Janice MacLeod's Blog, page 4

August and the latest painted storefronts

The novelty of summer has worn off.

We are all back from vacation, have stopped analyzing our tan lines, stopped making big plans and haven’t seemed to make it much further than our front porch.

We’re fine with it.

August exists as a way to prepare us for the end of summer.

It’s still warm yet mornings have a new chill in the air and we find ourselves scrounging around the back of our closets for a sweater. “I know I left it here somewhere back in May.”

We are ready.

August filled us with tomatoes and peaches, given us bloom after bloom, and a tree of apples to pick. We’ve had our fill. We are ready for pants and socks again.

On this last week of August we are on butterfly watch. Last year we had a caterpillar on our dill plant. We had high hopes but he was suddenly gone, likely a bird snack. We have so many birds here. We are near a World Biosphere Reserve, which sounds very grand, bit it’s the same place it has always been except now it includes a big sign stating its status. We have a point of land jutting out in Lake Erie. Unimaginatively called Long Point. Birds from way up north fly down, rest here, fly to the end of the point, rest again, then take a big flight over the lake to the USA. The American Dream bird-style.

So we have a lot of birds interrupting our butterfly experiments.

This year we improved our methods by capturing a caterpillar and trapping it in a container designed for such things. Added milkweed. Waited. Nature takes a long time when you’re watching it. Waiting for water to boil and all that. You want to poke it.

We’ve given up on mowing the grass often as well.

It stays longer for, well, longer. Mowing it right before the neighbours start to talk. A century from now, lawn mowing machines will be in museums and those of us living through the 21st century will be seen as barbaric. Trying to control nature.

Lawns will be a cacophony of wildflowers and our garden goal will be to avoid monocultures (like grass) from taking over. The younger generation will scoff down at us from their high horses. How could you have mown the lawn?! I won’t leave notes for historians to find regarding our butterfly-to-be in captivity.

My routine has altered slightly due to my 100 Painted Storefronts Project.

Get up. Sketch. Sleep. Get up. Paint. Sleep. Get up. Post. Sleep. Repeat.

Discipline is not a bad thing. It is the fastest way to improvement and that is juice to keep the project rolling along. I’m wild about getting better at these storefronts so I can get faster at making them. So many storefronts, so little time! I don’t think I’m alone here in missing vibrant streets filled with open stores.

 

Find more at the Etsy Shop. And watch the nice Making Of videos at Instagram @janicemacleodauthor.

I spent about two years fretting about making videos. Then about an hour doing it. So it takes about two years and an hour for me.

I’ve also had some requests by people who have great taste in storefronts. There are some beauties out there. If you have requests or just know of fantastic storefronts, let me know in the comments.

Now back to painting and butterfly watch.

Janice

The 100 Day Project: Paris Storefronts (plus a colouring page)

Eleven glorious days into my self-inflicted 100 Day Project and I already went from wanting to crawl under the couch and hide to full on INSPIRED. (Scroll to the bottom for a colouring page.)

This original is available in the shop as are all those featured in this post.

My word for the year is Finishing. Finishing projects. One of my lingering projects was to post my original paintings on Etsy. I have posted a few along the way, but the pile was immense and the enthusiasm for listing them was not.

Most of them sit quietly in binders, murmuring together in my office.

Evidently, I preferred to shroud myself in a thick, suffocating TO DO list called GOTTA-GET-TO-IT than actually getting to it.

Now it’s August. I needed a boost of enthusiasm for the task. I really don’t care to take this task into next year. So I made a 100 Day Project out of it.

What is a 100 Day Project?

A 100 Day Project is something you do every day for 100 days. Sounds simple enough. Its roots are in the creativity and design world, so visual places like Instagram are littered with art that people are sharing as part of their 100 Day Projects. Go ahead and follow me over at Instagram to watch this 100 Day Project unfold.

But a 100 Day Project doesn’t have to be art. It can be anything. Something to add to your life. Something to take away. For 100 days in a row.

The big idea is to pursue more of what you want in your life. To become more of the person you want to be. And in my case, to get the art in my head (and office) out to the world.

So I created some fun packages on my Etsy shop:

Each package includes:

An original piece of art (some from my books, some new)A typewritten letter from one of my vintage typewritersSome ephemera… postcards, sketches, etc…A whole envelope of good times.

