Let’s Apply Some CPR to Our Storytelling

This is always a good time of year in which to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are going. It is also the perfect opportunity to plan ways to infuse our storytelling with extra “life.” So, let’s give it some CPR. C stands for Content; P stands for Performance; and R stands for Relationship. What do I mean? Read this column article to find out.

C stands for Content and it is time to look for ways to add life to our storytelling repertoire — our content. When was the last time you added some new stories to your storytelling repertoire? When we are busy telling stories on a regular basis, we can easily become comfortable with the stories we know well and those stories that are well received by our audiences. I am not suggesting that you change your entire program, but I am suggesting that to add life and enthusiasm to your storytelling, that you set a goal to add at least one new story every month. That doesn’t sound like too lofty a goal, but finding and/or creating a new story takes quite a bit of time and effort. First we must do a great deal of searching to find the right story for us — remember, never tell a story that you don’t love. Then we need to tweak and practice that story until it is “ours.” In addition, I always wonder how my audience will react to a story that I haven’t told to a group before. You have the advantage of your first-time enthusiasm for a new story, but the disadvantage of that many-time familiarity and smoothness of stories you have been telling for some time.

To add content pick a theme for your storytelling program. When we pick a theme, or are asked to tell stories that adhere to a special theme, we are forced to work on some new content. For example, I was just hired to do a program next March for a park system. Because they like to list the programs in an event brochure, they wanted me to pick a theme for my performance. Because that is just before April 1st, I chose “Trickster Tales … and More.” I already have a few trickster tales in my repertoire and am also aware of the abundance of many more. Plus we added the word “More” in case I want to stray a bit. I have time to start searching and even to write one of my own. What fun!

P stands for Performance and it is time to work on ways to add power, polish and pizzazz to our storytelling performance skills. What can you do to improve the way you tell your stories? We are often unaware of bad and good habits we may have acquired over the years. One way to discover these — and it can be a bit painful — is to ask a friend or family member to video tape your performance. With the devices available today, this can be done easily and inconspicuously. Then, in the quiet of your home, watch the tape. Don’t be brutal with your criticism, but do make note of what is working and what may be distracting and not working. I am not suggesting that you tell stories in a way that isn’t comfortable for you. For example, if you are a laid-back, down-to-earth type of person, you will do better as a straight-talking, easy-going teller. Don’t try to be someone you aren’t. Just take a look and ask yourself how you can be yourself better. What can you add to your performance skills to give you more Presence (another P)?

R stands for Relationship and is included here to remind us that the relationship with our audience is the most important factor in giving “life” to our storytelling. I know that this has been addressed many times already in my previous columns, but is such an important consideration that we need to keep it at the forefront. The relationship between us as tellers and our listeners is what makes storytelling special and unique. It is what makes each telling different from every other telling. Questions to ask yourself are: Do I focus first and foremost on the audience and how they are reacting and interacting with me and the story? or Am I more concerned about how I am doing and what they think of me? When we first start as storytellers, we do tend to have more concern about remembering the stories and how we are coming across. As we grow as professionals, however, we need to make sure that it is the relationship with us and the story that we want to be memorable. What can you do as a teller to build a strong relationship with your listeners? How about your relationship with other tellers? And how about your relationship with the people who hire you and whom you want to hire you? All are important and need additional “life.

So, remember, it is time to apply some CPR to your storytelling, so that 2002 will be the best year of telling you have ever had. And the best year of listening to stories for your audiences!

Full Name: Chris King Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Home Page: http://www.creativekeys.net/ Interests: Arts & Humanity, Business, Computer/Internet, Fitness, Health, Movies, Reading/Writing, Shopping, Small Business

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Leaders and Stories: Growing the Next Generation, Conveying Values, and Shaping Character

How senior government practitioners can use their experience and leadership stories as mentors, coaches, teachers, and exemplars to help grow other leaders.

A leadership generation in the public service will shortly pass the baton, but few freshly-prepared leaders are ready to run the next leg of the race. Coincident with a new administration, well over one-half of today’s senior federal executives are ready to begin the next phase of their lives. Retirement projections are notoriously imprecise. Yet, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s statistics and historical patterns, two of three senior executives will likely leave federal service in the next five years. Many of these current leaders are in the very agencies where policy and program changes are on the nation’s agenda.

This is the “quiet crisis” of1eadership that Warren Bennis calls perhaps the least understood crisis of our times, occurring in all sectors of the developed world. Bennis maintains that we don’t yet know what the effect will be as this generation of leaders moves on, nor do we really know how to grow a next generation of1eaders who need new capabilities and a deeper reflection of enduring character qualities for what Peter Drucker calls a “time of great change.”

Despite the widespread acknowledgment of this pending leadership crisis, we do know that far too few government agencies have prepared themselves or their future leaders for succession or for these unprecedented changes. We also know two things that can be of immediate value in preparing the next generation of public service leaders, but only if acted upon.

The Lessons of Example and Experience
First, we know through benchmarking, that in the organizations that have a track record for growing leaders of character and capability, it is senior leaders, themselves (not the training shops or human resources offices), who assume the responsibility for preparing the next generation.

Second, we know that leaders are grown not by the lessons of the “classroom” but by the lessons of experience–lessons gleaned from challenging and varied job experiences and from significant relationships built with senior leaders (both good and bad). It is through these impact experiences and significant relationships that practical leadership capability is learned and where character is observed and shaped in the crucible of reality.

These senior leaders that beget other leaders play a role of “exemplar,” of “coach,” of mentor,” and even of “teacher.” They give their time and wisdom to help make meaning and learning out of experience and observation.

We also know that senior leaders in the “best practice” organizations have beneficially employed at least one common thread that ties together these two absolutely fundamental principles: the lessons of experience and significant relationships with senior leaders.

Stories
Most of us can remember lying in bed and having an older person read us a bedtime story. We were whisked away to places we could only dream of. Or we may remember sitting around a table after a meal and listening to our parents or grandparents tell stories that helped us understand a bit more about who they were and where our family came from and what we believed in. One of the great joys of growing older (yes, there are some) is sharing these stories with the next generation that hasn’t heard them.

