Saturday Edition – Writer, Paused.

My view for 48 hours earlier this week

I must begin today’s post with an apology to regular readers who come here today expecting the second half of the conversation that we started last weekend with the post, Getting Paid to Write – Part I. My week did not go as planned, and – as the title of this post indicates – this writer was put on pause for a moment.

To make a long and mostly boring story short, Monday evening found me en route to the ER with acute stomach pains that had been building throughout the day. By the time my beau got me to the hospital, I was barely able to stand up straight. One three-hour wait and a cat scan later, I was admitted to the hospital proper where I was told by a sympathetic young doctor that I was going to need to have surgery to remove my appendix. I had never had surgery before. The only other time I’d been hospitalized was when my daughter was born, twelve years ago. I tried not to panic.

As far as I can tell (knock on wood), everything went swimmingly with Tuesday’s surgery; but it was still mid afternoon on Wednesday before I was finally able to get home. Wobbly and unexpectedly exhausted, I spent the remainder of that day and all of Thursday just resting. (Though, I will admit to taking a much-needed shower and doing a load of laundry.) On Friday, I made my way back to my desk to start back in on some client work. The going was slow, but each day I feel a little more like myself.

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I tell you all this to explain why today’s post is somewhat off-topic, but also because I wanted to share with you (confess?) some of the thoughts that ran through my head during the forty-eight hours I spent in the hospital. While I was, of course, worried about my own health (and perhaps even more so about the well-being of my daughter, parents, and beau who were so worried … not to mention my cats), I was also distracted and entertained by a steady stream of unrelated thoughts that had less to do with my own situation than with the curious questing of my slightly addled (first on pain, then on pain meds, then on residual anesthesia) writer’s mind. It would seem that even in somewhat dire circumstances, my brain couldn’t stop coming up with “What If?” scenarios, character questions, and story ideas.

For instance, each person I encountered – beginning with the ER staff and patients – was a potential character. Though I was mostly distracted by how awful I felt, I still remember the following people from the ER waiting room:

• The surly woman who checked me in at the ER desk, barely able to keep from rolling her eyes, and who my beau is convinced kept shuffling my name to the bottom of the pile despite the fact that I was curled in a fetal position in one of the waiting room chairs while the rest of the patients seemed content to watch game shows and sit coms on the large-screen TV that was mounted on the wall over my head … What made her so surly? Why would she knowingly cause a patient continued pain? Why did she do this job?
• The young woman in plaid and dreadlocks who appeared to be homeless and who accepted vending machine food and a styrofoam cup of coffee from one of the orderlies (my beau said she reappeared the following night as well) … Did she stay in the ER to get out of the cold? Was she actually sick? Did the orderly know her personally? What was in the plastic bags she carried with her?
• The twenty-something caucasian girl with a sprained finger who was accompanied by an older African American man with whom she laughed out loud while watching The Big Bang Theory … Were they father and daughter? What made them feel like it was okay to be so boisterous amidst people who were obviously not feeling well?
• A heavy-set, middle-aged man who sat off to the side, dozing off with this hand over his eyes, as if trying to block out his surroundings … Was he here for a physical or mental ailment? What made him so tired he could fall asleep sitting up in a waiting room chair?
• The youngish couple with their infant daughter – the mother wearing a surgical mask while she nursed the baby, the father in charge of their large collection of baby-related paraphernalia … she was the only person who made eye contact with me, but I couldn’t tell her expression because of the mask … Who were they here for – the mother, the baby? Was she afraid that I was contagious? Was she contagious?

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Throughout the stages of my stay, my writer’s mind continued to wander and distract, observe and dissect, wonder and explore. It would take far too long to capture and document all the thoughts that ran through my head, but I can tell you that they ran the gamut from imagining the relationships between various staff members to the back stories and current crises of fellow patients to the home life of my surgeon and anesthesiologist to the possibility of haunted corridors. I wondered where my appendix would wind up and about how having a piece of the body removed – even an ostensibly unnecessary one – might affect a person. I overheard a social worker talking with a Latino woman who had been transferred because she didn’t have health insurance and wondered about the possible decline and collapse of the health system. I noticed how many patients seemed content to zone out in front of a seemingly endless broadcast of game shows and soap operas and wondered if it was possible to turn people into zombies by way of television waves. I wondered about the life of the designer who had created the graphic for the privacy curtains that hung around the beds on ceiling-mounted tracks. I gained some small insight into what it must feel like to deal with a long-term illness – being shackled to an IV and leg compression sleeves.