It’s fun whipping them up, matching ephemera with paintings, writing about it all.

I’m also getting to master all kinds of uncomfortable skills.

…kind of a dread at imagining what Package 65 will be when already I feel liked I’ve lived a lot of lives by Package 11. Makes me want to take up nail biting.

A few lessons I learned that you might find helpful if you do 100 Day Project:

I stopped focusing on the whiny little voices in my head. Instead of saying, “I don’t know HOW,” or “I don’t know WHAT,” or “This is LAME,”or “LATER” it says “Get this DONE.” Turns out, it doesn’t so much matter if it’s good. It matters that it’s done.I learn what I really like. Turns out, I love love LOVE painting storefronts. I think it’s why I fell so hard for Paris. The whole city is choked full of pretty storefronts and cafés all lined up like treasure chests full of shiny pretty things.I accept… finally… the truth. If I haven’t completed some paintings by now, there is something about them I don’t want to finish. They have already fulfilled their destiny as Paris Letters or elements in the books. They aren’t meant for a second call of duty.Binder grumbles.

You’d think I would know by now what makes me tick.

The Paris Letters… ohhhh they made me tick. That was good times. But making these letter packages makes me tick as well. And painting storefronts is teeth tingling good times.

This is an Italian food shop on my street in Paris. I loved painting all the little jars.

Here’s the sketch if you’d like to try it, too:

Okay. Eleven down, 89 to go. Wish me luck!

To watch the progress and/or buy those featured in this post, head over to the Etsy shop. Only 130 days until Christmas. I’m also making videos of The 100 Day Project over on Instagram. Follow me there for a video version of all these.

The art of moving from floundering to finishing

The poppies revealed themselves in April. Self-seeded. Volunteers. I thought… well, HELLO and THANKS.

A few years ago I was at the library book sale, which is so good it is dangerous. Outside was a garden where poppies were sashaying in the breeze. Oh hi! So friendly. So bright.

I picked a seed head and snuck it into my pocket. Was I stealing? Maybe. It felt a little like stealing… not unlike the library book sale. So many books. So little room in my car. So little room in my day!

I came home and scattered them in my garden. The seeds. Not the books. Nothing happened. It really didn’t feel like stealing after nothing happened.

I moved on with my life. This year, those poppies showed up. Great big billowing poppies. Gorgeous and tall and proud. Well, HELLO and THANKS.

There was about a week of this glorious morning salut. Then the rain came and pummelled the whole lot of them to the ground.

We needed the rain. We really did. But did the rain have to pummel my poppies?

So I had to rip them out. Believe me when I tell you I tried to save them. Standing them up, wishing and hoping. Fretting. But you can’t fix a broken stem. (Saved the seed heads… I’m not insane.) In the meantime, a friend had some plants that needed separating, so while the rain was pouring on one side of the house, I was unloading a car full of plants on the other side of the house.

Now I have a free space where the poppies were and BOOM, it’s filled.

This weird phenomena has been happening lately.

A strange spiritual balancing out.

I buy a friend a coffee. I get a coffee from another friend.

I give a book away. I get a book.

I send a letter. I get a letter.

I even separated and gave away some of the plants in my garden. Now I have just as many but different plants from another garden.

And it’s not all with the same person.

This doesn’t mean I’m getting ahead. Not by a long shot.

But it does feel like there is a sort of play happening with something or someone beyond myself. An Even-Steven game. It also feels like waiting. Like I’m being both sustained and held back so that perfect timing can reveal itself later.

I’m aware that I’m being a bit woo-hoo about all this.

I suppose those poppies weren’t really self-seeded. They were seeded by me a few years ago. It’s just that I forgot that I had a hand in the process.

Cut to today. I’m taking some art classes and figuring out the next series of courses I’ll be offering. They are free courses, hence kind of boring.

We need some skin in the game to be motivated.

But these classes are a sort of poppy seed. I’m also spending my days finishing things. My word for 2023 is FINISHING. I have had so many half finished projects in the last few years. Things stopped for one reason or another (lockdowns, illness, surgery, laundry).

I learned that how to finish something is to stop NOT finishing something.

Yes, to finish something you need to STOP not finishing the thing.