There is no doubt about it, stories are both heart warming and memorable. But perhaps what we don’t understand is why we are able to remember favorite stories so well and why they are one of the most useful tools for leaders to have in their toolkits.

In my work with leaders of all stripes and in almost every government organization, I have come to the conclusion that many senior executives do not appreciate either their responsibilities or their capabilities to help grow the next generation. I also believe that we probably don’t appreciate the tremendous value of stories in developing leadership, nor do we realize how many meaningful leadership stories we have that are just waiting to be told. Storytelling isn’t a gift reserved for the imaginative few.

Stories and Our Brain
A good place to start understanding how important stories are to leadership would be to begin with our brains.

In today’s world, data overwhelms us and access to information practically engulfs us. The initially hopeful advent of the knowledge worker and the learning organization sometimes seems a cruel joke played by a vengeful Hal.2 It is in this changing world of work that stories have the strong attraction of a simpler time and a clearer message.

More importantly, what researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are discovering is that the way in which our brains actually work may be different than what we had previously supposed. To replicate the human brain with a computer, AI specialists have been trying to find out how we actually store and retrieve the immense amounts of information that come to the synapses of our brains every day, and why and how we “trash” other information.

What their discoveries reveal is that we don’t file information in topical “files” in the way that a word processing computer program might (or an old-fashioned filing cabinet). Rather, information is “filed” in its context and retrieved in a context as well in the form of stories that become integrated with others into parables.

What they have also found is that when we receive information in the form of bulleted lists, much like a PowerPoint presentation or a strategic plan, we sort this information and discard most of it. Hence, the “recency-primacy effect,” wherein we are more likely to remember the first and last items on the list and maybe an item which had a powerful emotional impact. The rest we discard to “trash,” likely never to be retrieved. So what?

How Stories Are Used
The “so what” is that learning organizations, knowledge organizations, and the other contemporary forms of organized human activity, including government bureaucracies, are using stories as powerful leadership learning “technologies.” What is being rediscovered is what cultures have known for millennia–stories are a powerful, indeed irreplaceable method used by vibrant organizations and superior leaders.

In the “best practice” organizations, senior leaders use stories to shape and to convey strategic plans (3M), to communicate their culture and core character values (Herman Miller), and to grow leaders as senior leaders teach the next generation (PepsiCo). While each of these is interrelated, let’s focus on the latter, how stories can be used to help prepare the next generation of leaders.

Getting Started
Public service leaders, primarily today’s senior executives, may have the perhaps unrecognized responsibility of growing the next generation, but absent a well-conceived and strategically-employed succession process, they often lack a framework for carrying it out. Unfortunately, few federal agencies have yet come to grips with this need for managing succession strategically.3 Given all the “urgent” in-box imperatives that compete for the time of a senior public servant, the “important,” namely, the growing and developing other leaders, often gets overwhelmed. Where do you start?

Realistically, senior leaders need to begin with their calendars. In Noel Tichy’s work with executives in the private and public sectors, he found that those who blocked time for the important task of growing others’ careers set an example in the use of time that clearly conveyed their priorities and allowed for the necessary relationships to be built. Most of us would be shocked if we were to seriously review our calendars for the past 30 days and see how little time we devoted to growing the next generation.

To mentor, to coach, and to teach others takes protected time. Personal reflection and self-awareness precede any priority action on these time commitments. Check it out and see for yourself. It may motivate you to begin to block time each week.

So, once time is set aside, where are senior leaders to find their stories and how should they be used?

Finding Stories
A leader’s story conveys the lessons of experience–theirs and others. Its power is that a story wraps the two central facets of leader learning, character and capability, into a memorable and practical package ripe for action.

In finding your own
stories of where you learned to lead, you might want to take a large piece of paper and draw a timeline horizontally through the center. Begin with your earliest remembered childhood days and end with today–the larger proportion being in the working career years. Then both above and below that line, record the highs and the lows of your life and career. What were the events and situations that produced in you the greatest (or least) energy, the most satisfaction, the most disappointment, the greatest challenges, the worst mistakes, the best teamwork, a memorable person, etc.

Use these as a starting point. It is from both the so-called highs and lows of life and work that we draw lessons and form the basis for stories that pass on that learning.

An additional way to go about it is to prime the pump using story “prompts.” I have provided 10 basic leader story prompts in the accompanying box, but add your own.

With some key story ideas in mind, you are ready to start, writing a few down in the next weeks. It can turn into a lifetime leadership learning habit of your own learning from experience.

Leadership Story Prompts

• Can you remember a time when you worked for a really lousy boss?
• Can you tell about the first time you ever led a team, a project, or an organization and suddenly realized how much you didn’t know?
• Was there ever a time that you felt you failed in a job badly, or perhaps were fired or relieved?
• Did you have a time in your career when you worked with a team that accomplished well beyond what you or anyone may have expected?
• Was there ever anyone early in your life, perhaps a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle that passed on a lesson which you continue to apply to this day?
• Did you ever go through a personal crisis that helped you realize and begin to live out important values that may have been previously obscured to you?
• Did you ever take part in an event where you felt you put your career on the line?
• Were you ever confronted with a choice to live out your values and you made the wrong choice? The right choice and paid a price?
• Was there ever a time you felt you couldn’t go on or were about to give up?
• Did you ever do something that no one knew about but which gives you a great sense of accomplishment today?

Recording Your Leadership Stories
Stories have a very clear pattern to them that ensures both learning and interest. The best way to develop stories is, of course, simply to tell them to someone. There is apparently something in the telling and retelling of stories, researchers have found, that allows us deeper understanding and a better memory of the events and the lessons. Telling stories isn’t natural to all of us.

A basic format for stories can be a useful means to take a key situation from the “highs and lows” or from a prompt and turn it into a story with lessons for the future. Essentially a story has five parts to it, normally in the following order.

Use this merely as an outline to jot down a few thoughts under each component. It’s really not necessary to write it all out. These are connected parts, meant to be told aloud to one person or to a roomful. Try sharing these with another person, using a tape recorder, or just telling yourself the story in your head.