In short, my mind never ceased asking questions and posing scenarios. Though I was outwardly resting, on the inside my head was churning with countless thoughts and queries and ideas. Forced into stillness, I was even more aware than usual of all the stories that existed around me.  They wound back and forth, in and out of the room like so many threads – crossing, tangling, or running straight through without any contact.

··• )o( •··

My head is still a little foggy and my eyesight slightly blurred (a residual affect of the anesthesia, so they tell me), but the other thought that stays with me from my time in the hospital is how many times I worried about the things I have not written. It wasn’t as if I believed I was truly in any mortal danger, but any medical crisis (even one as common as appendicitis) serves as an abrupt and mostly unwelcome reminder of our own mortality. Faced with signing the liability releases with their long lists of things that could potentially go wrong, I couldn’t help but think about all the stories and projects that I’ve been meaning to write, but haven’t. It wasn’t exactly a life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment, but I was certainly granted a  moment of clarity about what really matters to me.

I don’t wish medical emergencies on anyone, but I do hope that reading this post might inspire you to stop for a moment and think about what really matters most to you. What would you regret most if everything changed tomorrow? What would you hate to see left undone? It’s hard to answer these questions in the absence of a dire circumstance, but worth the effort nonetheless. What do you want to work on today – right now?

Thanks for sharing part of your Saturday with me. I’m heading out now with my daughter to walk one of her dog walking clients and maybe take ourselves down to the local coffee shop for something tasty. I may still be moving more slowly than usual, but I can hardly wait to get out in the sunshine and fresh air. My writer’s mind is eager to revel in the possibilities of a new day.

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Jamie Lee Wallace Hi. I’m Jamie. I am a content marketer and branding consultant, columnist, sometime feature writer, prolific blogger, and aspiring fiction writer. I’m a mom, a student of equestrian and aerial arts (not at the same time), and a nature lover. I believe in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Introduce yourself on Facebook, twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. I don’t bite … usually.
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Friday Fun – SO … Where D’You Get Your Story Ideas?

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, get-to-know-us question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION: We recently asked you what questions you’d like answered in our Friday Fun post. Today, we’re answering the following reader question:

Jamie Wallace: Ahhh … the always-asked question about where story ideas come from. This is a query with no right answer. The genesis of each story is unique and sometimes completely inexplicable.

I can, however, point you to two of my past blog posts: 4 Steps to Capture the Muse – Documenting Ideas and Your Writer’s Mind.

I’ll also offer up this video featuring the inimitable Neil Gaiman providing one of the most informative and entertaining responses I’ve ever heard to this question:

Lisa J. Jackson: I think it’s more a question of how do you get the ideas to STOP flowing in? I could spend so much time every day writing down ideas for stories, articles, blog posts, etc., that it’s more of a challenge to know which ideas to grab and make note of than worry about where to look for ideas.

When struggling to find inspiration to write, take a minute to pause and think about what it is you’re truly finding a challenge. Is it really that you have NO inspiration to write? NO idea what to write about? NO motivation to create?

I find the best way to find inspiration is to show up and start writing – without thinking. Just start writing. Words my be gobbly-gook and make no sense. Maybe it’s simply writing “What do I write about What do I write about What do I write about” over and over until suddenly you find yourself writing about something.

Give it a shot. You have nothing to lose.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

Lee Laughlin: I’m with Lisa, for me it’s about filtering the ideas that are floating through my head. I try to keep a running list of things that have caught my attention and stay with me for more than 30 seconds. If I overhear a snippet of conversation and it’s still with me 2 days later I write it down.  I saw the movie Spotlight on Monday night and I’m still reflecting on the movie and the broader story. Who knows where that will lead. =

I also play the “What if?” game. What if Peyton Manning and Tom Brady had to share a jail cell when they are in their 70’s? What do they talk about? Do they talk? Why are they in a jail cell in the first place?