It’s a whole other ballgame to just sit with a project once it hits the boring or frustrating bit and continue on until it’s complete.

So I practiced finishing. I finally reupholstered the bench, finished the book, dealt with the pile of papers, painted the frame, hung the photo, finished the puzzle, organized the shelf, even watching a movie all the way to the end.

In all this, I learned just how scattered my brain has become. Is it parenthood? Age? Some sort of long Covid symptom? Long chemo symptom? Endless doom scrolling?

Short attention-span theatre.

That’s what my world has become. What my brain has become. But that’s not how things get done. Things get done by sustained energy toward one project until it has arrived at its final format. This is what I am relearning. I was good at it before. Then I picked up my phone.

Where was I?

So yeah. Poppies. There is a metaphor in there somewhere. Oh yeah, poppies represent REMEMBERING. I forgot. But that’s my practice lately. Sustained attention toward a thing. Remembering to complete.

It’s all so obvious now. My friend Pete once told me this: “Let the seeds fall where they may. Let God take care of the rest.” I suppose that’s the lesson these days. Scattered seeds. Scattered projects. Scattered mind. If you’re feeling the same, know that there is a BECOMING of something on the horizon. Something is about to bloom.

The Dance of Floundering: Nurturing Creativity or Wasting Time

Simon writes me a letter. It is in response to the letter I sent him in the mail from my manual typewriter. He writes back on paper, scanning it in and emailing it to me.

It’s his little revolt against the inefficiency. I’m aware. I’m amused.

This is how we play.

In his letter, he compliments me on my prolific tendencies. How I have manage to create so many things and send them out there in the world to live their glorious little lives.

Yet the thought made me want to go lay in bed with a wet washcloth on my forehead.

Because lately I have been floundering. It is unpleasant. Uncomfortable. Irritating.

In the pursuit of creative endeavours, it is easy to glorify productivity and efficiency, leaving little room for accepting the messiness and murkiness of floundering and wasting time. Even by the artist herself! Yet, within the tapestry of the creative process, these seemingly unproductive moments are often irritatingly necessary.

My floundering has been akin to a blank page. Writers block. Whatever you want to call it. I am not sure how to snap out of it, or even if I should. Am I just waiting for a wave to come my way?

This has been a long spell.

Now that our minds are mush from scrolling through social media, the world wide web has given us AI so we can be spoon fed thoughts we used to make for ourselves. I asked AI about creativity and floundering in the tone of Janice MacLeod.

AI told me this and I was all, “Aw shucks, thanks robot.”

Janice MacLeod, a dream-chaser and masterful artist of life’s everyday adventures, invites us to embrace the magic found in wandering aimlessly through the corridors of our imagination. She reminds us that creativity thrives in the uncharted territories of our minds, where time is an elastic concept, and rules are mere suggestions. Like a carefree wanderer, we must grant ourselves permission to flounder, trusting that within the maze of uncertainty lies the spark of inspiration.

The AI robot sure is wordy. Makes me seem like an overall wearing paint splatter smiley faced lady who skips off to the farmers market and sits in cozy nooks of bookstores in the rain.

Not entirely inaccurate, but the actual me LATELY has been spending months trying and flailing and working full days and coming up with nothing to show for it.

It’s all rather unpleasant.

This is what floundering looked like today:The plan is to make a video for my new course coming out (at some point, based on degree of aforementioned floundering).Record a video to check lighting and sound. Unacceptable.Take shower, do hair, put on full makeup, find very filtery filter even though nothing is wrong with my face… and yet… could be better.Discover the audio could better as well. Scrounge around in basement to look for microphone. Find random cords that might be useful. Bring them upstairs. Also find a ring I lost. It’s tarnished.Spend 20 minutes polishing and untarnishing ring.Can’t find original microphone. Use another microphone I found while looking for first microphone.Record second video to check lighting and sound again. Good.Look out window. Rain is coming.Take dog out for a walk… dog sitting today.Get caught in rain. Now have wet dog.Rather than fix rainy hair and makeup, take off all nice “video” clothes and put on loungewear. The magic is over.Watch garden show.Decide I can’t just make a video off the cuff. When I do that my eyes dart all over the place and I look like a clown. Will need to write a script.Turn on computer to make script.Check stats on blog instead. Decide it’s time to write a blog post, but on what?Write blog post.Not entirely wasted. I did a blog post.