Growing Leaders
What you might want to do is to have several story ideas in mind that you work on from time to time and keep in a spiral notebook. The purpose here is not to form the basis for your novel or for writing your memoirs, but to begin to appreciate with deeper understanding how you as leader have been shaped by the lessons of life. Once we have a deeper understanding of how we have learned to lead, two things will happen.

First, you will begin to see that you not only have learned much, but that you have much to pass on–a leadership legacy if you will. Second, you will begin to observe events and situations that you encounter with more of a “leader’s eye,” a capacity for real insight about what is being learned and how it relates to other “stories” that form “parables” for others. This then leads to living out the role of a leader who grows the next generation: a leader who has a greater commitment and capacity to be a mentor, coach, teacher, and exemplar.

Mentor
For many years, Odysseus was away from his young son, Telemachus, as he fought alongside Achilles at the gates of Troy and then traveled his long and perilous journey home. He returned to find that Telemachus was now a man in the best sense. The guardian to whom Odysseus had entrusted his son’s development had done his job well. That older man’s name was Mentor.

To be a mentor is to have a significant relationship, often with a younger person, over a long period of time to help him/her to grow and mature as a person and as a leader. This is a relationship of trust that is built by single bricks of time–lunch, racquetball, walks, and hallway conversations. It is the type of relationship that senior leaders can have with a few people and can even continue beyond retirement. In fact, not being a “boss” may enhance the quality of the trust and the openness of the conversations.

To be a mentor is to be honest about one’s experiences and even failings, not to be a fount of wisdom. Many patterns of life and leadership challenges recur. You will find that the lessons of your leadership stories now can be matched with the challenges of your protégé from time to time as your relationship grows. Also, simply listening isn’t a bad thing to do either. The two basic mentoring questions are something like these: what are your priorities? How can I help you?

Coach
The essence of mentoring lies in the depth and duration of the relationship. The essence of coaching revolves around shared experience. The coach is involved in “the game” with the people s/he is coaching. The coach intentionally and even strategically challenges others to take on experiences that will cause them to grow, to develop skills that may be nascent, and to take risks tempered by coaching questions that allow the protégé to solve the problem on his/her own. A coach will also help an aspiring leader to learn by reflecting on what has happened and giving feedback–good and not so good–and encouragement.

A leader’s stories can come into play for a coach in many situations. For example, almost any planning for a project involves thinking through possible options–stories convey how similar situations played out in your own career. Or, perhaps, there has been a parable, distilled from many stories that you have drawn in leading change or in resolving conflict on a hard-charging team. What are the parables you have come to rely upon?

The reality of uncertainty, difficulty, and even failure, as well as perseverance in the face of opposition and setbacks, are the lessons of experience that can allow others to grow and not give up. Your stories can help set the stage for both realistic learning and perseverance under pressure.

Teacher
Teachers come in all sizes, but few leaders see themselves as “teachers.” Teaching, they often believe, is a role for trainers, the human resource folks, consultants, and gurus. Not leaders. Except that impression is simply dead wrong. The best leaders are not only the best teachers for the next generation. They are the ones who see that what is needed in the “classroom” is practical wisdom that embodies the best of theory. They not only see it, they act on it.

The “best practice” organizations have recognized this. Building on the principles of how adults learn (experientially, practically focused, reality based), these organizations design in-house leadership development programs that maximize this truth by engaging senior leaders as instructors, not tokens. While human resource development types are needed to provide the learning background and the administrative framework, the design of the “curriculum” content is best provided by those in the front lines of leadership. They simply understand better than most what competencies and character qualities are needed for the leaders of the future.

As a “teacher” your stories help to enlarge the understanding of participants. Stories provide an air of reality, and a sense of the nuances of leadership paradox that no text or clever consultant or trainer can provide. You will also find participants more willing to listen to practical wisdom and honest vulnerability, particularly if their learning “curriculum” is action learning: a real team project with the pressures of time and unfamiliarity.

Exemplar
Volumes have been written on leading by example. Suffice to say that when a senior leader turns his calendar around and begins to openly devote more time to the careers of others as a mentor, coach, and teacher, that bespeaks a person of character and commitment to others. One who cares about other people, one who demonstrates a belief in the importance of enhancing the gifts of people, and one whose focus is on the future—this is a leader who helps to grow the next generation.

Serving the Future
The leader who takes it upon himself or herself to invest time and energy in the lives of future leaders is living out what many have called the role of a servant leader. It is only such a leader who can be an effective and sought out mentor, wise coach, and respected teacher and one whose example others will want to follow. This leader doesn’t begin by telling stories but by living them. His or her life is the best story.

As one person told me about a leader who had shaped his life: “He 1eft his1egacy in the lives of others.”

Ray Blunt was a senior executive who spent 35 years in public service in the Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs, retiring in 1996. Since then he has served as a leadership coach, mentor, teacher, and consultant to a number of government organizations, and in the Excellence in Government Fellows Program. He previously authored articles on succession and leadership development in public service.

James Foster Robinson Original source:

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Living Stories

Stories when told by talented storyteller can become alive for the listeners and evoke vivid images in their minds as well as strong emotions. Well told stories can make people cringe in fright, cry tears of joy or sadness and motive the dullest person. Some stories can even take on a life of their own and come back to haunt you. This happened to me at least once.

In the 1980’s I used to live in the city of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Back then I was a drinking man and used to spend a lot of time in a bar called Finnigan’s. The music was usually great Irish Folk and the draught beer tasted good. I had made friends with one of the performers, a folk artist by the name of Bill Root. One night, during one of his break’s, we sat a table in a dim corner of the bar. It was Bill’s last night in this gig and he was heading out to Saskatchewan the next day. As usual he gave me one word “ghost”.

Now, you see, we played a game. Every time he came back to play at Finnigan’s, I would have to tell him a story that I made up from a word that he gave me when he had been there before. If he liked the story, I got a free pitcher of draught beer from him. I got a lot of free pitchers of draught beer. In fact, we were just polishing off the last free pitcher. This was around the time I was doing some storytelling in local schools and on the sidewalks of Downtown Kingston for tourists.

