Julie Unplugged

Today I'm Playing with Optimism, Images and Words. What are You Playing with today?

Julie and Clelia, from the Nerd, Converge

This is just plain, flat out weird and completely normal for me.

I was lamenting yesterday, well, more accurate is whining, that I had not written a poem during the entire month of April which also happens to be National Poetry Month. This is not entirely true. I wrote several haiku and if I took out my notebook from my Berkshires jaunt and airport shuffle I would find some word-fruit ready to go through the juicer.

This morning, I remembered one of the books I set aside recently and then picked back up recently by a writer who was reminding us to try different forms, just for fun.

I decided to try what Priscilla Long calls a braid.

A poetic prosey braid of words.

Some of us are multitaskers, after all, and though I know the power of pure, clean focus, I also know there are certain items on my list of possibilities today that if I take on a task that fills more than one check mark, I’ll choose to do that.

Braid = writing practice + Character work (for the Nerd) + Blog Post = A moment of pure joy which is now available for your reading pleasure. First draft.

Ready? Go.

# # # # #

Tucked a bunch of her stuff in her purse. They are mine/hers for now, until she completely swallows each piece.

This was the tipping point. Cinderella running away from the ball and into the asylum.  Rose in breast before disappearing.

Yellow. Charlotte. Activism. Wallpaper. Societal. Sleep Cure. Never. Pick. Pencil.

She is each of us, all of us, none of us. She needs her things as I need mine.

Golden Key was “the talking key”, I remember, before the twist of the heel in the calf, while face kissed dirt.

Myself. Seldom.  ancestral . summer. Ordinary. Mere.  Secure.  John. Halls.

To remember we are here. To touch. Turn sting rays into velvet.

Another tipping point. The simple joy of buying nonsense at estate sales.

Why. Every. Creep. Fainted. Did. Path. Time. Across. Wall.  

# # # # #

I feel more than a tinge of guilt for not really caring whether or not you enjoy this bit of self indulgent folly.

It actually feels like more to me and I suppose that is what counts: how I continue to walk along my particular process. I love you, dearly, yes.

I would honor your particular creative process too, yes.

Today I am playing and creating with words, images, curiosity and letting go.

What are you playing and creating with today?

 

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

Throw Your Words Into the Air and Fly Along with Them

Courage + Literary Granny & Woman Extraordinaire: George Eliot (also known as Mary Ann Evans)

Reading the words of literary granny and superstar George Eliot today astonished me even more than usual. She said, “Our words have wings but fly not where we would.” I can’t imagine George, AKA Mary Ann Evans, ever being unable to “fly” where her words are going or where they have been.

 

There are moments when I write in the voice of who I wish I could be.

This may surprise many of you who hear me as a very brave, very “on every minute” sort of person.

There are certain things I do that require some people lots of courage, like performing on stage in front of an audience or perhaps public speaking – and enjoying each moment.

Yes. These are both true.

I am an activist and an advocate and underneath all of that I have an inferiority complex that weaves through my blood enough to stop the flow almost completely.

Reading the words of literary granny and superstar George Eliot today astonished me even more than usual. She said, “Our words have wings but fly not where we would.” I can’t imagine George, AKA Mary Ann Evans, ever being unable to “fly” where her words are going or where they have been.

When I settle in more deeply, though, I realize she didn’t use her real name to write.

She hid her identity and even her gender underneath a masculine given name. George.

During her time, her words went many places she could not go – as Mary Ann Evans.

It makes me wonder, who would I be as a writer if I sent my words into the world under a different identity? I think of JK Rowlings, who published the ridiculously successful Harry Potter books using her initials rather than her first name because her publishers believed a feminine name would hurt sales.

She has certainly flown up and over where her words flew. Many of us know her story, from welfare mom to international sensation, but when she was starting out the prevailing business belief was her identity as a she should be cloaked.

It is risky to throw your words into the air and then follow them.

It is risky to throw your words into the world and then feel comfortable going wherever they take you.

“People might point and laugh,” I foolishly believe.

So what if they do?

Yes. So what if they do.

That is my mantra for the time being. I am going to be more bold and courageous in following my words into the world and beyond because I am stripping away the power from “they” who point, laugh and ridicule.

