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Me and Tom vs. ChatGPT

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My good friend Tom, is an excellent expository writer. We met while working for Boys & Girls Club. Tom was hired to write grants although he had no previous experience in grant writing. We were impressed by his lengthy resume of writing and editing for newspapers and colleges and he passed our writing exam with flying colors. We felt he could learn to write grants and he did so with great success. I consider him an expert in punctuation, grammar and word choice.

To me though, Tom’s writing is a little superfluous. Doesn’t mean I don’t like his writing; in fact, I totally respect his writing abilities and greatly value his approval, editing and suggestions of my writing.

Tom and I met for lunch a couple of months ago. I brought several entries I had written for my blog – www.mytruelovelist.com – and entries on the same blog topics “written” by ChatGPT. We had been talking about ChatGPT and what it means for writers like us and others such as students and advertisers. It was pretty clear which was which so I didn’t fool him at all, but he did give me some helpful guidance on using AI programs. And he’s using AI himself but lightly, carefully, focused.

Here’s a link to an excellent article about finding your writer’s voice written by Estelle Erasmus for the ajsa (American Society of Journalists and Authors.)

My 10 minutes is up. Wishing you a wonderful writing day!

Prayer to my Muse

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Have you read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield yet? He writes candidly (painfully) about the challenges and obstacles we creative types burden ourselves with. And he suggests ways to overcome our self-sabotage.  Like praying, or inviting, our Muse to be present whenever we begin our work. 

 “Artists have invoked the Muse since time immemorial. There is great wisdom to this. There is magic to effacing our human arrogance and humbly entreating help from a source we cannot see, hear, touch, or smell.” 

I’ve felt the Muse with me many times while in my creative stream. Pictures, colors, words, ideas swirl around and ping me. I can’t explain where all this comes from, but I like Pressfield’s theory that a magical, ethereal source is present.  Starting now, I’m taking Pressfield’s advice to entreat help from the Muse, Angels, or higher power that loves what we co-create. 

Prayer to my Muse

Thank you, Muse, for your inspiration and guidance to help me write what is meaningful and helpful to myself and others. Amen

muse

noun [C]UK  /mjuːz/ US  /mjuːz/ literary a person, or an imaginary being or force that gives someone ideas and helps them to write, paint, or make music: 

The muse has left me – I haven’t written any poetry for months!

Juliet was not only the painter’s best model but also his muse.

Just one line

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gray fish
Photo by Will Wu on Pexels.com

One of my 2019 Aspirations is to read books about screenwriting. I’m starting with Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, recommended by my screenwriting friend Shaina Feldman. Right off the bat, on page 4, Snyder writes about the logline – the one-line that describes what your story is about.

A log line or logline is a brief summary of a television program, film, or book that states the central conflict of the story, often providing both a synopsis of the story’s plot, and an emotional “hook” to stimulate interest. A one-sentence program summary in TV Guide is a log line. –Wikipedia

Here’s some examples from his book:

A just-hired employee goes on a company weekend and soon discovers someone’s trying to kill him – The Retreat

A newly married couple must spend Christmas Day at each of their four divorced parent’s homes – 4 Christmases

Here’s my own example of a logline –
A half-human, half sea-creature becomes ruler of the seas – Aquaman 

Today, I’m spending time writing loglines for the writing projects in my hopper. Wish me luck!

2019 Aspirations

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Mmm...CheetosAspirations are things you hope to achieve. Many people make New Year resolutions – a firm decision to do or not to do something. Sounds so black and white, so definite, so difficult. Instead, let’s aspire to achieve.

Here are my Write for 10 Minutes 2019 Aspirations:

  1. Finish the first three stories of the True Love List series.
  2. Learn to write screenplays.
  3. Write more for money.

You might think this is a short list – and it is – on purpose. Too many aspirations can cause anxiety, self-doubt, and eating lots of Cheetos. To combat being paralyzed by fear of failure, each aspiration has its own list of Action Steps.

Aspiration #1 – Get it done!

  • Before going to bed every night, set up the laptop on the dining table so it’s ready for me to sit down and write in the morning.* The dining table is a pretty place in my house next to a window and close to the Cheetos.
  • Gather whatever materials will be needed for the morning writing session.
  • Write for 1 hour in the morning. Try writing for an hour after work, although my brain is usually pretty fried.
  • Schedule four hours of writing time over the weekend.

Aspiration #2 – Learn something new

  • Read books on how to write screenplays.
  • Read screenplays.
  • Write a screenplay.
  • Ask my experienced, published, screenwriter friend Shaina for guidance and editing.

Aspiration #3 – Bring on the Benjamins

  • Research sites that pay freelance writers for blog posts and website copy.
  • Write and submit special interest articles to websites and magazines.
  • Self-publish My True Love List series.
  • Set a goal to make $.  I confess I’m not motivated by money but I am motivated by winning, reaching a goal, and feeling successful.

