Archive for 'General'

Today is Blog Action Day.  This year the focus is on poverty.  I feel that everyone should focus on propagating abundance rather than eliminating poverty. It’s much more useful to focus on the positive.

If anyone understands poverty and abundance, it’s writers. The 2006 US figures show that half of all writers earn between $34,850 and $67,820.  The lowest paid earn less than $25,430 and the highest earn more than $97,700.

The gap in earnings is enormous. Forbes recently released figures for the highest earning authors. Romance authors didn’t show up on that list (except for Danielle Steele, who really isn’t a romance writer). I’d like to think that the big names of romance told Forbes that it was none of their business what they earned.

We write for many reasons. Fame and fortune isn’t usually high on the list.

Although most of us aren’t making great fortunes, we know abundance with plots and story ideas. We have scores of characters whispering in our ears demanding that their stories be told.

No matter how much or how little we make, there are people all over the world who have fewer choices and resources than we do. One organization I’ve found that actually makes a difference is Kiva.

Kiva lets individuals lend small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in developing countries. As a lender, you can study the requests and loan to the person you chose. Most loans are less than $25.

I’ve been a member for a couple of years. I’ve found the experience very rewarding. If you are looking for a way that you can make a difference, check out Kiva.

Whatever else you do today

  • think thoughts of abundance
  • give thanks for what you have
  • practice a random act of kindness

Write on,

Lynn Jordan

 

Voltaire said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Actually Voltaire said, “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.” As writers, we need to take these words to heart.

I know when I’m worrying over which font I used, and I’m spending time making sure that all the pages have exactly 25 lines, I know there’s something I’m avoiding.

Sometimes I run spell-check after spell-check and grammar check after grammar check (even though I argue with Microsoft’s grammar checker).

I have a friend who was obsessing over how the bold didn’t show in her blog when viewed with the Firefox browser. No one ever left a blog never to return because there wasn’t any bold.

I can spend a whole day checking out blog themes, down loading blog themes, uploading blog themes to my hosting account, and then editing them when they don’t look right. Does this get any posts written? Does this move my career forward? Can I tell myself I’m being productive?

When we send our words out in the world, we are putting ourselves on view for anyone who reads them. That takes a lot of courage.

We all know how the gremlins put in the typos the minute we hit send or drop our packet in the mailbox. This is the way writing is.

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Recently the world lost several great writers. We lost the activist Grace Paley, societ dissident Solzhenitsyn, and Jeannette Eyerly, who wrote about serious social issues for teenage girls. However, the loss that most touches my heart is RubyLee Schneider.

She was a member of our local writing group. I had known her for about 20 years. RubyLee never made any secret of her age. She carried her 82 years with pride.

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