Sometimes an issue is important to me (i.e. the maiming and killing of people with albinism in Tanzania) and I rage at the computer until I get my ideas out and then see what can be done to turn it into a salable piece.

My fictional WIP features a heroine with multiple chemical sensitivities. This came out of issues my husband and daughter have with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). There are gems to mined in every aspect of your life, just pick up the pen or sit at the keyboard and start typing. In my experience people who have trouble coming up with topics to write about are letting their self-editor get the upper hand. Lock him or her in a box somewhere and just start brain dumping.

For more inspiration, I highly recommend Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.

Deborah Lee Luskin,
M. Shafer, Photo

Deborah Lee Luskin: I’m interested in ordinary, daily life, so I find ideas everywhere; for me the trick is to capture them, which is why I carry pen and paper with me at all times.

Like Lee, I ask, “What if?” Case in point: I was stuck in construction traffic near my house when the state highway was relocated. While waiting for my turn to bumpety-bump over the dirt lane, I wondered what Vermont was like before the interstates were built and what happened during construction. I did a lot of research, including interviews. The result: my novel, Elegy for a Girl.

Ideas for radio commentaries and my weekly blog come at me thick and fast, alongside the rush of daily life. And ideas, scenes, characters, voices all bubble up on my daily walk.

Diane MacKinnon: I don’t have much to add to the answer listed by my colleagues above, except to say that if I don’t write ideas down, I end up thinking I didn’t have any ideas that day. If I make a point to write my ideas down, (or record them as voice memos in my phone,) I’m always surprised by how many ideas I have.

For my life coaching blog, I write about things that come up in my daily life or in the lives of my clients. For other writing, I often write about things that happened years ago that have stayed with me. Recently, a writer friend asked me why this incident I was trying to write about was so important to me. I realized it was much more than one incident and I suddenly could see a thread running through a number of situations that happened to me and others in my life–they were all connected in my mind.

 

 

Put it in writing and kick butt in 2015

A New Year is just around the corner.

I do for the upcoming year what I also do for my birthdays. I don’t set resolutions, instead I set life goals. I write down what I want to work on and see accomplished in the next 12 months. New Year’s isn’t a time for me to party as much as it is a time for reflection.

First, I start with general goals grouped into categories under:

• Health/Fitness
• Career
• Fun/Hobbies
• Home

Then I identify major goals in each category. For example, in the career category, I am going to focus my writing on parenting this year. (Don’t worry, I’ll still write about my chickens.) I plan on pitching articles to, and writing for, national parenting magazines.

I also have *two* manuscripts that need to get brushed off, spiffed up and sent out for review. Enough is enough. Time to kick those little chicks out of the nest.

Those are my big goals, but I also have smaller ones, like write more consistently for various blogs, work on cleaning up my social media footprint, and create a self-marketing plan.

One thing I learned years ago when taking a goals class (yes there was such a thing) sponsored by my workplace was that while everyone knows how to set a goal (ex. I’m going to lose 25 pound this year) it’s the lack of breaking that goal down into achievable tasks that virtually guarantees it will not happen.

As a direct result of that class, for each of my goals, I then chunk them into smaller measurable bites. For example, during the month of January, I might do two article pitches and aim to write at least one article each week.

For my manuscripts, I’ll break those two humongous goals down into much smaller bites and will assign dates to each step. Final edits by the end of January, proposals written in February, queries begin in March, (champagne acceptance party in June?)

The final step to my things-to-accomplish plan is that I’m going to be accountable to another person for each of my goals. This means that I’ll state my goals and tasks to that person (and she to me) and then each week, we’ll report on our progress (or lack thereof.)

No shame in not making a scheduled goal, hey life happens, but by stating it, it’s reminding us that we still want to get it done. If we find a task keeps slipping from week to week, then it’s a sure sign we need to think about how important that task really is and if it should even be on our lists. I’ve done this type of teamwork before and it’s a powerful way to be accountable and get work done.

