Your Writing is a Horse

What if your writing were a horse? And what if you didn’t have to chase it down and manhandle it?

Kafka said if you could only be still–”just learn to be quiet, still, and solitary. And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

Enjoy Koelle Simpson’s TED talk and be kind to your inner horse.

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Text © Gwyn Nichols 2012. All rights reserved. WritersResort.com
Image: YouTube screenshot

Calling Alaska

Alaska mountain landscape / Photo credit through Flickr: blmiers2 / Thank you, Barbara Miers!

Flag Counter says this site’s visitors include people from 102 countries and 49 of the United States. Naturally, we all wonder, Who is missing??

Alaska!

So, hello, Alaska! How have you been?

How ironic that the next dream vacation on my list is an Alaskan cruise. I saw a travel film of that spectacular coastline with its colorful boats and homes, the calving of both ice and whales. (Wait–do whales calve in Alaska or someplace warmer? I’ve decided not to fact check that so I can keep the pun.) Maybe I’ll visit the Alaskans before they discover me. I know someone who owns a secluded hunting lodge in Alaska. I have friends who summer there–kayaking, cooking over a fire on the beach (or is it a river?) and covering their windows so they can sleep. (Is it cheating if they visit my site from there?) One Christmas, I passed along a YouTube video of “The Hallelujah Chorus” creatively presented by the schoolchildren of Quinhagak, Alaska. I know the capital is Juneau. (Then again, I know all the state capitals; I just proved it when my sixth grader’s teacher quizzed us parents. It helps that I grew up in eight states and a province of Canada.)

In other words, my understanding of Alaska is almost as limited as the Alaskans’ knowledge of me.

Arizona hosts winter snowbirds from many beautiful summer spots, but an Alaskan/Arizonan split would be hard to beat. I would love hosting retreats in Alaska all summer. And if you reversed the usual preference–so you’d winter in Alaska, and summer in Arizona–you’d spend so much time indoors, you could be a prolific writer. Either way, it’s one of those perfect pairs for a writer’s paradise.

So whenever you arrive here, Alaska, please comment. What do you want me to know about writing in Alaska?

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Text © Gwyn Nichols 2012. All rights reserved. WritersResort.com

Photo © Barbara Miers through Flickr: blmiers2

Covey on Goal Execution

Covey "4 Disciplines of Execution" on YouTube

          Sometimes I run around, chasing urgent matters, forgetting my life’s most important goals and priorities. You would think I’d be immune: Stephen R. Covey was a college professor of mine. I was learning and applying the 7 Habits before they were numbered. So maybe that’s why seeing Dr. Covey again brings me back to my senses. Or maybe he does that for everyone. Here, he’s focusing on what it takes for teams to execute their goals. I can also apply these points to my team of one.

          Writing goals are easy to postpone. (That’s why I’m an expert!)  Unless you have a publishing contract or a class deadline, nobody notices if you bump that project to the end of the bottomless To Do list again. Dr. Covey would call our writing goals the Important but not Urgent; he teaches us to schedule time for those projects and keep them high on the list, because that’s where the best things in life are found.

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© Gwyn Nichols, Writers’ Resort LLC. All rights reserved.