And this is coming from me. ME!?! Miss Fancy Pants Author and Artist of bladiddi bla bla all the things.

I’m sitting here in my house afraid that this floundering is really aging, fearful that this is the new me. Blaming health issues of the past. Blaming time going by. Did I have a Best Before date? Am I no longer my best?!?!? Is my brain getting soft? What does that even mean?

This is the panic behind the loafing.

They say all this idle time is about allowing ideas to germinate and blossom so we can pluck them like wildflowers from the meadows of our thoughts and transform into art. These phases are actually nurturing respites that replenish our creative well. We are to embrace the gentle chaos.

I dunno. Sounds like something AI would say.

I’m not really looking for an answer here. I’m just throwing this out there, that if you are dancing the floundering dance, you’re not alone. Later, when we shake it off, maybe we will look back and know what it was all about. But while we are here, in the wise words of Blue Rodeo:

“Hey if we’re lost, then we are lost together.”

Janice

PS: Mother’s day special, get 20% off everything in the Etsy shop until May 15th. Get your mother something nice and Paris-y:

Paris Letters:  I’ll pop the prettiest personalized letters in the mail for your mom. We’ll be besties in no time.Paris Art: Canvas and paper prints to adorn walls and keep the Paris dream alive.Paris Notebooks: Writing journals with spirals and pockets! It’s like the best A-line dress but as a journal.

What happens when you quit eating sugar for 30 days

This is not the scientific study you’re expecting. But it is what to expect when you quit eating sugar.

Stage 1: Loopholes

When you stop eating sugar you start looking for ways to eat sugar. You start making “rules” about what is “good” or “bad” to eat… honey to stevia to “only a scoop in my morning shake.” Benefits outweigh the risks, yadda yadda. There is an inner teacher watching your every move and you are justifying them all. Honey is natural. Sugar cane is natural. Where do you draw the line? They are both sugar.

Stage 2: Sadness

Sugary foods are called treats for a reason. Pops of happiness that bring you the dopamine which brings you the good feels. When you can’t get your hits of dopamine through sugar, you start looking elsewhere and dive deeper into side addictions. You watch if the stock went up or down, the sales went up or down, the scale went up or down. (By the way, you might actually lose weight, but I wouldn’t know as I don’t weigh myself as a self-care rule. I don’t wear pants that will hurt my feelings either.)

Stage 3: Adulting

You will shift from the student facing the teacher (but it’s just HONEY) to becoming the teacher yourself. You will, in essence, decide to put on your big girl pants and just accept that sugar isn’t an option for now.

Stage 4: Anger

You will start defending your rights to eat sugar… to yourself. (I’m an adult so quit bossing me around!) You should get to do what you want. FREEDOM!!!!

Stage 5: Eating iCandy

You will start watching cooking shows and pay special attention to the cake decorating segment… while eating carrots and apple slices, and seething… having established the sugar from fruit and vegetables as permissible during the loopholes in Stage 1.

Stage 6: Wait

For 30 days to end. You will wait 100 days for that 30 days to be done.

Stage 7: Wonder

You wonder if it’s working… this self-imposed no sugar situation. Is it doing what it promised? Whatever that means to you. For me, I think a lot about Ukraine… citizens and soldiers who don’t have chocolate treats to actively avoid. Oh my sweet, silly, luxurious little problems… not getting sugar in my tea when so many don’t have sugar or hot water OR CLEAN WATER.

So I suppose, as a Lenten project, the No Sugar is working. It sure feels like I’m wasting away. My spirit is sagging. A priest once said “Lent is not Weight Watchers,” but I find there is rich material to be unearthed in this project. All kinds of room to think, to appreciate, to wait forever. Gosh… you think you don’t have time on your hands. Try giving up sugar. There is PLENTY OF TIME all laid out right in front of you where you get to practice restraint and discipline while you observe the snags in your soul. Good times.

One of the biggies is when I go shopping as part of a tiresome household maintenance task. I don’t want to go to the pharmacy. I don’t want to do the big grocery trip. I DON’T WANNA! So when I am there, I get me some peanut buttercups and cheer myself up in the car.

But no cheerful peanut buttercups for me, and that makes me Stage 2 through 6. Again.