So this New Year’s eve, enjoy family and friends, certainly enjoy a drink or two (but please not too many, starting the new year with a hangover SUCKS) and take some time to honestly reflect on what it is you’d like to accomplish in the upcoming year – especially with your writing. Be accountable and absolutely commit to what you are capable of.

Put it in writing, say it out loud and then kick butt in 2015.

Best wishes for a happy, bright, and successful new year.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

 

The real meaning of NaNoWriMo

Here’s the bad news, I didn’t cross the goal line for NaNoWriMo this year.

In part, it was because we lost electricity for three days, and I had to help organize a Thanksgiving dinner without heat, and I got sick (co-incidence? I think not.) But also a big part of it was that (like usual) I waited until the last minute.

It turns out that when a big snow storm hits your area and knocks down wires, it’s not such a great strategy to leave everything until the end.

But here is the good news, even though I didn’t get to write the words down, I still thought about my writing. A lot. And to some degree that counts.

I thought about the story I’m collaborating on with a friend. I now know what I need to do to finish the scene I had been working on.

I pitched a new holiday story idea (something that I’ve always wanted to write) to my kids and they helped flesh it out. I’m looking forward to writing it and the kids are already asking to read it.

I visited my parents last week and they sent me home with a family heirloom. “You have to promise to tell its story,” my mother said as she carefully wrapped the item in a soft blanket preparing it for the car ride back to New Hampshire. I thought about the item for days and I think I’ve come up with a proper way to tell its story. I tentatively explained my idea to the kids. This idea has also piqued their interest – the first true test of whether a story idea will fly or not.

Thanks to the month of November being dedicated to writers, I was even able to finally get organized enough so that I could start work on a cookbook project I had promised my son I would write for him.

All of this wouldn’t have happened, had I not been focusing on my writing. So even though I didn’t complete the NaNoWriMo challenge this year, by keeping my writing in the foreground instead of delegating it to somewhere in the background, I was still able to move forward with my projects.

And in the end, isn’t that what the NaNoWriMo challenge is really all about?

 

This is not to take anything away from those who completed the NaNoWriMo challenge – to you writers who crossed that finish line, I tip my hat and say “Well done, well done indeed.”

 

 

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Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

 

Riding the tide of a great story

Quick check-in with the NaNoWriMo-ers. Continuing to plug away? There’s still time to hunker down and create your masterpiece, you just have to want it bad enough to set aside the time to “just do it” (and besides, wasn’t that what nights were invented for?)

Zelda as a hen (Version 1.0)

I have been pecking away at my project and currently have around 23,000 words, but not to worry. I’ve been known to add up to 10,000 at one (crazy) sitting. And, I’m the type of person who thrives on a deadline – so it’s all good.

But today I want to talk to the article writers out there. You know the ones who write for magazines, newspapers, and even blogs (or those that hope to someday.)

As many of you know, I have a flock of chickens and I write about my chickens for several publications and on my blog.

We recently (over the last year) had a situation in our flock where a grey hen turned into a golden brown and grey rooster (she didn’t exactly turn into a male but she did start showing classic male features.) This is not *that* unusual among chickens – you talk to any old-time farmer and they can usually come up with a story of a hen turning into a rooster. It could happen as the result of injury, illness, or even hen-o-pause. Whatever – we had a transgender chicken in our flock, we still loved her.

But then slowly over the last summer and then sometime in the last 3 months, our chicken changed again. This time she changed from being a multicolored rooster into a white hen.

I know crazy, right?

I put the information up on my blog, Twitter, Facebook,and even on Reddit.

And then I saw my blog numbers go up, they went way up – almost 5 times the traffic I normally got. It turns out that NO ONE had ever seen this in a chicken. Hmmm, said the writer and storyteller in me, this is a story that is not only drawing attention but is creating conversation.

I am not telling you this to teach you about chickens (although, if you have a free moment, I’ll gladly talk your ear off about our flock) I’m telling you this because as a writer, you always have to have your finger on the pulse of your readers.

