”
The following YouTube video of Dr. Randy Pausch comes from his charge to the graduates at CMU in 2008. This is a man who truly has his priorities straight and he’s not afraid to make sure other people can learn how to achieve the same thing.
To stay up-to-date on Randy’s condition and to view other Randy Pausch videos, go to these pages:
Randy Pausch’s Official Website (opens in new window)
Randy Pausch’s most recent health and quality of life journal entries (opens in new window)
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Healthy Writing Life-style – Chocolate With No Guilt?
By Deb
I just discovered a useful blog with the scrumptious title of “Healthy Chocolate and More…The Decadence of Chocolate Without the Guilt.” You’ve gotta love that title. It kind of just draws you right in, hoping that you can reach into your monitor and grab something — anything — chocolate.
As writers, we not only need ideas, we also need to take care of ourselves. Head on over to Dr. Daisy’s blog and just start reading. Then start heeding her advice. Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite for her chocolate decadence.
Exercising Your Brain
Everyone knows … to keep our muscles in good shape we must exercise. But when was the last time you exercised your brain? A brain workout is just as important as a workout for our bodies and even more so. Read more about a healthy (writing) life-style.
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