Ugh!

Will I keep at it? This No Sugar thing. Yeah, probably.

Even though I’m in the middle of the sucky part, I can tell it’s a good thing to not be on the rollercoaster ride that comes with sugar hits throughout the day. Right now is not fun, but it is… better. She admits grumpily. 

A chair with a view is the best start to good writing

It is March and there are hints of spring in the air. The ground is still frozen, snow everywhere, but the sun is warm mid-afternoon. This week, I found myself standing out at the bus stop waiting for my kid with my face toward the sun soaking up the rays.

My house is great in so many ways but it lacks one thing: a chair in a quiet corner with a view to the backyard. We don’t have a window facing the backyard at the right height so it would take a massive renovation to get a perfect perch by the window.

I find myself slinking away from the incessant TV sounds and looking for a place to sit quietly with my coffee, my notebook, and silence.

Hello silence, my old friend.

The roomies probably turn up the TV to drown out the sound of the typewriter.

Despite the HINTS of spring, we had another ice storm last night. This morning all is covered in a crust of ice. I don’t mind winter, but most of the joys come from cozy inside activities and looking out the window at the snow squalls, which makes my lust for a chair by a window all the more intense. Seeing the chaos outside makes the inside all the more indulgent.

I’m tired of wet socks.

Everyone who lives in a winter climate has to deal with stepping in a puddle of melted snow from shoes at the entrance of the house. A lifestyle choice… having wet socks. Rarely wet enough to change. Just wet enough to remind you of your lifestyle choices.

Santa Monica was a dream in this regard.

When I lived in Santa Monica, there was no getting ready to go outside. You just… walked out the door. Bare legs, exposed toes, forgetting your cardigan and shrugging… who cares.

I miss my outdoor seating zones. 

We have a fantastic front porch, excellent side porch, and wonderful backyard… but all are outdoor seating and no fun in winter for sitting, sipping, and staring off.

To distract ourselves, we have been discussing a vacation.

A possible trip to Paris. It has been way too long. There was a time I only dreamed of going to Paris. Now it is the obvious choice. The baby, the cancer, the surgeries thereafter, the stupid Lyme disease (honestly!?!?!), and pandemic have conspired to keep us huddled at home.

It is amazing how far one will go to get a chair by a window. 

Paris… a whole city devoted to chairs by windows with a view. Writing books in Paris is almost cliché, but it’s because of THE CHAIRS…. BY THE WINDOWS… ALL OVER THE PLACE. People think writing books is some grand mystical thing. It has a lot to do with chairs and windows.

If you set the scene and sit there long enough, ideas are more likely to waltz in.

Ideas are shy… they need coaxing.

I wonder to myself if I had a chair by a window what books would come from it?

My books started in journal writing in cafés in Paris. They were edited at my countertop. Best to avoid views whilst editing.

If you’re curious about improving writing, consider the environment. You can also get the ball rolling with one of my writing courses.

I popped a new bunch of Paris Letter bundle subscriptions over at the shop. Someone who had the original set wanted more so I curated the stack into six darling little 12-letter bundles.

If you can’t have that Paris view, you can slake your cravings with letters written while looking at it.

Who knows. The letters might inspire a trip to Paris and the search for that literary holy grail: the perfect window with a view.

The Dark Side of Gratitude Lists: An Honest Look at the Trend

Someone has already told you gratitude lists are a good idea. Seems gratitude lists are the ultimate solution to feel… well, to avoid feeling anything but popsicle saccharine fake feels.

(But if you want the one above, click here. I admit, it is quite clever and cute.)

Look, I don’t want to make waves, but hear me out.

Stop defending your little bedside table collection of gratitude journals.

The good part:

Gratitude lists have become a popular tool for boosting mood and improving mental health. The idea is simple: write down a list of things you are grateful for each day, and focus on the positive aspects of your life. You get a nice little dopamine hit before you sink back down to the doldrums. The idea is to keep up with the gratitude lists to raise your base level emotions from WORST DAY EVER to CHEERFUL or at least FINE.

Simple enough, and yet, not really.

Because… the bad part:

Gratitude feels like a lot of pressure to always be happy and content. Gratitude can disguise itself as the inner parent pointing at your face and saying “Put a smile on that face!” or “Stop crying!” or my personal fave “Stop crying or I’ll give you a real reason to cry.”

