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Brownie for Life

April 20, 2012 in guest post, write 11

This is a guest post by an amazing writer, actress… and wife! The fantastic Sarah Zahn is an avid learner and Mindy Kaling fan.  She likes coffee, fun writing games, and bags of Doritos.  She’s also the founder of Sugared Beauty, LLC, a line of skincare made with organic ingredients.  Follow her adventures here: @SugaredBeauty.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t enjoy learning.  Like being from a small town in the Midwest, learning stuff and getting good grades just seemed like my lot in life.  This didn’t exactly grant me a lot of friends in school. In 7th grade I remember a kid in my class introducing me to the cute new boy as a brownie.  I’m ashamed to admit I thought it was a compliment.

As a result of this and other name-calling incidents, some of the first interpersonal relationship lessons I heard from my mom was that I should “get a sense of humor” and “bury the hatchet.”

I am still figuring out how to do this.

It’s not that I was any smarter than anyone else, I just got a kick out of learning things.  Throughout grade school I would toe the line between first and almost-first in class…until I hit puberty. Continue Reading…

How to Write Worthless Content

April 18, 2012 in creative exercises, creativity, write 28

How to Write Worthless Content | Creatives

Writing worthless content is all the rage. Here’s some tips!

1. Your opening sentence must elicit boredom.

You might try a sentence like this:

“This blog post is about the time I found a rock in my shoe.”

Or… Continue Reading…

One Minute Affair With Peace

March 30, 2012 in write 14

Busyness presses down, in, around

And the roses grown dim.

Stealing senses

Robbing of smell, taste, touch.

Hamster-wheel mind-numbs

Creating needless constant crisis.

But I steal away. Continue Reading…

Let the Good Times Roll

March 28, 2012 in guest post, write 16

Today’s post is a guest post by Jim Woods. He is a writer, blogger and guitar junkie in Nashville, TN. He is also a chocolate chip cookie addict, but who isn’t right? You can read his blog here and find him on Twitter @unknownjim.

 

Tree. Arrow. Bee. Fish. Light Bulb. Turtle. Sad. Building. Footprint. What do all of these things have in common? Not much at all. But those are my results on my first roll with my Rory’s Story Cubes.

 

How do these work? Continue Reading…

Slow is the New Fast

March 21, 2012 in creative exercises, creativity, write 13

Slow is the New Fast

Slower.

Slowing down.

Taking a moment to be silent.

And still.

Take thirty seconds to be silent.

(30 second pause. . .)

What did you hear?

I hear my breath, rising and falling. I hear a few early morning chirps outside my window. A slight hum of cars off in the distance. Continue Reading…

Work in Progress: Weirdest Blog Post Ever

March 9, 2012 in creativity, write 17

This morning, I started two blog posts.

And didn’t finish them.

It feels a bit like my work today is a failure.

A flop.

I even considered not posting at all today…

But it’s time to make some lemonade.

Ladies and Gentlemen: the weirdest blog post ever…

Continue Reading…

Picture Poem

February 29, 2012 in art, creative exercises, write 6

Molasses thick clouds stretch the sky like pulled cords of salt water taffy.

I stop.

Is the sky expanding before me?

My chest sinks into the gooey love place, embracing its smallness.

Everything I need, I already have.

Add your own picture poem in the comments based on this picture.

The Shortest Short Stories: Tiny Stories

February 27, 2012 in creative exercises, ideation, write 20

Whilst traveling, my wife and I ran into a friend who had this book:

Tiny Stories

It’s a fascinating (tiny) book of idea generators, saucy illustrations and super teeny-tiny stories. Coupled with this post of writing prompts I read yesterday, I thought I’d try my hand at a few tiny stories as well.

Please leave your own tiny story in the comments so we can all enjoy your creativity.

Tiny Story #1

She didn’t like it when Janice talked that way.

But then again, Janice didn’t like the way she listened either.

Tiny Story #2

When in doubt, stop doubting.

Tiny Story #3

He liked watching people draw, but his favorite was brush on canvas. That sent him reeling.

Continue Reading…

How to (not) Write a Blog: Biggest Blogging Mistakes

February 22, 2012 in advice, creativity, write 11

Blog Mistake Number One: Poor Title

The best way to keep readers from enjoying your awesome posts is to write a poor title.

Amancay Maahs (Creative Commons)

Your title should engage the reader, build value and provide them with a possible answer to a question they’ve always wanted to know. For instance, you’re reading this post (most likely) simply because of the title “How to (not) Write a Blog: Biggest Blogging Mistakes.”

For some great tips on writing engaging headlines, check this out.

Blog Mistake Number Two: Distracting Errors

If you wint your credibulit to be shot to the wall, make stupid errors just the ones’ in this sentence

Distracting aren’t they?

Tip: if you’re not great at catching grammatical errors, have someone who is gifted in that arena proofread your posts before hitting that publish button.

Continue Reading…

Living a Better Creative Story

January 20, 2012 in creativity, write 16

I heard about a guy once who wrote a book about his journey and other things and a lot of his sentences started like I started this one.

***

The grammar, incomplete sentences and all the boring (but geekily important) stuff about writing correctly drove me nuts while reading Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.


But I cried a bit at the end.

Yeah, I cried.

All the rambling sentences aside. It’s a good story. It’s a great story. It’s a transformative story.

Here’s a bit of a new story. Told in his style.

Ala Donald Miller

Sometimes I wonder if all this spectating isn’t good for me. I watch TV. Go to a show. Read a book. Laugh at a movie. I’m enjoying it all. I’m relaxing. It’s great.

Continue Reading…

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