Well, when Bill returned a month later, I had the story ready. At one of his breaks I told him of the “Haunted Table of Finnigan’s”. I made it all up one night while sitting alone at one of the tables in a dim corner of the bar. Bill loved the story! In fact, a number of people, including the bar owner had listened in and really enjoyed it. In the week and months that followed, the bar owner had me tell it to various patrons in return for – you guessed it! – a pitcher of draught beer.

Several months later, I started a new job where I was one of two men working amongst a whole bevy of ladies. At coffee breaks the other fellow and I often sat quietly, listening to the ladies chat. We both felt that we were a bit out of place there. But some of the ladies decided to make us feel more welcome. One asked me if I had a favorite pub or bar. When I replied yes, that I liked going to Finnigan’s, she indicated that she too attended the place. Then she asked if I had ever heard of the haunted table in Finnigan’s and if I had ever seen the ghost. She, of course, had never seen it, but had a friend who had a friend who had heard the whole story from the guy who had seen it. And -you guessed it – I was that guy. No, I did not enlighten her about that fact or that I had made up the story.

I have not been back to Kingston for over 13 years. Finnigan’s is gone but I bet the story of the Haunted Table of Finnigan’s is still alive!

What’s that? You want to hear the story of the haunted table of Finnigan’s? If I were still a drinking man, it would have cost you a jug of draught. But for old time’s sake and for my old friend, Bill Root, where ever he might be strumming his guitar and singing his songs, here goes it!

One dark and stormy Halloween, I landed in Finnigan’s for a few draughts to wet my whistle. I had been out of town and out of touch up north for a few months. When I wandered into the room, I saw Sally behind the bar and waved. She smiled and waved back and continued to clean her glasses. Feeling duly welcomed home, I glanced around the nearly empty room and saw Seamus, my old friend sitting in a darken corner. I waved. He stared back like he did not know me. Then it was like a light bulb came on behind his eyes. He smiled and waved me over.

“Jim, it’s you!” he said and hung his head. “I am sorry I did not recognize you.”
“It’s ok, Seamus”, I replied soothingly. “How have you been? Where’s Mary?” He looked at me with the strangest look in his eyes. It was then I noticed a strange smell in the corner – like that of wet seaweed.

“You don’t know?” He inquired sadly.

“Know what, Seamus? I have been away for six months. Tell me what’s wrong, please”

“Sorry, Jim. Of course! Of course!” He paused and drew a breath.

“About two months ago I shipped out on a boat to Thunderbay. Mary, of course, stayed here. My ship foundered in a storm on Lake Michigan and I was washed overboard. Someone found me half drowned on the shore near Green Bay. I had amnesia and could not remember a thing. To make a story short, they found out who I was, were I came from and suggested I return here to help gain my memory.” He paused and exhaled a breath. The smell of dank seaweed was getting stronger.

“I came into Finnigan’s and Sally, the barmaid seemed to know me. Glancing around I saw a young woman sitting at this table in the corner. She also seemed to know me and waved happily at me. I went over and sat down. Jim, it was Mary! It all started to come back. She said she knew I was not dead and had waited for me like she promised.”

“Jim”, he continued with a strange look in his eyes.

“Jim, she looked like death warmed over. And there was a strange smell of dank seaweed. But before I could find out what was wrong …” He stifled a sob.

“Then Sally tapped me on the shoulder and asked me what I wanted a drink. I ordered a jug of draught for me and a glass of wine for Mary – see – I was beginning to remember!

But Sally put her hand on my shoulder and quietly said, “ Oh Seamus, I’m am sorry. Didn’t anyone tell you? Mary drowned in a boating accident last week. We didn’t know where you were. I’m sorry.”

“Jim, I was stunned! Not believing Sally, I turned back to Mary – BUT SHE WAS NOT THERE!”

Well now, I also was stunned! So much had happened to my friends while I was away. Then Sally tapped me on the shoulder and asked me what I wanted to drink. I ordered a jug of draught for Seamus and a whiskey for me. I needed a stiff drink.

But Sally put her hand on my shoulder and quietly said, “ Oh Jim, I’m sorry. Didn’t anyone tell you? Mary and Seamus drowned in a boating accident last week. They are buried together in the cemetery overlooking the harbour. I’m sorry.”

I turned back with trepidation to Seamus – BUT HE WAS NOT THERE!

James Foster Robinson Original source:

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Life, Passion… Deadline

The Conclusion of the 8-Part BRING YOUR NOVEL TO LIFE Series

You’re ready to write the story of your life. You’ve put your heart and soul into it.

• Your themes resonate with you, and they’re the core of the novel.

• You’ve hidden them so well you’ll write a story, not a message.

• You’re willing to write honestly, knowing you can’t please everyone, but you’ll reach the people who will understand YOU.

• You’ve layered your story with subthemes that will make plotting easier, and will make the tale you’re telling richer.

• And you actually KNOW what you’ll be writing about before you start writing.

You’re golden.

Almost.

You have one huge obstacle ahead of you, one you haven’t yet considered. It may not be a factor with your first book, it won’t be a factor for the first book you SELL, but for every book thereafter, your passion, your creativity, and the soul of your story will be written against the background of a ticking clock.

You will face deadlines.

Everyone knows the rules for meeting deadlines. You break your story into daily bites, you write a certain number of words or a certain number of pages per day, you build padding into your schedule so that you can have a few bad days and not come in late, and you stick to your schedule. All great, it works, it’s the way I’ve written a whole lot of books and hit a whole lot of deadlines.

But there’s more to it than that. When the clock is ticking, you know you’ll only have so many times you can fall down, lose your place, and make mistakes before you fall behind. And playing catch-up is hell on creativity–stress, anxiety, and the fear that this time you won’t be able to write to the end of the book come crashing in on you, and make simply finishing an ordeal–never mind finishing on time.