HIDE EMOTIONS, PRONTO. 

If you’re struggling with negative emotions, especially now during the February Blues where despondency and boredom and heaviness reign supreme, having someone hand you a gratitude journal is irritating and discounts your true emotions.

“Put a smile on that face!”

Which doesn’t make us feel better. It makes us not want to hang out with that person.

In conclusion, while gratitude lists can be a useful tool for some, it is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mental health and well-being, despite what your bossy friends tell you. And if it doesn’t work for you, you’re not defective or need to judge yourself for not doing it right.

You can do any of these 3 things:

Add that person to your Shit List for a time. They might be better as happy June friends. They just don’t excel at being February friends.Light a scented candle and use the flame to burn your gratitude journal.Try writing down or reviewing what is actually happening, not just the good stuff.I like to do the OLD MAN MEDITATION.

This is when I sit still and close my eyes. I imagine myself as an old man walking out of the house he has lived in for a very long time. By now, he’s figured out most things. He surveys his yard, his house. He’s content with it. He also sees projects that need to be done. He also sees the failed dreams, what didn’t work out. It’s not a cottage by the sea. There is not a fancy car in the driveway. He accepts it all. He breathes it all in.

Then he goes back in the house and gets on with it.

I also like writing in my journal while listening to The Wong Janice play cello on YouTube.

Let us gaze at the nice colour combination on her shirt that matches the cello so nicely. Lovely!

Leonard Cohen once said he liked feeling morose. That’s where all the good writing was lurking. Imagine what we wouldn’t have if he was handed a gratitude journal. No Hallelujah! 

Last year’s resolution is this year’s secret sauce

Now is about the time we forget our resolutions for the year, which is why I thought I’d stop by your inbox to help you get back on track… not that we remember exactly what our resolutions were that we were so keen on.

Hint: It probably had something to do with health and/or wealth.

Those two juggernauts.

A juggernaut is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable.

Ain’t that the truth.

Now is when we think “Oh yeah, resolutions… pft… it was a trend back in… what… three weeks ago?”

Those old days, three weeks ago when we were so SURE that this year it would all work out. Just need a bit of grit, clarity, and resolution magic to get a jumpstart on health and wealth.

I’m definitely one of those “Do ya have a resolution yet? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya?!?!?!?”

hanging head in embarrassed self-awareness

I have been thinking about 2023 since November 2022 when I did a big clear and reshuffling of my journals from the year. You may recall at this time, I also was gifted a course called The Elegant Art of Feminine Confidence by Erin Kurt, which coincided with a book called You are a Badass by Jen Sincero.

Basically how to be a bad ass at the elegant art of feminine confidence.Or the elegant art of feminine bad assery.

I wasn’t expecting them to work so well together but they did. With both, I was meditating and reactivating my glow…. raising the ol’ frequency. In this process, I found that my real resolution for last year was about fixing broken things.

Not just my body from all the surgeries and diseases… I’m fine now, thanks. And glowing! But I started fixing all the other crap that was broken… the car brakes, the clock, the sluggish internet, the old computer. All the junk that collected and hung around my TO DO lists, thereby dragging me down like albatrosses around my neck.

I wasn’t creating as many courses, books, blogs, ANYTHING… because the computer was acting like it was in 1999. (though healing from surgery didn’t help either, especially the brain fog… what was I saying again?)

Once that list was done, it coincided with my trip to the doctor who gave me permission to go forth full steam ahead in all activities. Healed body… YES… healed car… YES… healed computer and Internet… YES and YES.

I had been hesitant to bounce or stretch or lift or move for fear of unraveling his handiwork but now I was free to YOGA my way through the day.

I warrior posed my way to the grocery store and came upon SEED PACKETS.

It’s January, people, in Canada, and there are SEED PACKETS for sale at the grocery store.

But those seed packets are the same as our New Year’s resolutions. They are full of promise. They are a handful of hope. They are little envelopes of determination. And that’s the same thing we feel on January 1st. Turns out, I had spent last year fixing all the things, and that set me up nicely to hunker down and create the burning desire projects. I think it will be an art journaling course.

So go get yourself some seed packets to remind yourself of why you are going to to THE THING this year. It is HAPPENING.

