I despise stagnation. If I’m not learning or growing, it feels like I’m dying. This is partially because it’s the way I am (learning is so much fun!), and partially because I’ve got a lot of baggage when it comes to job progression and success. In my anxiety-infested brain, not having enough to do at…
Category: Writing
The Write Stuff: A Mixed Bag
We’re rounding the last turn of 2017, and The Write Stuff isn’t steaming along quite as well as I hoped. Goal 1: Finish four short stories in 2017 I’d love to meet this goal, but the harder I push to come up with an idea, the less creative my brain seems. I’ve been relying on…
Writing Steps for Non-Writers
Speech 2: Organize Your Speech. The second speech of the Toastmasters Competent Communicator program introduces the basic concepts of organizing a speech around a speech outline. Getting back into writing has made it clear to me why most authors are alcoholics, manic depressives, or lunatics. I am not a talented writer by nature. I had…
The Write Stuff: Well Color Me Surprised
Month eight of The Write Stuff finds me in the middle of peak season at work. I can’t concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes, so I’m gobsmacked to report that I finished my third story. Um, what? via GIPHY Goal 1: Finish four short stories in 2017 Look at this. Look at…
Love People. Use Things.
The first question my stepmother asked about my apartment in San Antonio was, “Are these all your clothes?” When we moved in July, the movers were surprised: “Only 36 boxes for a three-bedroom apartment?” The accidental minimalist I didn’t set out to be a minimalist. As a kid, I was the opposite: I had so…