Everyone hits those places sooner or later. But how do you keep from hitting them every time? And how do you hang on to all the richness and power and passion you built into your story when fear and worry make writing feel like rock climbing with no safety gear?

Follow these three steps, and you’ll get through it.

• Believe in the power of your themes.

If you’re writing stories that matter to you, you’ll be able to lose yourself in them even when the pressure is on. I’ve been in some incredibly tight spots, with not just looming deadlines but a dwindling bank account—but because I’d taken the time to build the foundation for a story I wanted and NEEDED to write, once I sat down and put my fingers on the keyboard, I could slip away for a while from the real world and lose myself in my characters and their lives.

If you’re “just cranking one out,” you’re going to have a much, much harder time shaking off the real world and getting your work done. And your quality will suffer, too. If you’re telling a story you need to tell, your characters will drag you to the keyboard on days when you just don’t think you can do it.

• Trust surprises…but not too much.

Be willing to explore story ideas that ADD TO and complement the themes you already have in place. Bringing in new events that can take your characters in different directions but still allow them to get back to the story you’d planned can make getting your daily quota of words or pages exciting—you’re not entirely sure what is going to happen, but you’re pretty sure it’s going to be good.

Make sure, before chasing after a sudden hunch or enchanting new direction, that it DOES work in tandem with your story. Take a few minutes to see if you can daydream your way from the beginning of the tangent all the way through to the place where it connects back in to the big scenes and big events you’ve plotted out.

• Dance with the one who brought you.

Stress and deadlines have a way of shaking your confidence, in making you second-guess everything you planned, in pushing you to look for something that would be easier, simpler, quicker. Don’t do it.

The problem is, you might have what seems like a great surprise idea pop on you that promises to give you easier, simpler, quicker, but it can be hard to tell the difference between a nice surprise and a betrayal in waiting.

Stop yourself right away if you find yourself altering your story themes or your main direction because of this great new idea. The sure-fire way to kill the story you’re writing is to hare off after what is, in fact, an entirely new story trying to disguise itself as something you can use right now. If you’re writing about a doctor who has lost faith in his profession and who walks away from medicine, only to discover how much he needs to help people—and you have a great idea to make him an archeologist—hit the brakes.

Let the archeologist idea simmer in the back of your mind while you finish the doctor book. If it’s any good, it’ll still be there when you’re ready to write the next story.

Easier, simpler, quicker is nothing but a mirage when you’re pushing toward a deadline. Faith in the strength of your story, a bit of daring, and focus on what you started with and what you intend to have when you’re done, however, will give you what you need to get through.

You can do this. And you’ll have the best thing you’ve every written when you’re done; a novel with a pulse, with muscle and sinew, with passion and meaning.

Full-time novelist Holly Lisle has published more than thirty novels with major publishers. Her next novel, THE RUBY KEY, (Orchard Books) will be on shelves May 1st. You can receive her free writing newsletter, Holly Lisle's Writing Updates at http://hollylisle.com/newsletter.html

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Life After Rejections

As writers, rejection is a hand we have to shake often. When you are at the beginning of your freelance writing career, and receive rejections, it is hard not to turn up your eyeballs and wail. Here, you had written this wonderful article or poem, and no one appreciated you. Sniff!

But if you are looking to be a working writer, get real. Experienced writers get rejections too. The difference is that they don’t shrivel up and die. They toss aside the rejection note with elan, or simple press delete on the keyboard. And then they write another piece.

For developing a long term relationship with your writing Muse, the rules are simple:

1. Think positive – having an upbeat attitude really helps. Don’t think the publishing world has blacklisted you if some of your work has been rejected.

2. Don’t wait for her – the Muse has lots of house calls to make. If you wait for her to show up, she may never come. Just get in front of the computer and do your thing. She’ll visit when its time.

3. Keep your spirits up – sagging spirits will result in lack lustre writing. Believe you have the best job in the world and don’t let that flow of enthusiasm in your writing slow down for a minute.

4. Write regularly in your journal – this buddy is yours for life. The more you keep writing in your journal, the more seasoned a writer you will be. All your motivations and emotions, the craft and art of the written word will be clear to you.

5. Love the sound of the keyboard being busy – you’ve got to develop a taste for instrumental music. In this case, it means the music of your fingers on the keyboard.

6. Join a writing group, online, or the one in your city – if you’re getting hit hard by rejections and must have a shoulder to cry on, find a writing group where you can let your tears flow. The members have all been there, done that. Their advice on life after the big ‘R’ is genuine.

7. Look at your writing life through binoculars – step back for some time and ask yourself where you went wrong with your writing. Did you slant it to meet the particular publication’s needs?

8. Maybe it’s time for a refresher course in writing – we’re not all born being smart wordsmiths. Consider if you can take a course to hone your craft. Or read a few good books on the writing process.

9. Do more research before sending your pieces – submitting poetry to a small business magazine will naturally garner a rejection. Don’t submit your work as an attachment if the editor has asked for it to be pasted into the email.

10. Get busy – there are many ezines, magazines and newspapers in the world. So what if a couple have said no. Don’t stop following your dream.

Moushumi Chakrabarty is an author based in Canada. She has written more than fifty articles on topics as varied as parenting, the craft of writing, the environment and humour. Her ebook, Positive Thoughts For Writers - Tips and Resources to Jumpstart Your Creativity and Make You Smile, is available http://www.authorsden.com/moushumichakrabarty . Get in touch with her by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Letters of Reference – Writing Tips and Strategies

In addition to standard letter-writing dos and don’ts, there are a number of basic guidelines that apply specifically to most situations related to the writing of letters of reference. These are usually more “situational” than “how-to” in nature.

These reference letter guidelines are important to both note and apply, since writing letters of reference is always a somewhat tricky and delicate matter. That’s because they almost always affect the reputation and future of the writer or that of another person.

The following tips and strategies apply primarily to the writing of letters of reference in their various forms (i.e. reference letters, character reference letters, employment reference letters, college reference letters, and general reference letters).

Write It Only If You Want To
If you are asked by someone to write a reference letter about them, you don’t have to say “yes” automatically. If it’s someone you respect for their work, and you have mostly positive things to say, by all means write the letter.