In the words of my wise friend Pete McCormack, “Let the seeds of love fall where they may. Let God take care of the rest.”

P.S. Two things… Pete’s YouTube channel is a very good acre of cyberspace.

P.P.S. Last chance for this beauty over at Amazon:

The post Last year’s resolution is this year’s secret sauce first appeared on Janice MacLeod.

How to start writing a book (advice no one actually talks about)

I am often floored by the bad advice by English teachers about writing a book. They say this:

Come up with an ideaWrite an outlineWrite the first draftEdit it (aka the second draft)Done

If I actually followed this advice I would have taken all my writing dreams and packed them in the back of a deep, dark closet. Imagine sitting in a classroom and being asked to “Come up with an idea and write an outline.”

Hide!

Hide under a rock, in a closet… wherever… just run as far away from the page as you can!!!!

If you’ve ever considered the romantic notion of writing a book, here are a few tips that, shockingly, no one is talking about:

Journal writing. I know. I know. I go on about it. Yet one must get warmed up for the task. Journal writing warms up your inner narrator voice, plus the more you write, the more likely ideas will flow.

“But I have nothing to write about.”

I never NEVER NEEEEEVVVVVEEEEERRRRR have something to write about before I sit down to write in my journal. And I write books for a living. All the books start as journal entries about nothing much.

Journal writing warms you up and gets you started on creating a CONTENT LIBRARY.

Start a Content Library. This is a collection of:brilliant bits that come out of your journal entriesnice notions you’ve thought while reading other thingsinteresting things you’ve learned as you walk around this worldnice turns of phrase you’ve overheardjokes you’ve devised with your sinister mindRead read read. Our inner narrators like reading. Reading is like handing your inner narrator booze. They get chatty after they’ve had a few books to drink.Open a document on your computer. This seems obvious, but people think you don’t need a keyboard to write a book. You need a keyboard and screen. Don’t limit yourself by clicking along on your phone. Small device. Small ideas. Big screen. Bird’s eye view. Shuffling will be required. For an 80,000 word book, I’ve probably had to write around 110,000 words. Why do that on a phone? Why do that to yourself? (Also typewriters count. A full keyboard. People have written entire books on typewriters up until recent times, as most of us have forgotten.)Jot down the gems. Type the good bits from your journal writing and content library into the document. Link thoughts together.Open the document often. Make a practice of opening the document to sit in front of it and BOOM. Ideas will come. Your inner narrator will go quiet if all you do is futz about on your phone all day.Add more content. Keep the document alive by adding to it consistently. I’m finding that CONSISTENCY is the life skill we most need to get things done. Consistent exercise. Consistent vegetables. Consistent sleep. Think of your document as a garden. You can’t just plant a few seeds and expect much. You have to water, weed, add, maintain the document consistently.Keep rereading what you’ve written. Prune, pluck, add, rearrange.Link thoughts together. You start with a scene… it doesn’t have to be the first scene in the book. A scene. Then you build out from there. You write another scene. You build out from that scene. Then eventually you link scenes together.Try not to bore others. A book is actually an entertainment device. Even text books. The reader must get what they came for. Try to avoid boring them to tears. Add a lot of line breaks. Short chapters are nice. Dialogue is nice. Big blocks of text is… zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sure, there are professors that go on about making an outline, but who knows how to do that when they don’t even have much of an idea? For me, outlines have only happened after I’ve written over half the book. OVER HALF of the book… then I go, Ah, I see where this is going. So don’t tire yourself on coming up with an outline. Write the outline later, once you’ve written something to rearrange into an outline. See how that works?

If you’re serious about writing a book as part of your list of New Year’s Resolutions, I offer up my three writing courses:

A WRITING YEAR: Perfect for when you don’t know where to start. This course includes 52 writing prompts to get you warmed up. You can binge read them or do one a week.ORGANIZING CONTENT: Especially good if haven’t been able to move beyond journal writing or creating a content library. This course focuses on how to organize your writing and finish a project.BOOK WRITING: This is the big one. It takes all the steps outlined here and delves deep. Plus, it covers getting an agent, writing a book proposal, and the business of being an AUTHOR beyond being a WRITER.

This blurb below was created by an AI program.