The pulse was pounding on this one. If a story on my blog was creating that much buzz, then it is a story worthy of a publication (magazine.) Yesterday I started pitching magazine editors on this story. Depending on the angle, I can probably get this story into a few different publications. I can use a New Hampshire/local angle, a “WTF” angle, a chicken angle, and I could even turn it into a lesson about accepting things (people) for who they are.

As a writer, that makes me happy.

Moral of this story:

Pay attention to your audience’s response to your work and in particular watch the statistics. When you see increased activity, pounce on it. Ride that tide, turn the story on its head to figure out different angles, and then get those article pitches out.

It’s what writers do.

Update: Just heard back from a magazine editor and an article on this story has been placed in a poultry magazine.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

A writer in the woods – evolving from the angsty writer

When I write, sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I wear my jammie pants and sometimes I write while wearing a skirt and sweater.

When I was young and trying to be an angst-filled writer, I used to think that I couldn’t write anything worth anything unless I was wearing a very specific ratty green shirt and had a cup of Earl Grey tea in front of me. I had to have routines. If I had a personal (and sacred) routine it meant I was serious about my craft. Often it would take me an entire evening to get the first paragraph out on paper and perfected, and I couldn’t ever write anything else until that very first paragraph was worthy. Because, well that was the way I worked… and this was how I envisioned real writers did it.

But times have changed. I’m not even sure if I have that old shirt anywhere (it might be hiding in the back of a closet, but I doubt it) and although my drug of choice has changed to coffee, I don’t keep it near where I write having ruined far too many keyboards from reaching over a pile of books and spilling drinks over the years. Keyboards cost money, something that that earlier writer might not have been so concerned with (Dear Mom and Dad, somehow my typewriter broke…)

My point is that writers grow up, just like everyone else. We evolve. We mature. We realize that writing is a job and not just a fanciful, artistic quest. We realize that mortgages have to be paid, school sports equipment has to be purchased, and if you want to drive, you’d better purchase some insurance.

No longer do I have to try and struggle to force a thoughtful perfect phrase from my mind. Instead I sit down and say to myself – “Okay, let’s begin” and then I do. From hours and hours and hours of practice, I have learned how to craft a story and I know where the beginning is, the middle, and the ending. I may not even start at the beginning because often I don’t need to, by the time I sit down to write, I know where I’ve come from and I know where I’m going.

Of course this all begs the question – whatever happened to that angsty young writer of yore? Did she disappear with the roles and responsibilities of life (it’s tough to be angsty when you have a slew of young children who’s needs trump yours) or does she now just face the inevitable music?

Now, if an editor wants me to change a sentence or cut a paragraph, I say “yes, m’am” and I make the cuts. No questions asked. Although my words and thoughts are important, at the end of the day, it is my audience that matters most.

I’ve learned to write for my readers instead of for my personal release. Oh to be sure, I put my personal stamp on my writing and it is definitely unique to only me. But I’ve come to accept something that I hadn’t ever bothered to consider in my youthful ambition and it is this: much like a tree falling in the woods, if no one is there to read your words, then is it really writing?

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

 

Well who knew? Nanowrimo – here I come

Healing wishes being sent to my friends on a regular basis

 

I didn’t know I was going to do it until this past weekend. A friend of mine left town and asked me to house-sit until she came back.

I love house-sitting for her for several reasons:

• She keeps a fantastic stash of cookies (yup, I broke that ketogenic diet right in half this weekend)
• She’s got great pets that make me laugh
• I don’t know how to work her TV set (she has about a half dozen remotes that must be used in a highly specific sequence) so I can’t waste time watching shows

This all means that I get to read and write uninterrupted (expect for the occasional cookie run) the entire time I’m there. While munching on a handful of goldfish crackers, I was thinking about some friends of ours who had gotten into a horrific car accident (sending positive prayers to you guys constantly.) Their accident was so random, so out of the blue, so not their fault.

You just never know.

It got me thinking. What are the lessons I’ve learned that I want my kids to know and what if I never get around to telling them because I’m too busy?