There is no point saying “yes” and then writing a letter that says nothing good about the person, or worse still, concocting a misleading positive assessment of someone.

So, whatever you do, don’t get sucked into writing a reference inappropriately out of feelings of guilt or obligation.

If You Must Refuse, Do It Right Up Front
On the other hand, if someone asks you to write a reference letter for them, and you know you’ll be hard-pressed to keep it positive, say “no” right away.

There is no point in hesitating and leading the person on to believe that the answer might eventually be “yes”.

A gentle but firm “no” will usually get the message across to the person. Explain that you don’t think that you are the best (or most qualified) person to do it.

Suggest Someone Else
If you feel you should refuse, for whatever reason, it may be helpful for you to suggest someone else who you think might have a more positive and/or accurate assessment of the person.

That other person may be in a better position to do the assessment. Usually there are a number of possible candidates, and you may not actually be the best one.

In fact, I have seen a number of cases over the years in which people requesting reference letters have not requested the letter from the obvious or logical choice. This usually happens when the requestor doesn’t like the person who is the obvious choice, and/or they are worried about what that person will say about them.

Write It As You See It
Writing a less than honest letter of reference does no one a favor in the end. It is likely to backfire on you, the person being recommended, and the new employer.

Also, many employers and head-hunting agencies check references these days.

How would you like to be called up and have to mislead people due to questionable things you may have written in a reference letter?

Be Honest, Fair, and Balanced
Honesty is always the best policy when it comes to writing reference letters. At the same time, try to be fair and balanced in your approach.

If in your estimation, a person has five strengths and one glaring weakness, but that weakness really bothers you, make sure you don’t over-emphasize the weak point in the letter based on your personal bias. Just mention it in passing as a weakness and then move on.

Balanced Is Best
An overall balanced approach is the best one for a letter of reference. Even if your letter generally raves about how excellent the person is, some balance on the other side of the ledger will make it more credible. After all, nobody’s perfect.

There must be some area where the person being recommended needs to improve. A bit of constructive criticism never hurts and it will make your letter more objective in nature.

Bottom Line:
The most important point to take away from the above tips and strategies is that it is your choice as to whether, and how, you will write a letter of reference.

It’s an important type of letter that will have a definite impact on the future of the person about whom it is being written, so don’t agree to write one unless you are willing to give it your utmost attention and effort.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Shaun Fawcett is Webmaster of two of the most visited writing-help Web sites on the Net. He is the author of numerous “how-to” books on everyday practical writing help. He is also the Net’s foremost authority on the definition and writing of ALL types of letters of recommendation and letters of reference. See his comprehensive resource center: Recommendation-Reference-Central.com

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Letters of Reference – Writing Power Phrases

As a result of writing literally hundreds of letters of reference over the years, I am aware that there are certain common elements and approaches that are applicable to almost all such letters.

If you look closely at most reference and recommendation letters you will notice that there are certain “types” of phrases that recur over and over again, throughout the various letters.

These statement types can be grouped into three major categories: opening statements, assessment statements, and closing statements. These statements are the three key components of any letter of reference. If you formulate these phrases well you are guaranteed to have an excellent letter.

OPENING STATEMENTS
The opening statement in a letter of reference should state the name of the person being recommended. It can also explain why you are the person writing the letter. The opening statement should normally be one short sentence and should never exceed two sentences.

Following are three generic typical opening statements for inclusion in reference letters:

• “I am writing this letter at the request of [name of requestor].”
• “This is in response to your recent request for a letter of reference for [name].”
• “I am pleased to be able to write this letter of reference for [name].”

ASSESSMENT STATEMENTS
Assessment statements in a letter of reference are those sentences and phrases that contain the recommender’s specific assessment of the performance, characteristics, and attributes of the person being recommended.

Normally an assessment statement will be followed up by one or two specific performance-related examples backing up the statement just made.

Following are three generic typical assessment statements for inclusion in letters of reference:

• “In my opinion, [name] is a hard-working self-starter who invariably understands exactly what a project is all about.”
• “[name] consistently produces high quality work in a timely fashion.”
• “The only area of weakness that I ever noted in [name]’s performance was…”

A typical letter of reference will normally include three to four assessment statements.

CLOSING STATEMENTS
The closing statement in a letter of reference should be one or two sentences at most, and it should make a clear statement of recommendation that flows logically from the points made in the assessment part of the letter. They will often begin with transition phrases such as: “In summary…”, “In Closing,…”, “Based on the foregoing,…”, “Accordingly,…”, etc.

Closing statements in reference letters are generally positive, but in some circumstances they may be qualified, or sometimes, even completely negative.

Following are three generic typical closing statements for inclusion in reference letters:

• “I am therefore very pleased to be able to recommend [name] for…”
• “Based on my time working with [name], I recommend her very highly for…”
• “I respect [name] as a colleague, but I must say that in all honesty, I cannot recommend him for …”

In summary, mastering these three types of “reference letter power phrases” is one of the keys to writing all types of letters of reference. As such, knowledge of how to write typical opening, assessment, and closing statements, as illustrated above, is essential to writing effective letters of reference.

That’s why I have included more than 150 generic “Reference Letter Power Phrases” in the latest Revised Edition of Instant Recommendation Letter Kit – How To Write Winning Letters of Recommendation.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Shaun Fawcett is Webmaster of two of the most visited writing-help Web sites on the Net. He is the author of numerous “how-to” books on everyday practical writing help. He is also the Net’s foremost authority on the definition and writing of ALL types of letters of recommendation and letters of reference. See his comprehensive resource center: Recommendation-Reference-Central.com

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Let Them Rest! Overworked Phrases and Story Elements

At one time, they were clever. That’s why clichés catch on. Problem is, by the time they do catch on, writers have to work harder to avoid them.