What are your 2019 Aspirations? 

*I got this idea from James Clear author of Atomic Habits, and creator of the Habits Academy, at www.jamesclear.com. 

To Burn or Not to Burn

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dragonsWhat do you do with your old journals? We had a lively discussion on this topic at our writer’s group meeting in December. Should we keep them? Hide them? Save them for all posterity or burn them? There were as many opinions and options as there were people in the group:

  • “My old journals are hidden in a secret place that only my best friend knows. She’s promised that if anything happens to me like I die or I’m in a coma, she will get them and burn them. Not even my husband knows where my journals are.”
  • “I keep all my journals and I hope my niece reads them after I’m gone so she’ll know more about who I really was.”
  • “My sister helped me burn my old journals. We had a ceremony. Watching them burn felt like letting go of pain and trouble and making way for my new happier life.”

Last summer, I read through 15 of my old journals going back almost as many years. Some entries were downright painful –  my feelings of despair and frustration dealing with an abusive boss in a miserable workplace, fears about my impending knee surgery, and worries about my career, money, world peace, etc. I saw no value in saving these entries.

But there were also plenty of entries I deemed valuable – ideas for future articles, blog posts, stories, and art/crafts projects. Notes about car and house repairs, and significant events through the years such as births, deaths, marriages, and health issues. And happy entries like my joyful retirement from that God-awful workplace, my expressions of relief that knee surgery wasn’t so bad after all, and my feelings of satisfaction working for myself.

I cherry-picked entries and typed them into Evernote. Then I threw my journals in the recycle bin. I felt good letting go of the “bad” stuff, saving the good, and seeing empty (temporary) space in my bookcase.

What do you do with your old journals?

 

 

 

I’m grateful because…

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tiger-498543_1920-2I am grateful for my health.
I am grateful that I am healthy.
I am grateful because I am healthy.

You may be one of those people who writes about gratitude every day. If you do, here’s a suggestion – add the word “because.”

After many years of writing my daily gratitude list, I got bored. I suspect that your gratitude list and mine are similar. Of course, we’re grateful for family and friends, our home, pets, health, job, etc. All boring expected expressions  of gratitude, blah, blah, blah. So I started adding “because” to give depth and meaning to my gratitude, to drill down to the reason why I’m grateful. For example:

  • Today I’m grateful for my husband because he’s purposely watching TV in the bedroom with the door closed so I can write in peace in the kitchen.
  •  I’m grateful for the beautiful weather today because I want to spruce up the planter in the front yard.
  • And, I’m grateful for my new neighbors because they’re friendly and so are their three big dogs.

My daily gratitude list is more defined because I’m stating why. Every day, I’m grateful for my husband because…

10 ways to squeeze in 10 minutes

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ostriches-838976_1920 (2)Here in the States, we just celebrated Thanksgiving Day. It’s a busy week of grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and visitors. My sister, her four adult children and their children came for the week. We had so much fun! But it was a challenge to write for 10 minutes every day with so much company. And, in the midst of all the activities, I got a great idea for a fictional character and a scene for a book or short story. So I had to write! I had to squeeze in 10 minutes between the cooking, shopping, playing, talking, visiting, etc. You can too:

  1. Add 10 minutes to your day by setting your alarm 10 minutes earlier than usual.
  2. Write at the kitchen counter while you’re waiting for the water to boil or the potatoes to cook or the rolls to get burned – I mean browned. (I learned that 10 minutes is too long for rolls to be in the oven!)
  3. Lock yourself in the bathroom for 10 minutes. (Note: this doesn’t work very well if you have children in the house because they see the closed bathroom door as their opportunity to have a conversation with you!)
  4. Sit in your vehicle in a well-lit parking lot at the mall or the grocery store and write for 10 minutes.
  5. Or, sit in your vehicle in your driveway or parking lot and write for 10 minutes.
  6. Invite your company to go with you to the library or a coffee shop where you can write for 10 minutes while they read or enjoy a snack.
  7. Write while your mother/sister/husband/niece/nephew is talking. Look up occasionally or nod your head to appear as if you’re paying attention.
  8. Announce that you’re going to take a 30-minute nap. Write for 10 minutes; sleep for 20.
  9. Ask whoever you’re with to write for 10 minutes with you. My sister Becky and write together and sometimes we read what we wrote out loud.
  10. Before you turn in for the night and go to sleep, turn off the television, tablet, computer, smartphone and then write for 10 minutes.

I’m re-reading “How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 21 Days That Readers LOVE!” by Steve Scott. He writes for 2-hours every day and tells how he does it in this book. Someday…