So what if they do? I will take note and move one rung higher on the ladder of my literary adventures.

Are you feeling brave enough to join me in flight?

* * * * *

This post is my first with the Linking up with My Ladies Party from Dysfunction Junction. I hope to meet lots of new, phenomenal bloggers who will quickly become my friends!

 

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Y is for YOU: Literary Grannies (of today AND the future!) from A to Z

What is stopping you? The world is patiently waiting for you to write!

I have been looking forward to writing this entry all month long. April 2013 and the A to Z challenge is almost over. I will miss it, as I did last year, yet I know I have learned a lot and I know (since you have told me) many of you have learned a lot as well.

 If this is your first visit or your forty first visit, you are here at exactly the right time.

Today’s post, after all, is about you.

Fifty years from now, a young writer takes a moment and googles (or its future equivalent) your name to research more about you. Perhaps she is writing a research paper or writing a blog article or maybe a 21^st century style encyclopedia.

You have become a literary granny. Yes, YOU!

Maybe until this moment you never gave it any thought.

How will your words be influential to another generation of readers?

Some of you haven’t even given thought to whether or not your words are influencing anyone. Some of you don’t write for others, only for yourself. Some of you have tried over and over to find your niche, or to write a novel someone will buy or perhaps you are so frightened you have yet to share your first poem with anyone outside of your personal notebook.

Maybe there is a young woman in your life who wants to write but hasn’t started putting words on the page. Perhaps it is your turn to be the encourager of a future literary granny. Time and time again I find writers who knew each other, who came alongside one another to insure the words to continue to be written.

The world is waiting for your words.

This generation and the next and the next are hopeful you will become their literary granny of tomorrow.

All it takes is for you to be willing to write.

Just write.

Just love the world and your words enough to bring your words to life in a form for the future to enjoy and perhaps, just perhaps, learn from as well.

The future world waits, patiently, for you to write your words today.

 

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Tomorrow’s Literary Granny: Zoe Akins

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This post is a part of my series Our Literary Grannies from A t0 Z which was inspired by the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Find out more about the Challenge by clicking here.

 

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Julie Jordan Scott is available to speak to your group (or in your teleconference) about the creative process, writing and will create a session individually according to your wants and needs. Contact her at 661.444.2735 for more information.

 

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Balance Your Life: Improve Your Writing (+ Business) Excellence

Everything is more interesting when it has more spice: Writing, Business, Life... all of it!

Balance is one of the keys to improving your writing excellence.

I remember way back when in the days I was first starting my life coaching practice more than twelve years ago I spent nearly all my time either on the computer doing marketing and internet networking or working with clients and developing products.

I enjoyed it a lot, but after a while I realized sitting behind a keyboard was not the be-all, end-all of life.

I had left a county job because I wanted to be more flexible, creative and fun, so this almost pure keyboard life wasn’t working out the way I had hoped things would work out.

I started simply, walking my dogs every day and writing morning pages – journaling daily for three pages, usually longhand. When I got up to walk my dogs, not only was I getting exercise, I was purposefully giving space for other insights to pour through me from other sources beyond the computer and the internet.

My dogs were happier, I was happier and my writing took on a different flavor and texture.

I would start my day at the kitchen table rather than the keyboard.

There I would look out the window and write three pages in my college ruled notebook. I didn’t know if it would work, but ten years later it is still working! I found myself becoming spontaneously more creative not only in writing, but in other ways. Those three pages gave me a place to throw figurative spaghetti against the wall.

I had a space to complain – something I never did in my writing as a Life Coach because I thought I had to be perfect in that arena, or at least appear to have it all together.

I had a space to practice with words, to play with words, to remember my ridiculous passion and love for words.

1. How balanced is your life between your online work and your offline living?
2. Are you willing to make your writing (and work life) improve by leaps and bounds?
3. What have you noticed is “missing” from your life lately?

Start a list of simple, ordinary things you would like to experience more. No, this is not the place for your life list of climbing Mt. Everest, but it could be, “Take a daily ten minute walk five days a week,” or “Hand write one thank you note each week,” or “Try a new coffee place this month,” or one of my long-term favorite goals, “Have a lunch date with a friend at least once a week.”