When you attempt to describe something that’s flat, the first thought that comes to mind is probably “flat as a pancake.” Something that’s smooth?  “Smooth as a baby’s bottom.” An ugly old theatre that puts on the best shows in town? “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Advice for a jilted lover? “There are other fish in the sea.” As a writer, it’s your job not to take the easy road. You add nothing to literature by copying expressions that everyone’s already heard. If you love words, certainly you can work to find new combinations of them that will fit your purpose divinely.

When you’re writing a first draft, it’s inevitable that clichés and tired elements will find their way into your story. But that’s one of the prime reasons for editing. When you’re revising your work, be sure to ruthlessly hunt for this sort of dead weight and delete with fervor.

On Steroids

I was going over the copyedits of my next book, The Street-Smart Writer, when I came upon this sentence in a sidebar I wrote about Craigslist: “It’s like a newspaper classified section on steroids.”

Blech.

I deleted it before it could make it to print and show everyone what an unoriginal writer I am. Why? Because everything’s “on steroids.” Check Google for the phrase. You’ll find NASA describing “solar flares on steroids” and the next moon mission as “Apollo on steroids,” a prison described as “Guantanamo on steroids,” OpenTV as “TiVo on steroids”… heck, I was watching a gardening show on NBC the other day and heard a flower described as looking like another flower on steroids.

Certainly we can dig deep and come up with another way to describe “large” or “super-charged.”

That Person Is Me

How many times have you read a story that’s ostensibly in third person, then by the end the writer reveals that he or she is the person the story was about?

It’s usually a traumatic story of some sort– abuse, violence, rape, death of a child, drug addiction, prison– and throughout the story, you’re clearly supposed to sympathize with the person who’s being written about. Then, a paragraph or two before the end, the writer says, in effect, “Ha ha, fooled you! It’s really all about me!”

Well, usually with more dignity than that.  But it’s still an overused story device. First, readers can usually see it coming, and second, readers don’t typically like feeling “tricked” or manipulated. Every now and then it works, when it’s a real shocker– like when the reader is led to believe that the person in the story is going to die, or when it seems inevitable that the story will not end happily. Those are exceptions, though. In general, just write it in first person (or third person) and don’t go for the “big twist ending.”

Enough Food to Feed an Army

When someone cooks for the holidays, someone else is going to say, “There’s enough food here to feed an army!”  Why always an army?  I mean, if there’s enough food to feed an army, there’s also enough to feed: a school full of kids, a concert audience, a sports team, the U.S. Senate, a choir…

Don’t fall back on this one in your writing. Pick something that hasn’t been done to death.

The Energizer Bunny

On that same note, when someone is energetic or shows great stamina, why does the Energizer Bunny always have to be the comparison?

Irvine World News says 2003’s police officer of the year is the Energizer Bunny (http://www.irvineworldnews.com/Astories/feb27/officer.html).

Henrico County Board of Supervisors call themselves “better than the Energizer Bunny” (http://www.co.henrico.va.us/manager/hen901/page6.htm).

Tonya Harding compares herself to the Energizer Bunny, too

I’m sure Energizer’s ad team is thrilled by how their creation has infiltrated our daily language, but really, we can do better than this. Let the bunny rest.

God Works in Mysterious Ways

This is a cop-out phrase for most things we can’t explain. Leave it out.  It’s not “deep” and it doesn’t add anything to the story.

Hate It When That Happens

I accidentally superglued my finger to my face today. I hate it when that happens.

Did you laugh?  No?  Neither will your readers. This expression was probably funny the first two or three times you heard it or read it. After that, it’s not surprising anymore– and therefore, not effective. The best you’ll get is a smirk, and if your goal is to be funny, aim higher than a smirk.

The Moral of the Story

If you’re going to tell a story that has a moral, don’t spell out the moral, especially with a cliché.

For example, if you’ve just written an essay about surviving a horrible situation and finding a way to use that experience to help others, don’t end it with “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” That cheapens the story you just told.

Trust your reader to “get” the moral, provided you told the story well. Don’t lean on clichés to make your point for you. Lean on the strength of the story itself, and the lesson you want to impart will be clear to the reader. Better yet, readers will feel more respected if you trust them to interpret, rather than feeding them the point as if you think they’re too dumb to get it.

Ungodly Hour

If you have to wake up really early (or stay up really late), please find another phrase to express your annoyance about it. “Ungodly hour” has been used and abused. Let’s help it retire.

* Clichés in Fiction

Dogs as Goodness Meters

If there is a dog in a movie or novel, this dog will always know who is good and who is bad. The dog will bark at the bad person (or bite, or chase) and snuggle up to the good person, hence helping our hero figure out whether to (a) date the person, or (b) trust the person with boatloads of money. Can we take this high responsibility away from the dog, please?

Throwing Alarm Clocks

I can’t count how many screenplays I’ve read where the first scene begins with the hero grumpily awakening and throwing the alarm clock across the room. Honestly, if the hero did this, he’d need to buy a new alarm clock every day– which makes me think he must be rich and have an anger management problem.

Yes, we all get the urge to smash our alarm clocks. But really, how many times have you physically done it?

Also, unless you’re going to do something really original with it, we don’t need to see the scene where the hero wakes up, stumbles around his dirty room, brushes his teeth, and scratches his butt. Take us right to the action.

People Don’t Vomit That Much

One of the things that irks me most in fiction is the exaggeration of vomit. I’ve noticed this trend most in screenplays, but also in novels. I don’t like it, but I accept it when vomit scenes occur during situations when people really are likely to get sick (when they’re drunk, on a plane, going through chemotherapy, etc.). However, the emotion-induced vomiting has to go.

Like the alarm clock example, you may feel sick when you see something disgusting, or when something awful happens, or when you get nervous, but how often do you actually throw up due to a strong emotion?

Drug References

“Are you on crack?” “What are you smoking?” “Are you high?”

Really, people do surprising things for reasons other than being stoned.  Yet when someone says something shocking, a common reaction is to question whether that person is on drugs.

Resist the urge to do this in dialogue. It’s overplayed.

Whether you’re writing a novel or a newspaper article, earn your right to call yourself a writer. Take the time to find the overused words in your work, replace them with your insights, and prove your dedication to the craft.

