The Ants of Peace

Photo by JasonDGreat

Will Argentine ants take over the Formicidae world? It sounds possible. I was reminded of the lyrics of a children’s counting song, The ants go marching one by one ...  as I read an item in the December 2009 National Geographic about Argentine ants. They are gaining dominance around the world by their ability to get along well with one another. They are forming genetically consistent “super colonies” that enable an ant from one nest to mingle freely in another, preventing competition among queens and internest wars. Apparently this proclivity for peace allows them to solidly expand their territory, crowding out native ant species and interfering with local ecologies. I'll leave it to you to read more about this peril.

How strange, I thought as I read this. If ants can dominate by peaceful behavior, could humans do the same? If people with a peaceful mindset link up and live from a center of love, peace and gratitude, will we eventually overwhelm and crowd out greedy war mongers? Does this fit with what increasing numbers are coming to view as the shift in human consciousness toward global awareness and unity?

I find such questions rich fodder for journaling as I explore my thoughts and beliefs about peace, spiritual growth, and what’s going on in the inner and outer world. As I journal I’m increasingly able to catch myself at the onset of agitation and consider alternative perspectives. I’m increasingly able to remind myself that in a week, month or year, whatever is consuming my attention today will be a distant memory, and let it go.

Besides exploring my psychic navel lint, I write my visions — or fantasies if you prefer — of how life could unfold. I write visions of people all over the world joining in brain and heart waves of love and peace. I see the power of love-waves canceling out the clanging raging, turmoil of life was we know it today, as surely as ocean waters sooth and level the scars of wind, weather and human intrusion on beaches.

As I write about love, peace and gratitude, I reinforce this state within myself and become more peaceful. As I become more peaceful, others around me are able to remain more calm and peaceful. Hopefully, as I write publicly about love and peace, thought-seeds will germinate, like when I read about Argentine ants. The spread of peace among people is far more powerful than the peace of ants, because it will result in abundance for all rather than elimination and destruction of some as is happening with the ants.

The ants go marching ten by ten ... the end!

Write now: about love and peace. Write an essay with your thoughts on why, when and how you think world peace will occur — or why you believe it never can. Or write about your progress in achieving personal peace and serenity or lack thereof. Write about your dreams of peace. You get the picture. Write your own piece of peace.

Interview with Gina Mazza

“Inspiration happens, but it has to catch you working,” advises Gina Mazza, creative alchemist extraordinaire, as she discusses the process of writing in the audio interview posted below.

Gina is the author of Everything Matters Nothing Matters, an eloquent blend of riveting spiritual memoir with a well-defined path readers can follow as they pursue their own spiritual journeys.

Her book is one of a large number of multi-niche memoirs that appear on the shelves of the travel section, spiritual life, healing, recovery ... even the food section of bookstores and libraries. The combination of personal experience and message is powerful, giving readers deeper understanding of a process I discuss in an article, What is a Self-Help Memoir.

During our interview Gina explains how her book evolved into a published volume from a concept she blurted to an agent during a pitch for another book. In keeping with her dual-track book, she also gives listeners some general guidelines on creativity that will be useful to any writer.

The interview lasts for 15 minutes. Click the link below to listen on your computer, or right-click the link to download it to listen on another device. 



Right-click to download file
This book is just one of many facets of Gina’s work. Be sure to visit her beautiful website, http://ginamazza.com to learn more about her classes, coaching, and writing services.

Write now: following the principles that writing makes your thoughts visible and you can control and change what you see, do several minutes of free writing on your own creative process. Are you where you want to be? As you consider what you wrote, ask your Inner Writer or Muse, “How can I move along my path to becoming more creative, to becoming the writer I dream of being?” Listen quietly, and begin writing the answers. 

Grow Your Attitude of Gratitude

A few days ago my daughter told me about accepting a “Thankfulness Challenge.” She’s posting tiny “I’m thankful for ...” statements on Facebook at least once a day. After she told me this, I took a look. The instructions are simple:

Every day this month until Thanksgiving, think of one thing that you are thankful for and post it as your status. "Today I am thankful for..." The longer you do it, the harder it gets! Now if you think you can do it then repost this message ......as your status to invite others to take...the challenge, then post what YOU are thankful for today....

Then I checked her posts. They are tiny indeed. Typical ones include:

• Today I am thankful for deodorant.
• Today I am thankful for sarcasm.
• Today I am thankful that others have louder voices than mine.
• Today I am thankful for ear plugs ... helpful when the children are fighting over toys.
• Today, I am thankful that my husband did not die on mile 24 of his marathon -- no matter how much he thought he was going to.

