A Few of My Favourite Things - On Writing

August - the anniversary month for this blog. The 28th is the actual date, so I guess I'll wait until then to properly commemorate. Heh heh.

I had a few things in mind for these August entries. However, after much thought, I've decided to place them on hold. Essentially, they had to do with particular journeys. Why mention them? Well, consider this a placeholder of sorts. I do hope to share them in this medium at the appropriate time.

In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite quotes and memes that have inspired me along the writing journey. Many quotes and writings and tips and so on and so forth, may be found in books, on the Internet... It never ends!!! It's very easy to spend more time reading all that, than actually writing. Of the myriad, it's not often that a quote touches me right here - resonating with my own feelings; echoing the rhythm of the lines (poetic and prose) in my blood. It helps to know that the treasure lies not only in the destination - which is subjective, really - but also (if not more so) in the journey. And what a journey this is turning out to be!

Okay, here goes:

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way." 

- Ernest Hemingway

"Sometimes a book isn't a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Sometimes it's the only story you knew how to tell."
- Tahereh Mafi

"Don’t cast sidelong glances, and compare yourself to others among your peers! (Writing is not a race. No one really “wins.” The satisfaction is in the effort, and rarely in the consequent rewards, if there are any.)" 

- Joyce Carol Oates

"Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, “Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that is the whole art and joy of words." A glib saying. When the time comes to u at which u will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the centre of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words." 

- C.S. Lewis

"Writing: a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it." 

- John Green

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

- Maya Angelou

"A thousand nations of the Persian empire will descend upon you! Our arrows will blot out the sun!" - Persian  "Then we will fight in the shade." - Stelios (300)

"You think your work is crappy, but it's not. Show it to someone. You're better than you think."
- Claudia (Moi) :-)

"S/O to those who keep getting back up; whose vulnerability has been mocked, but...meh; whose courage yells at adversity: #YouAndWhatArmy??!!"

- Claudia

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

- Jeremiah 17:7-8, Bible (KJV)

Via @i_Author

Via @DeinaFurth

Via @AJAsh

Via @ShaunFrankson

Via @MyNextDance

Via @anilawhitney

Via @BSHMNetwork

Via Google

Via @Archnahr

And, a fav fav:

Via @Quotes4Writers

Claudia 

www.cyopro.com

www.twitter.com/cyopro

The Shift in Optimism

I’ve been smitten by reflections on optimism recently.  It’s great when an ad – for coffee, at that, but any ad, really – can lift your spirit; make you want to burst out in song – or tears.  Your call.

Those BrewSomeGood ads from Maxwell House, along with a few sermons and some Bible wisdom have got me reflecting on the way I perceive things; the way I connect with others.  And what have I found?  I’ve found that somewhere along my lifeline, I shifted somewhat – not a lot but still enough to notice if you’ve known me from Adam.  I’ve shifted from a default “eternally optimistic” to an abashed measure of “cautiously optimistic".


DEFAULT MODE
I'm pretty sure some of it may be chalked up to growing up.  As the saying goes stteo: a man's mind, once stretched, can never go back to it's original dimensions.  One really ought not to have the same mind at 30 as one did at 15, another quipped.  That doesn't mean, though, imho, that the embedded strain of optimism; that positive outlook which forms the hallmark of some persons, have to disappear with a stretched mind.  It hasn't, for me.  But, I most certainly occasionally feel that in more and more instances, it's no longer default mode.  It's kinda, "but then again..."; on second thought mode.


"At least you haven't lost it," you say. True.  I haven't lost my positive outlook; my optimism.  S'just that, of late, in the face of the aforementioned reminders, I'm realizing that I need to get back to where it's my default mode.


THE ONLINE SCENARIO
There are a few things that helped to usher me into this realm.  I learnt long ago - probably it was on the cusp of becoming "cautiously optimistic" - that people are people wherever you go.  If people feel appreciated, they'll likely work more willingly.  If they feel unappreciated, their morale likely will fall.  If they have been hurt, they'll likely put up their guard.  We know it takes a while to build trust and usually no more than one act of betrayal or hurt for it to come crashing down. 


Imagine how much more that likelihood is multiplied for online...relationships.  (I use the term within this context ever so loosely.)  For, connections online are, for the most part, just that, connections.  But, here's the thing (go Monk!)  whenever we venture into an online space, for social networking, hanging out, tweeting or other purposes, we are inviting other people into our sphere.  We connect with followers or those we wish to follow; we accept friend requests and all that jazz, and at the click of a key, we have taken a whole other individual into our lives.  A whole other person!  We might think that it's just their professional side or their online persona.  Let's not kid ourselves.  Try as folks might, they don't compartmentalize as well as they might think they do.  Given time and space, all their dimensions will be manifested to some degree in their "online self".  And, as for those who just let it all hang out from day one? Again, a whole other person!!!


UNEXPECTED STRESSORS
So, when persons with whom you have a common interest (the point of the connection in the first place) begin to reveal sides of themselves that you hadn't seen coming; that conflict with your own values and belief system, what do you do? If they start to relate to the point of hurting you, what do you do? Do you just put up your guard? Start writing off people?  Online relationships carry the luxury - if we could call it that - of immediate disconnection.  No hard feelings - or so we think.  For, in a number of instances, I'm pretty certain that some folks agonize over unfriending and unfollowing - especially when it's someone you at least sorta know or someone you knew from Adam but 20something years have passed without contact between you. As a human being, most times, the act of severing ties in any relationship comes from a conscious decision to do so.  And what is the immediate thought?  "What is he/she going to think?"  or "Does this reflect poorly on me?"  The point is, there is some amount of stress/anxiety related to the decision to sever ties.


How many of us can honestly unfriend or unfollow those we are to some degree acquainted with, without a second thought?  I have found that it's not so easy.  Quite a bit of thought might go into unfriending.  Unfollowing might require a skin less thick.  (Speaking of which, I don’t want to grow so thick a skin that I start looking and snapping like an alligator!  I still want to be able to let some things through; things that will make me think and help me be a better person.  Anyway, moving on…)  More often than not, you don't know these people.  If you do have some passing acquaintanceship, it's a hair's breadth more thought that goes into it.  But, I maintain that persons should not subject themselves to disrespect, rudeness, hurt or any form of abuse online or offline.


The thicker the wall of anonymity, the harsher folks are wont to get when lashing out.  Seen some comment boards lately?  Some of them even allow the 'F' bomb - and I'm talking about (generally respectable) media house sites.


SHIFTING BACK

This foray into 'anything goes' on social networking sites and other media I'm sure has had its impact on my earlier mentioned shift in optimisim.  Sometimes, people are cruel and harsh, simply because they can be. They have something ugly to say and a place to say it.  I was reminded of that the other day, having ventured into a thread of comments.  I went in, realizing that mine was the sole dissenting voice trying to tilt the collective view to a different perspective.  Zilch.   Felt like I was swimming upstream against a torrent of cynicism.  I left the thread trying to put into words that which I was feeling.  Self-righteous?  No, that wasn’t it.  Perfectionist?  Nope.  Tired of all the negative and the spewing vitriol and the unbridled cynicism?  Yes. Yes, that’d be it.  As I tweeted the other day, “Optimism rocks!”  I long ago realized that I see the world through different lens.  Ugly is around.  But, I believe, beauty outweighs it by far. And I shall not lose sight of that. I'm shifting back!

As I posted on the brewsomegood tweet stream the other day - a line from a really nice poem: "I'm drinking from my saucer, for my cup has overflowed."


True that!






Claudia 
www.cyopro.com
www.twitter.com/cyopro