Jenna Glatzer is the editor in chief of www.AbsoluteWrite.com and the author of a bunch of books. Her latest is the children’s picture book Hattie, Get a Haircut! Check it out at www.jennaglatzer.com

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Learning to Learn

Strange as it seems, during my 16 years as a student, not one of my teachers discussed how to learn. Are you as interested in learning as me?

LEARNING IS NATURAL – BUT NEEDS YOUR HELP

For humans, learning is as natural and as automatic as breathing. But that doesn’t mean there’s no benefit to thinking about it. In fact, research on learning is now advancing and important assumptions are being overturned or reinforced.

BECOMING A MASTER

Becoming expert is one important area illuminated by new research. Our time is called ‘the age of specialization’ because most of us want to become masters of one or more domains – so information on mastery is helpful.

Mastery doesn’t seem as automatic as basic learning. There must be special factors involved, since we don’t automatically become expert at everything we learn or practice. For example, most of us learn to drive a car, but few of us become masterful drivers. Instead we reach a certain level of proficiency and then stop improving – even if we accumulate lots of practice by driving thousands of miles a year.

ALL PRACTICE DOES NOT ‘..MAKE PERFECT’

That old saw, ‘practice makes perfect’ isn’t enough to explain mastery. While experts agree that practice is critical, it’s really more like ‘Perfect practice makes perfect’
– and ‘Imperfect practice makes imperfect’. So what factors make mastery practice more perfect?

PERFECTING PRACTICE

Researchers have confirmed some popular assumptions. For one, it takes time to become a master – and lots of it! Typically, you can expect to spend at least 10 years of your life mastering anything non-trivial. Notice how that’s about the minimum time it takes to get a PHD? People are in a hurry these days, but mastery is not something you can hurry much.

HARDLY WORKING

Mastery is also hard work. That means you’ll need lots of motivation and dedication to succeed at it. This leads to the idea that there are advantages to mastering something you love doing – something you want to do when it’s playtime instead of work time. Since few of us love to work, but we all love to play, making your favorite play into your work makes it easier to do more of it, do it better and get more from the experience.

One reason mastery is tough work and not automatic is that you progress only by constant challenge. You must frequently turn your goals up a notch, in order to keep improving. When your practice starts to get easy, it’s time to step up to the next
level of difficulty. Without this self-imposed struggle, you’d soon reach a ‘learning plateau’ and stop improving. In mastery you can never stop outdoing yourself. It’s that old ‘No pain – No gain’ principle.

ARE MASTERS SMARTER?

Research with chess masters shows that they aren’t smarter than other chess players. They don’t score higher on intelligence tests, plan farther ahead, have photographic memories or analyze every possible move like a computer. Their power is not from analyzing many moves, but from quickly recognizing which is the one very best move. To work this apparent magic, they rely on a mental history of past moves, a system for classifying such moves and strong pattern recognition skills.

This must be another reason mastery takes so long. The master has to develop a mental library of past experiences and also polish those mental classification and retrieval skills.

THE MYTH OF TALENT

Many people believe in the concept of ‘talent’ – this idea that some people are born with special abilities which forever render them superior in certain ways to everyone else.

Researchers have found that talent is much overrated in gaining mastery. Most ‘Child prodigies’ and ‘geniuses’ were found to have worked just as hard and taken just as long to master their specialties as everyone else – though they may start sooner and
therefore surprise people with their youthful mastery.

Historical studies show that many prodigies and geniuses owe their record-breaking careers not to an innate talent at some particular career, but rather to an arbitrary decision about their future careers made by their parents! While every specialty has certain prerequisites, mastery seems more a matter of nurture than nature.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED ABOUT LEARNING

As a student, a teacher, an amateur scientist and an aspiring visual artist, I’ve developed some opinions on learning and creativity.

Personally, I’d have to say this concept of ‘talent’ is too often a copout for the lazy or timid ones. Believing in talent and deciding you don’t have any is a rational excuse for such people to lower their levels of anxiety and effort – at the cost of dull lives.

LEARNING IS NATURALLY FUN

Although many teachers and educational systems have managed to overcome this, learning is naturally fun. Never let schools or teachers interfere with your learning or your enjoyment of it.

LEARNING NEVER STOPS

And that’s a good thing, because you should never stop learning. It’s one thing you can enjoy late in life, long after you’re best physical performances are in the past. And ’Use it or lose it’ applies to the mind also. Stay young at heart by always learning and practicing the mental activities you love.

TEACHING IS A GREAT WAY TO LEARN

I’ve found teaching others is one of the best ways to learn. That’s because you have to get things straight in your own mind before you can clearly explain them to others. And students have a way of finding and testing the gaps and weak spots in your understanding, so that it improves over time. Students are also great at disabusing you of your comfortable illusions.

WANT TO LEARN A LOT ABOUT A LOT?

I like to joke that my life’s desire is very simple. It’s just to learn everything about how everything works.

There’s nothing wrong with mastering several areas, if you have several areas of interest. But don’t expect to reach the level of expertise in each that someone who concentrates on only one area achieves. ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’ is a saying with some truth to it.

DID YOU LEARN SOMETHING?

Learning is so critical to your success that it seems wise to pay close attention to it.

I’d recommend that you:

1. Keep an eye on the research – much is being learned

2. Minimize ‘time-to-mastery’ by putting in lots of regular practice and fully challenging yourself.

3. Consider your decisions about mastery carefully, realizing that you’re making a long term commitment. Changing later can cost you a lot of time.

4. Don’t fall for the myth that you can’t be a master because you lack ‘talent’.

5. Chose things you love to do as areas for mastery. Why spend most of your time on things you don’t enjoy?

6. Use teaching, or at least advising, as a method of improving your learning.

Here’s to your learning!

Copyright © 2006 Jim Coe Art Head Start http://www.art-head-start.com/ Jim Coe is a learner, jack of several trades, 3D artist, photographer, writer and former art college teacher. Art Head Start.com, features his art skills ebook, free 3D tutorials, free 3D models and more. http://www.art-head-start.com/order-b.html

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