I started listing bits of advice this mama hen has gathered throughout her life that she’d want to share with her chicks. When I looked at the list (it currently stands at over 200 items), I realized that I could match pretty much every lesson up with a story from our backyard chicken flock.

Ah-ha! That would make for a great book (if only to give my kids.)

But how on earth was I going to find the time on top of all of my other writing assignments to get this project done?

Enter Nanowrimo which starts when the clock strikes 12:00 a.m. on October 31.

I didn’t do Nanowrimo last year and I certainly didn’t *think* that I was going to do it this year (too occupied with other writing is my  standard excuse), but in this case, Nano is the prefect kick in the butt for what I want to do. I have the stories, they all exist in my head – and because I hate to lose, the incentive is there to find the time to get them out and onto the screen.

Nanowrimo will be the gift of “getting it done no matter how busy I am.”

So while I wasn’t planning on participating in a writing challenge this year, you can count me in. Nanowrimo gives me the perfect opportunity to write all those stories of life lessons for my kids – because you just never know, right?

How about you? Anyone else going to take the Nanowrimo challenge?

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

 

Walking Nature Home: A Life’s Journey by Susan J. Tweit – Book Review

I love me a good book recommendation, so when a fellow writer Facebook friend (hi James) let me know about a memoir that he said was teaching him how to write his memoir by its example, my ears perked up.

But what really made me pay attention was when the author joined in the conversation and left these remarks about the art of memoir writing.

“It’s what you’ve learned from your life, not so much what you’ve done. A well-considered life is often more compelling than a dramatic one….”

And

“If I had to define the art of writing a memoir in a few words, I would say it’s in the reflection and storytelling. Memoir translates what you’ve learned from life into a story so compelling that it inspires even those who had no idea they would be interested in what you write about.”

Twins daughters from different mothers. That author, Susan J. Tweit managed to say so clearly what it is I have been trying to say for years –

A memoir is not about climbing the mountain. It’s about how you climbed it, the stumbles along the way, and what you learned when you finally reached the top.

I ordered Susan’s book Walking Nature Home: A Life’s Journey and started reading.

Walking Nature Home is the story of a woman who, diagnosed with a non-specific connective tissue disease, was given 2 to 5 years left to live. The book tells of how she connected (intentional pun) with her body and nature to get the strength to move on with her life. Susan’s story is uplifting and it gives hope to others who might be in similar life-challenging situations.

My Facebook friend was right. Susan does a masterful job of keeping a solid theme running through her book, the red thread of her life that begins in childhood when her father taught her about the constellations and ends with her gazing out a skylight at the stars content with her life can so clearly be followed throughout the book.

Each chapter is centered on a major star constellation which is introduced with the stars’ history and mythology. These stories of the stars are then personified by Susan’s life experiences and insights.

The organization and woven structure of this memoir is a tapestry to behold. It’s one of those stories that becomes a meditation in reading. Never once does Susan veer from her stated theme of nature, in fact, she keeps it as deeply ingrained as her breathing is to her body. Like meditation, Susan constantly comes back to her breathing- her connection with nature, the reason for her being.

If memoir is your genre (and even if it’s not), I highly recommend taking a look at Walking Nature Home, both for the inspiring story, as well as its brilliant memoir structure.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

 

Writing a Fundraising Letter

I have to write a fundraiser letter for an organization I work with. As I sit here thinking about what to put in the letter, I thought I’d share some of my personal guidelines when writing such a piece (after all, writing a fund raising letter is simply another writing assignment, right?)

This is from a fundraiser to which I gladly donated.

Write to your audience

You need to write to your audience, not above or below, but to. Sure, you will more than likely have some readers who will fall outside of the “average reader”, but for the most part, you want to hit the critical mass and so you aim for them. The organization should have statistical information on their current supporters, that information was collected for a reason, use it.

Use “you” and not “I”

When someone reads a letter asking for money and support, they don’t want to hear about you. They want to know how this will impact them. Essentially they want to know why they should even be bothered with the organization. Rule of thumb here? It’s not about you (the writer) it’s about them (the readers.)