Before you go into panic mode about what you can’t do because it will make your business flounder, please please please at least try on the concept that you will actually get more work done when you don’t inundate yourself with work, work, work even if you love it! One economic term I remember and refer back to is the Law of Diminishing Returns – which basically means you get fewer results the longer you spend on something once you have reached your peak productivity.

Remember:  Balance is one of the keys to improving your writing (+ business + life) excellence.

This post is Number two of 30 and was inspired by the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Throughout the month I will be posting writing tips especially to make your writing (and your writing experience!) better.

I'm so glad you are here!

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Writing & Word Love Tip: One Sentence - One Word - At a Time

Sometimes I simply write one sentence at a time.

Sometimes that is the best medicine. One sentence – no, one word - at a time.

Slowly, methodically, letter by letter dropped onto the page.

Phase two: Let the words sit without you hovering.

Get up and leave, do something else,  remembering what you have written even in the vaguest sense.

In case you didn't "get" that, what I said was...

Get up and leave, do something else,  remembering what you have written even in the vaguest sense.

Return and repeat: one sentence at a time

Our best medicine may be a word at a time.

The most important ingredient in the word-love writing medicine is action. You pick up your pencil (or pen, fingers on the keyboard, etc) and you write that one word.

Simply start and continue and take a break and start and continue and take a break.

Here is how I did it just now for a story I want to write but can’t seem to get it to work how I want it to, right now.

Instead of sitting and doing nothing, I am choosing to write one word or a phrase and then one sentence about three images from the story I want to tell.

Waiting - - - The farmer’s recent presence is left behind as he takes his claim upon the still sleeping trees.

DIY – The Farmer made a stop sign from agricultural scraps. Such a human element amidst so many growing things.

Dancing. The upturned tree exposes roots as their ghosts take the opportunity to throw a celebratory ball.

What images or words or sentences are calling you to put them into language form?

Instead of rushing to write, “rush” to allow yourself to take action to write slowly.

Allow your write action to be a peaceful waterfall of words rather than a freight train rumbling through a busy intersection, upsetting the normal traffic patterns by shouting with its horn and making the buildings around it shake.

One word.

One phrase.

One sentence.

Repeat. Allow the words to guide the growth of the writing itself.

Take action, slowly....

Click here to join the Ultimate Blog Challenge, too!

This was my first post (of 30) for the Ultimate Blog Challenge, April 2013 edition. Follow here for some "Writing Word Love" which is my theme for this month.

 

 

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A is for Aphra Behn: Our Literary Grannies from A to Z

Aphra Behn was an eccentric, wise woman who was well ahead of her times of 17^th Century England. She had quite a sumptuous career before she started writing: she was a spy for England but when King Charles II didn’t pay her for her work in Antwerp, she got sent to debtor’s prison.

Not one to feel victimized and “stuck” in prison, Mrs. Behn (she was married for perhaps a year to Mr. Behn before he died) started writing plays while there. Upon her release she officially became the first professional woman writer in English literature. Some may argue other women wrote before her, but she was the first independent woman to write who actually worked in order to make her living.

Aphra’s first literary success was for the plays she wrote.

Her dream, though was to be remembered for her poetry. Instead, her plays and her novella, Oroonoko, are now considered her most important and influential work. Oroonoko  was a story of an enslaved African prince. It is now considered an important beginning to the development of the English novel.

She had quick success in The Forc'd Marriage in1670. It was an immediate success – well loved and made Behn a financially successful woman as well.  It was followed in 1671 by The Amorous Prince. Five of her plays were produced in the next five years 

Her biggest financial success came next, via The Rover which was produced in 1677. Nell Gwyn, the famed actress and mistress to King Charles II, came out of retirement to play the role of the whore, Angelica Bianca ('white angel').  The Duke of York (he later became King James II) was another fan of the play. 

As Aphra continued to write, her plays became more and more sexual in tone and she was even more gossiped about in the papers and in the circles who tittered and gasped yet somehow continued to support her productions. I wonder if they wore costumes so as not to be seen? Women involved in the theater were also rumored to have a second career in the world’s oldest profession, so she was fighting a battle on several sides.

