IWSG

My head is still spinning from all the changes in my world.  My body is trying to catch up.
Speaking of body Stephen Tremp, Michael  Di GesuAlex Cavanaugh and L. Diane Wolfe are hosting a  Get Healthy Bloghop on May 29th.    It sounds amazing and if you write, craft and/or  blog you might need to tweak your health a bit, move more, and eat better.   ( I can honestly say since my hubby retired from the military,  I am off track with  my routines-exercise and blogging).  






Congrats to all who finished the A-Z blogging challengeArlee had an amazing team of co-hosts~  2013 rocked!    I wish I had done mine different, perhaps poetry next year~  


Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Tina Downey at Life is Good
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse
Matthew MacNish at The QQQE
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small
Stephen Tremp at Chase Manhattan
Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia
L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick's Tips
Nicole at The Madlab Post

Thank you to all of you who encouraged me to continue, among the chaos of my new job and lifestyle.





Oh, yes it is the first Wednesday of the month and time for Ninja Captain Alex's Insecure Writers Support Group.   Is it really May lst...?!   I think Mother Nature is confused!

I am reading this book, You've Got A Book In You by Elizabeth Sims.  She mentions writing is not the problem, perfect is.   It is the root of worry and zaps our life force. We reel with rules and expectations.  "Perfectionism stops us in our tracks far too often in writing and in life, and it holds us back from accomplishing important stuff we want to do, especially long-held dreams."    The author reminds us to have patience for yourself, for your work and the patience for other people's response to your work.  She mentions to cultivate patience is to persist.   I love this:

"That is the great open secret, right there in plain sight. Inborn talent is lovely to have. Good fortune is a fine thing. But over those things you have no control. You do have control over your persistence. Every day you choose what you will do. You choose what is important to be done, and do it."   (It sounds like this could work with diet n' fitness, too)

She suggests to write poorly, give yourself permission to put it on the page and now you will write anything at all....   "When you give yourself permission to write poorly, you are implicitly saying, "I've got the skills to make this better later if I decide it's no good."


This book frees your fear, gives you freedom to fly!    

I want to give a shout out to my poetic friends over in the Garden.  There last challenge in NaPoWriMo was to write an A-Z poem.   These poems dazzle brilliance~ 

Starting with the letter A, every next word should start with the next letter of the alphabet. Like this:
April brings
challenges daily--
Everything feels
great here...
Thank you Marian!  A shout out to Emma who not only wrote her poem a-z, but then finished with a z-a backwards version!   Amazing Emma~

 Congrats to the poets, who wrote poems for all 30 days!  






Comments

That is one of my struggles - perfectionism. I have to remind myself to just do the best I can.
Thanks for mentioning our Get Healthy Bloghop.
And the Challenge team was awesome this year. We are losing a couple members, but the core team will be back next year.
Shelly said…
I'm definitely going to sign up for that blog hop. Friday is my day off. Today, I get to read from Iphone.

And I'm working on my second book to Lila's journey and its terrible so far with pieces of diamonds. Great book with great advice.

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly
Cherie Reich said…
That book sounds wonderful! It's so easy to let fears stop a person from writing. I know I constantly have to tell myself that nothing I write is set in stone. Anything can be fixed and made better, but you can't fix what isn't there.
Tammy Theriault said…
The bloghop sounds fun, ill have to check it out! Congrats from completing the april madness!
L. Diane Wolfe said…
All the skills to make it better later - yes we do. We just have to believe it.

Thank you so much for mentioning our bloghop.
Johanna Garth said…
Oooh! I can't wait to check out all the healthy tips :)
Renee said…
Looking forward to getting some healthy insights, hang in there! Take care of you!
Suzanne Furness said…
That sounds like a great inspirational read. Persistence and patience are what every writer needs - in bucket loads!
Liza said…
Congrats to you for finishing A-Z. The book sounds wonderful. And the snippet about writing poorly...well, just thank you. I was stuck for a bit today and that's what I gave myself permission to do. I told myself, "Just get it down, you can fix it later." Now I know that was the right move.
Nick Wilford said…
Perfection doesn't exist - we just have to do the best we can, and yes, give ourselves permission to mess up! That's how we learn. Congrats on finishing - I was amazed by your wonderful creations!
Oh boy...obsessive compulsiveness in writers. Ayep, totally on board with that insecurity.
Unknown said…
So good to hear your voice again, Ella. Sounds like your life is full and busy, challenging and rewarding. Good for you!
Stephen Tremp said…
Thanks for the Get Healthy Blog Hop shout out! I really love this idea.