I am taking the challenge too, though I’m doing it via Twitter and somewhat behind.

Rather interestingly, as Susan told me about the challenge, she remarked that one of her friends thought she’d have trouble finding enough things to be thankful for. Part of Susan’s purpose is to demonstrate to that friend and the world that thankfulness/gratitude can become a frame of reference for viewing the world, and we can be thankful for tiny little things. We can be thankful several times a day. Several times an hour. Almost constantly in fact.

Recording gratitude is not a new idea. Information about Gratitude Journals abounds. Sleepydust.net explains: “A gratitude journal is like a diary - but you're only allowed to write positive things in it. ...“

The Happy Guy interviewed expert Doreene Clement for advice on how to keep a Gratitude Journal and posted her detailed instructions here.

Reviewing a Gratitude Journal, or even gratitude posts in a regular journal, can brighten dreery days and lift us out of the doldrums. Recording gratitude strengthens the habit of thinking that way. It can even improve your health! Sharing gratitude with others, especially in tiny, credibly little bites like Susan is doing, infects others with a grateful spirit. The more of us doing that, the sooner the whole world will be wrapped in Gratitude, and that has to be a powerful thing.

I’m grateful that my daughter is spreading gratitude, and I’m grateful to Google for making free blog space available to the world. And (drum roll) ... I'm thankful for those who read my blog!

Write now: in the spirit of the season, make a list of things you are grateful for. Aim for at least a dozen off the top of your head, and look beyond the obvious. Make it a habit to jot down grateful thoughts at least once a day, and share them with the world at least now and then.

A Festival of Life Stories

There’s nothing like a party to bring out people’s best stories, especially when stories are the reason for the party. On November 10, members of the Monroeville Library Life Writers celebrated National Life Writing Month with a Festival of Lifestories. Ten experienced members selected one story each from their growing collections and read it to a room packed with family members and friends at the Monroeville Library, our generous host.

As group facilitator, I served as Emcee for the event, introducing a full spectrum of stories. Story topics ranged from a matched pair of stories about “How We Met” through travel stories, war stories, grieving stories, and high school memories to straight humor.

Everyone had a great time, whether they read stories or listened. It was a powerful illustration of the variety of stories that emerge from such a group, and several in the audience expressed interest in learning more about writing life stories.

The event also provided a great way for this close-knit group to celebrate our accomplishments together. We’ve been meeting for just over four years, and though several original members have left the ranks, many new ones have emerged to fill the empty spots and enlarge our ranks. Those who attend continue to develop their writing skill, and their pile of finished stories is growing nicely. One member is sending his second self-published volume to press in another two weeks.

Beyond the encouragement to continue writing and hone the craft, members have come to care deeply about one another. It takes courage to put your life on paper and expose it to the eyes and ears of strangers. We’ve all done that and found our lives richer for the experience.

I speak for the whole group in encouraging you to look for a group to attend in your area. If there isn’t one, start one! You library is a great place to meet, and will most likely be happy to help you get started. The main thing you need are a few people who are willing to write (a copy of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing will also prove helpful). Send me an e-mail with any questions, and I’ll answer as well as I can.

Maybe next year you can celebrate National Life Writing Month with a group of your own.

Write Now: about your writing group experiences if you have any. Make a list of ideas for starting a group if you don’t.

Has the Memoir Genre Developed a Pain Complex?

Photo by  Polina Sergeeva

 Has a pain complex developed around our favored genre of memoir? Someone recently observed that to be interesting a memoir has to be about pain and suffering. Perhaps I exaggerate the intent of that remark, but as I think about it, I’ve been hearing variations on that theme in a number of places lately. For example,

“People are interested in reading about struggle and how you overcame obstacles.”

“My life is so ordinary. Nobody would want to read about it.”

“Conflict. That’s what sells.”

Maybe that last statement is the crux of the matter. “What sells.” Or more precisely, what publishers are buying in hopes that we also will. Scanning down the current Amazon “best-selling memoir list” search, I see titles like Chronicles, Volume 1, by Bob Dylan, Realding Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama, Night, by Elie Wiesel, It Stops with Me, by Charleen Touchette, and An Unquiet Mind, by Kay Redfield Jamison. None of these books or the many other titles with them are what you’d call light reading.

While these stories are noble and inspiring ones, definitely worth a read, if you don’t have a “survivor story” of your own, you may feel discouraged from even trying to write about your life, even if you have no plans for commercial publication.