Playwright Robert Gould wrote of Aphra and other women writers "Punk and Poetess agree so Pat,/ You cannot well be This, and not be That.^”  The pious Alexander Pope said, “The stage how loosely does Astræea tread/ Who fairly puts all characters to bed.^”

I don’t think she cared. She just kept writing.

Her book of poetry, Poems Upon Several Occasions, was published in 1684. She continued to become more and more successful until her death .  She was laid to rest after her death on April 16, 1689 in the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. I think this would have made the baudy, over the top, fun loving Aphra very, very happy.

Centuries later, Virginia Woolf further eulogized her, writing:

All women together ought to let flowers fall upon
the tomb of Aphra Behn, ...for it was she who earned
them the right to speak their minds.

This post is the first of 26 in a series I will be writing and sharing in April,2013. The challenge is simple and SUCH fun!

Check out the A to Z Challenge here.

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Three Simple Steps to Discover the Excellent, Rare, Breathtakingly Precious You

Today's Word-Love Word of the Day is RARE!

I have often thought “unusual” was a polite, code word for “weird” made up by the same people who whisper “cancer” for fear it may be catching.

 

Today in my handy junior thesaurus (I gleaned it recently at a used book sale) told me rare is both treasured and unusual. It is unique and often a one-of-a-kind, like the statue of liberty. Outstanding is rare. Precious is rare. Importance and excellence and yes, outstanding is rare.

So if I am “unusual”, I am also precious, outstanding, important and excellent.

All those other things I thought about being odd or weird or different simply mean I am special – I am precious – I am outstanding.

Any other meaning is just made up by my insecurities those people who whisper “cancer” don’t have anything to do with, I have everything to do with because I am the one who conjures up the meaning. I may feel a slight from those people, but since I am not one of them, they may feel uncomfortable with my outstanding nature. They would rather be cookie cutter people. I would rather be as uncommon as the Edelweiss plant in the United States and as precious as an expensive, high quality diamond.

Imagine: I gained all of this because I love words – and am choosing to pluck a word-a-day from my thesaurus and dictionary several times a week.

Imagine: I was so angry yesterday because my computer swallowed this blog post before I had the chance to hit “save” so I lost the entire thing and all of this is a rewrite. On reflection, I believe it is a better rewrite than the first try.

Imagine: I am now smiling because I had written in my notebook key sentences and phrases, so the fact I had to create a “do over” word of the day essay really turned out to be a pleasure, rather than a bother.

Some people claim a “right” to be angry and they allow unpleasant words to gurgle up and spill all over everyone who surrounds them. I would rather step away, take a breath, and start over than actually cause damage to others because I am not taking the time to take a breath before I toss ugly words all over my environment.

Yesterday I was frustrated. I wrote what I thought was an introduction to this essay. I just edited that introduction out of the finished piece. It isn’t word-love when it is whiney and fault finding.

Interesting, this uncommon experience of losing a post has actually made me feel so empowered because the simple choices I made. Naturally because I am posting these “Word-Love Word of the Day” essays, if you ever experience a similar situation, you can learn from my experience in three simple steps.

1. I stayed calm and didn’t slap any labels on the experience such as “I am so stupid!” or “I can’t believe I did that!”
2. I stepped away from that particular creative process to gain perspective and rebirth the desire to get these words written. Instead of this process, I worked on several art projects instead, wordless projects, “language free” projects.
3. I returned here in the early morning. The sun is rising as I write, I haven’t even spoken to anyone yet today. That is in itself a rare experience but is here because it is Spring break and I gave this priority a high spot on my list.

Best wishes to you outstanding ones reading here today. I look forward to hearing how you shift in your thinking about "odd" and "weird" and the choices you make differently because you take a breath, leave and return to begin again.

 

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Flourish: Today's Word-Love of the Day for Inspiration & Practical Application

March 24 Word-love Word of the Day: Flourish

I am one of those people who started naming a theme each year more than ten years ago.

 

It has become quite the thing in the last few years, to claim and live “one word” throughout the year. I believe in this concept, even though in the past I have usually forgotten all my grand intentions sometime in early May.