I have to work past or through the perfectionism thing. Sometimes you just need to "sign off" on a section and move forward.
Mary said…
"You've Got a Book in You" definitely sounds like an empowering read. I DO agree with the concept. Keep writing, Ella.....glad you accomplished your A - Z goal.
Michael Di Gesu said…
Hi, Ella,

Congrats on finishing and thanks for the shout out about the health blog hop....

We all get into slumps for time to time, we just need to catch it before it's too late.

Have a great weekend.
Yolanda Renée said…
Your posts were wonderful!
Although I give credit to anyone who wrote new material for every day! AWESOME!
I need to get my act organized or I'll forget which blog hops I've signed up for!

I should be writing, but the contractor is her and I'm distracted, so good time to catch up on comments, Right?
DEZMOND said…
sounds like a lovely bloghop, if my blog wasn't a movie one I'd be the star of the bloghop since I'm the king of healthy eating :)
Anonymous said…
Interesting post. Not sure I like the idea of writing poorly - it's okay not to be perfect, but I don't like the idea of being sloppy in the process.
Ella said…
Hi MJ-I think it is about getting it on the page-edit later! I don't anyone wants sloppy, but the idea is the gem and it can always be polished :D

Dezzy-Well, you can come over here and share in my comments all you want and tweet a bunch on that day.
We Cake Nazi types have to watch our incake, I mean intake ;D lol

Yolanda-Thank you! So were yours :D
I know...I wrote down my stuff...and where is it?! lol
Ouch...yes I know distraction-hubby with loud TV and gaming on his iPad. I remember one year they did the roof hammering all day long, in April of course ;D
Hope it goes well! Yes...lol

Michael-Yes, it is part of the process-I like that! I look forward to it and I'm on a mission to eat better, so this is great timing ;D Thank you~

Mary-Thank you! Yes and you, too~
I want to work on my poetry book and I have another book I'd like to pitch-that one will take a lot of work. ;D

Stephen-I like what you shared-I so agreed! Sometimes we need to go live, so we have more to write about ;D

Kim-Oh, yes very challenging ;D
thank you Kim! I will try to join in next week~

Michael-I wonder if that is a necessary characteristic ;D lol

Nick-Thank you! I was inspired by my recycle bin. Hubby thinks I shouldn't buy anymore stuff...so I thought my challenge would to become Eco-Ella ;D thank you...I loved yours! It was brilliant~

Liza-I am so happy you visited me today! I do think sometimes there are messages that find us ;D
I think getting the ideas down are key. We can polish those gems later ;D Yes, it is

Suzanne-Yes, you are so right! And glue-so we sit down and do it! ;D

Renee-Thank you! Yes, I bet there will be some great ones. Me, I am going to go catch up on my sleep ;D lol

Johanna-I know right...but no
Cream Puffs...boo hoo, lol ;D


L.Diane-I love that word believe :D

Tammy-same to you! It was crazy and I thought March was the month of madness ;D

Cherie-So well said! Yes, that is why we can't let fear block us..and I am afraid it sometimes does~ :D

Shelly-Oh, Shelly enjoy and that sounds so intriguing ;D

Alex-Yes, it is a great idea! A great core works wonders ;D
Elizabeth Sims said…
Ella, I'm so excited that you're finding inspiration in my book!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on your blog. Looks like you've got many enthusiastic friends! I got my web master to post your nice comment on my site here: http://www.elizabethsims.com/reviewsYGABIY.php
Best wishes to you and your writing.
Elizabeth Sims