Tell a story that involves a real person or situation

Everyone loves a story. Try to include an example of how the organization is working or improving the lives of others. Once you include a story of another person’s journey you have made that very important human-to-human connection with your reader.

Clearly explain the benefits

Everyone needs money these days, so be sure to clearly explain what a donation would help accomplish (and just having extra money is *not* a benefit.) Will it help patients with medical costs? Supply people with clean water? The more specific you can be with the benefits, the more people can visualize how their money will be used and the more willing they are to donate.

Also, mention if people will receive something if they donate – people are often more willing to contribute if they know they will get something in return.

Be clear about what you are asking for and when

Are you asking for money? Then say so. Don’t beat around the bush, say “we are looking for a financial donation from our supporters by this DATE.” Be sure to include a date so that people don’t put your letter down with the intention that they’ll get to it someday. Those are the letters that get lost.

Likewise, if you are looking for volunteers or material donations, go ahead and ask. Don’t waste anyone’s time by being vague and hoping that they’ll understand what you are getting at. Trust me – it’s not rude to ask for what you need in a fundraising letter.

Make it short and simple

People don’t have much time. A fundraising letter that goes on for page after page is one that is likely not going to be read. Keep it short, get in there, introduce yourself, explain the benefits, identify what you are asking for, and then thank them for their continued support. In and out – it’s the way to go.

Additionally make it easy to read

Long, dense paragraphs are tough to read. Keep your paragraphs short, include white space, use headers and include a graphic or two. These days a lot of people skim documents, you can use this to your benefit by grouping your information and using techniques like bulleted lists.

Fundraising letters are just like any other writing assignment. You’ll do fine if you pre-plan, organize, and do your homework.

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Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.

 

Worthy of attention

Years ago, I read an essay about how a person would make a point of always complimenting each dog to its owner as they passed by.

“What a good dog you have.”
“Such a handsome fellow.”

They did this because after doing so, the owner would often reach down and pat the dog. It was a way to give the dog some love from a stranger.

To this day, I always compliment people on their dogs and yup, those dogs get a little more attention.

Everyone likes to feel that they have something that’s worthy of attention.

Eventually I figured out that if this worked for dogs, it would probably work for other things. There’s not a baby out there that I won’t say to the parents – how strong she looks, what beautiful eyes he has, or simply what a clever looking child you have there.

The parents smile and usually pat the baby or hold it a little closer.

Compliments are a gift, I’m not saying you have to be insincere (that’s not a gift, that’s a scam), what I am saying is that if you can find something positive to say about a situation, a person, or an animal, go ahead and say it.

Yesterday I received this comment on my blog post about telling stories:

The things I love most about your “stories” are that they are so real and believable. They are stories about the simple, ordinary things in life that we often ignore or miss in the hurried-up hustle and bustle of today’s world. They often take me back to the yesterdays of raising my six children and often call up memories of even earlier times when I was growing up in the country in East Texas with my five siblings, in the days of chicken yards, gathering eggs, running from the rooster, or sometimes encountering a long chicken snake in the hen house, one of which didn’t like the fact that I got to the eggs in the nests before him and slithered down out of the rafters as I was stepping out of the little house. He dropped down over my shoulder and into the egg basket. Needless to say, in my surprise and horror, the basket, eggs, snake and I went in all different directions. Before I could regain my senses to run, my dad came running into the chicken yard with his gun, thinking I had encounters a different kind of egg stealing critter that often raided the hen house. When he saw the snake and the fact that it was harmless to humans, except a 9 year little girl, guess who got a spanking for over-reacting and breaking all the eggs. I love your stories because they help me find my way back “home” through my own memories and stories of my own, but also the stories my mom and dad used to tell of their childhood. Keep telling us the stories, Wendy, and God bless you.

You can’t imagine how much this meant to me. When we write, we expose our creations, our babies to the world. We’re nervous and wonder how they will be received. When I sat down to write this morning, it was easy to smile and hold my work a little closer because everyone, myself included, likes to feel that they have something that’s worthy of attention.

 

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Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com) She writes about her chickens for GRIT, Backyard Poultry, Chicken Community, and Mother Earth News.