This year, my theme of the year is Growth. I haven’t been consistent with sub-themes each month like I have done in the past, but I am now inspired to focus on a “Word of the Day”.  

It all started when I was talking to a friend today who has been particularly stressed out lately and having a difficult time sleeping.

I said,

“While you are trying to go to sleep, chant a word silently in your mind: you know a word like ‘peace’ or some other word that has a positive meaning for you.”

I don’t know if he’ll do it, but I was reminded of the power of words and my ever flaming passion for words, so I thought, “Perhaps I’ll try a word of the day for… a week… and see how it goes.”

Today, my Word-Love of the day is FLOURISH.

What does the word FLOURISH mean?

One way to define flourish is to grow luxuriantly, extravagantly, abundantly.  Another is to achieve success or to be in a state of activity or production.

Have you reached a height of development or influence? If you have, you have flourished.

Naturally I think about productions of Shakespeare, which use flourish as a way of acting on stage: gesturing boldly or extravagantly as well as costuming: excess adornment and embellishment or finally, the sound of a horn to announce the arrival of someone important may be referred to by saying, “enter right after the queen’s flourish” meaning a fancy play of a horn, like an exclamation point via the ethers.

 For extra word-love fun,  three quotes for reflection:

"For evil to flourish, it only requires good people to do nothing.”

Simon Wiesenthal

"Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.”

William Blake

"Virtue can only flourish among equals.”

Mary Wollstonecraft

How will you flourish in your everyday life today?

I will report in tomorrow when I post my first Monday Word-Love of the Day.

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

Free Up Your Writing & Creative Juices by Getting Yourself Good and Word-Drunk

 

This is the face of a woman who is drunk on words. Word high. Blissed out by words.

 

Artist’s Dates, Writer’s Dates, special times you devote to freeing up your creative juices in a sort of “without a product purpose sort of way.

I believe in them.  Ever since I was first introduced to the concept of the Artist’s Date by Julia Cameron I wanted to celebrate. This is something I do naturally and now, someone had given me permission.

My favorite writer’s date is to go to the library for a couple hours and surround myself with books and then… read them, take notes, and allow them to do their thing with my mind and soul.

I call it word drunk. I know, this might not be politically correct, but I don’t know of another woozy, slightly out-of-body bliss way to describe it. Before you say anything or click away, please realize there is a history of alcoholism in my family, so people who are drunk on alcohol frighten me. Seriously.

But being high on the written word? There is absolutely nothing like it.

 

Last week on my library date with myself I also bought six books for sixty CENTS. Yes, you are reading those numbers right.

Sixty CENTS.

I also brought some word-love flowers to grace my table as I read and wrote.

It was almost like being at my desk at home except there was no computer and I don’t have quite this many books surrounding me as in the library. It may seem strange to you, but I love having books that have a history of being read by other people. I especially love having books other people have inscribed.

Word-love, after all, is something to share. Bliss is something to share. Which is why I am here, talking to you today.  I have even been known to encourage my friends to imbibe in word bliss with me. This is my friend, who joined me at the library. I heard when he lamented, "I don't even know where the library is in this town."

He read about the subject that makes his heart go a flutter.

He was also impressed by the art he saw on display and treated me to a bit of an art tour of the place. See what happens when you allow yourself a couple hours of indulgently browsing and hanging out at the library?

Do you see those two books on top of my library stack pile?

They are Margaret Atwood’s The Door and the Letters of Louise Bogan? I bought them both on Amazon when I got home. The Atwood poetry book included a CD of her reading her poems and cost me a mere ten dollars and the Louise Bogan book was less than five dollars altogether AND it is inscribed, a pleasant bonus I discovered when I tore it open two days after I ordered it.

I wrote this page and became delighted all over again.

Word-love. Word-blissed-out and yes, Word-drunk... that comes with a creative hangover which is almost as fun as the primary experience.

When will you visit your library again?

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

Spring is in the Bakersfield sky, which always reminds me.....

Julie Jordan Scott is a Creative Life Coach, a Poet Performer, a Writer and a Mommy Extraordinaire. Stay in touch with her via twitter or facebook or you may always call or text her at 661.444.2735 to arrange a complimentary coaching session. Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot  

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott