Shine up your Whines!

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”  George Bernard Shaw

Are you a whiner?

Do you worry too much and have serial complaints that take up brain space?
Stop the chatter and take up a pen or go to the keyboard. Write, don't whine.

l. Use awareness to learn about your complaining moods. Who or what sparks your whine tones? What area three ways to eliminate or minimize your exposure to these sparks that set off your flames? Add a humorous line.

2. Gratitude saves the day. Write three things, people or opportunities that make you feel grateful. Don't stop with three!

3. Take a breath before you gripe! When you feel a whine whirring about in your brain, toss a thought in its path. Write about overcoming blame. Keep thoughts handy for the next toss for gripe deflection!

4. Let creativity spark your troubles. Start with positive statements and write a few humorous lines about how to solve problems.

Creative Write:  Share a whine with us today. Turn it around and make it shine!

Mood Changing

Consider how a scene can set a mood or reflect a variety of emotions.
Respond to the image above with sounds, scents and textures of emotion. Keep your visual comments to a minimum.

Then, write a response that changes the visual cues. What opposite view will your writing reveal?

Use words to alter the anticipation that these visual cues offer.

Talent and Writing

". . .talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work and study; a constant process of honing.


"Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force – a force so great that the knife is not really cutting at all but bludgeoning and breaking... Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which the dull knife of talent is honed until it becomes sharp enough, hopefully, to cut through even the toughest meat and gristle." by Stephen King from DANSE MACABRE

Consider the “talent” you bring to your writing. When did you first discover you had a “way with words”? Did it involve curiosity, a love of word that collided, meshed and made their appearance into sentences, paragraphs and stories?

Did you watch people and tell their stories? Did you pursue ideas with all your senses? Did you feel a force move you in a variety of creative directions? Did anyone recognize your propensity for writing and show you ways to study other writers? With your mentor’s assistance did you work at writing . . . really push past frustrations and dead ends to gather the words that shouted your ideas?

Creative Write: What do you think of King’s assessment of what it takes to hone writing skills? How do you define “discipline,” and “hard work”? Take time to create a metaphor that defines your writing process.