Take heart! In response to a challenge to think of any memoir that was about something positive, I recalled my husband's Uncle Walter, who hand wrote stories about his experience growing up in Ray, Arizona 100 years ago, "...because I lived the life every boy dreams of, and want to tell people about it." Every paragraph of this short treatise was funny as heck, and totally delightful. Come to think of it, in his last year, at 96, he claimed that his life couldn't have been better. That's how he thought. That's how he lived. Every day of his life. He was an extraordinary ordinary man who exemplified humility and inspired hundreds of friends, colleagues and family members.

Walter’s memoir was never intended for publication. But off the top of my head, I recall Annie Dillard's An American Childhood, Haven Kimmel's A Girl Called Zippy, and Laurie Jakiela's Miss New York Has Everything as delightful tributes to unique families, communities and the times. I've read each of them more than once, and I no desire to reread The Glass Castle in spite of admiring it enormously.

While I whole-heartedly support writing to heal and transcend the past and inspire the world with the story of that experience, this search made me acutely aware of the importance of documenting the good times as well. Let's look for ways to make reading about pleasure as compelling as reading about pain. Find the tension, find the humor, find the story arc and write in scenes ... It's got to be there, and got to be possible. I believe we bring about what we think about, collectively as well as personally. We owe it to the world to develop a habit of thinking about what is good, cheerful, healthy and whole more often than not. 

Write now: write a scene or anecdote about a positive adventure you had. It doesn't need to be splashy or sensational — just something that challenged you. Play up the tension and humor. Make it a compelling read in spite of the lack of pain and suffering. 

How to Write a Best Selling Memoir in Four Months

Many memoir authors take ages to write their book. Jeannette Walls took about five years to write The Glass Castle. Other outstanding memoirs that have not made it to the best-seller list — yet — are Linda Joy Myers’ Don’t Call Me Mother, Karen Walker's Following the Whispers,  and Heather Cariou’s  Sixtyfive Roses. Each of those books reportedly took about twenty years to write.

So how did Sarah Palin manage to crank out Going Rogue (which topped the best-seller list weeks before its release) in only four months?

Answer: she had help, and she is Sarah Palin.

I have not checked for details, but it seems safe to assume that agents and publishers were pestering her with offers months before she committed to writing the book. Another huge advantage she had was a compelling reason to write. For better or worse, whatever personal motivation she may have had, the over-arching importance of this book will be its role as a political platform document, and Sarah is obviously committed to her political career. 

My assumption before reading it is that comparing Sarah’s book to writing most readers of this blog will do would be like comparing carrots and kiwi fruit. But even so, there are some valuable lessons to be learned from her process.

• She was persistent. According to a report on the Time website,  she wrote a four-hundred page draft in four months. Don’t faint. That’s one hundred pages a month, or five pages a day, five days a week. If you just blast out draft without stopping to read, edit, tweak, or obsess, that’s entirely doable, in only a few hours a day, depending on your typing speed.

• She had an overriding purpose. I’ll leave it to the pundits to ponder her motivations, but it hardly seems coincidence that hype for this deeply discounted book is hitting the news at the front edge of holiday shopping season and just before next year’s elections begin to heat up.
  

• She had help. I have no idea whether anyone worked with her on her concept and draft, but the TPM LiveWire site reports that she spent much of August in San Diego working with veteran ghost writer, Lynne Vincent. Vincent signed a non-disclosure agreement, but the Time article sheds light on the general process of ghostwriting.

You and I may not be famous, and we may not have the sort of purpose Sarah had, but we can adapt her example and move our projects along with these simple strategies:

• Get focused. Being clear on your concept and purpose is a large part of the battle. If you aren’t sure of your focus, jot down the first thing that comes to mind and get started. It’s okay if it evolves as you proceed.

• Set a schedule and deadline. You don’t have to write every day, or finish one hundred pages a month. If you can only devote an hour on Sunday afternoons to your writing, make that sacred time and stick to it. Making a personal commitment to having something to show people by a specific date, like your birthday next year, can speed things along. Especially if you tell them about it.

• Blast through a draft. This may be the hardest thing for most people to do. Just write. Don’t look back. Don’t even think of rereading or editing until you’ve written at least twenty more pages. Otherwise, you could die with seven pages that you wrote seventy times.

• Get help. You may not be able to hire a high profile ghost writer, but you can find a writing group, take a class, or read books on writing. You may be able to afford a few coaching sessions, or help from a reasonably priced editor.

Follow these guidelines and you can follow the example of Paul Ohrman, who wrote his 286 page autobiography, Living to Serve, in just under two years. His second volume, a World War II memoir, took even less time.

Write now: set aside an hour and write a purpose statement for your project, and set up a writing schedule. If you already have a purpose statement and schedule, spend the hour writing. If you are still searching for a concept, do some freewriting to uncover one.