I typed in “How to start writing a book” and this is the drivel it provided:

Starting to write a book can be a daunting task, but it can also be a rewarding experience. Here are some steps you can follow to get started:

Come up with an idea for your book. This can be something you’re passionate about, or a subject that you have a lot of knowledge about.Make an outline for your book. This will help you organize your thoughts and structure your story.Start writing! Don’t worry about making it perfect on the first try – just get your ideas down on paper.Take regular breaks. Writing a book can be mentally exhausting, so it’s important to take breaks and give your mind a rest.Keep revising and editing your work. As you write, you may realize that certain parts of your story need to be changed or improved. That’s okay – just keep working on it until you’re satisfied with the final result.

Overall, the most important thing is to just start writing. The more you do it, the better you’ll become at it. Good luck!

Overly chipper Artificial Intelligence. Lame. Write your own. 

The importance of reviewing journals at the end of the year

Well that was an experience.

I just completed sorting through my journals for the year. I found this sweet spot in November to be a perfect time to sort through my journals… between the end of garden season and before Christmas season. Solid score.

Why it’s a good idea to review your journals each year:

Short answer: Grab the gems and good ideas before they are forgotten or stale.

Long answer:

Put the year behind you (sayonara bad bits!)Gain insights and learn lessons to plan better for the next yearCelebrate the wins

It’s a bit of a bugger to read a journal from last January to revisit the big hopefuls just to realize you didn’t do most of it. Conversely, it’s nice to look at what you DID do and pat yourself on the back.

Here’s a few highlights (and low lights) from my year to give you an idea of how to approach sort through your journals:

DID retrain my brain with certain mind madness.

I decided to actively change my mood when mulling over stressful topics.

Money angst to exhilaration Mess stress to peaceBody image to appreciation

Whenever I would catch myself stewing about money, messes, or my body, I would actively try to feel other feelings. It kind of worked! As long as I could catch it before it turned into belaboured brooding.

DID NOT end up being a YouTube superstar.

Not that I tried at first. I just wrote a heck of a lot ideas only to have them go stale on the page. That’s alright. That’s what our journals are for. Tossing out all the ideas, then picking up the one that sticks out and running with it. Then when I tried to make videos… ugh! It’s like learning another language. Harder than I thought. Boy oh boy I have learned what I am bad at. By the time I learn how to make a decent video, pre-teens everywhere will surpass me in the algorithm.

DID NOT end up blogging as much as I wanted. As usual.

I learned that I have one decent story a week. Those stories went out in the form of Typewriter Letters. (They are ending when the last letter goes out in early 2023 some time so you can get the last few if you want fun-type mail… pun intended, natch.) My core group of letter lovers got the best of the literary gems this year. Turns out, people really don’t care about typewriters. Nuts. I love them. (I have a delightful dozen. Most of them even work!)

DID discover people still love the Paris Letters.

My best seller in my Etsy shop by far was the 12 month subscription to the best selling Paris Letters that came out over the last decade. Turns out I still love sending them out, which was a nice surprise. I love setting them all out in a row, admiring them, then popping them in the envelopes. “Bye guys… have fun out there.”

DID publish a book: Spiritual Retreat from Home.

I made it because I wanted it. It’s funny to look back at the year to see those ideas become things. Like I’m sitting in the future right now and observing when the first nugget of an idea landed on the page.

DID publish a swanky 2023 Paris Planner. Pretty!

All due to diligent journal writing.

DID NOT add any new online courses.

But holy mackerel did I write a lot of ideas. Almost too many. I had a course for memoir writing. Another for selling your art online. Yet another on achieving your goals… in an ironic twist as I did NOT achieve my goal of creating the course. HA!

After I reviewed the journals, I tossed the lot of them.

*****record scratch*****

Yes, pulled out the half baked ideas to see if I can turn them into things, but chucked the rest, saving myself future time. All the good ideas are now on index cards awaiting reshuffling and implementation.

It’s a nice way to ponder the next year.

Because of my surgery and all the scars, I considered making next year The Year of The Lounge Pant.

Still thinking about it.

Some nerve endings are waking up and they are FRAZZLED.

However, I think I’ll just plug away at the crop of ideas I wrote down in 2022… and keep journaling in 2023 to see what other thoughts become things. We will see how it goes.

What about you? What do you think about sorting through your journals?