I Write Like

This is fun-tastically nerdy. (Thanks, A!)

At "I Write Like," you enter any writing sample of your choosing (of your own) into their "statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of famous writers."

(screen shot - don't try this out here - go to the actual link)

I tried this with a few different writing samples of differing styles and from different periods in my recent life (over the past few years), and it gave me three different matches for which famous writers I most write like. I apparently write or have written like: Dan Brown (really?), Margaret Mitchell, and David Foster Wallace (!). I wonder if I picked a favorite blog post as a sample who that would match me with...

Try it. Who do you write like? Who do you *wish* you wrote like?

New Year Shout-Outs

Happy New Year! Is it just me, or did 2011 really zip by?! I feel like I blinked and it was the holidays again. And now here we are in 2012! Holy moly!

2011 was filled with lots of good things and bright moments. Lots of friends, lots of laughter, lots of family, lots of fulfilling and active choices. And there is only more good to come in this next year. I'm going to try to write more meaningful posts, though there will inevitably also be some good ol' fluff, because, well, who am I kidding. First up - the Golden Globes are around the corner, so get ready for A's and my second round of Award Show Fashion Recaps! Whee!

But before we go there, I want to start the year off with a little shout-out to some of my friends who have some noteworthy things going on in their worlds, electronic or real. In no particular order...


* A's new(ish) blog, Anthologie, is great. Just all around great. She themes each day, and therefore has some really good fodder for consistent, content-rich posts. There are good updates for those who know her and her family, but there's also regular good stuff on crafts, food, beauty products, fashion, and lots of great ideas. If you're on Pinterest (and if you're not, get on Pinterest), you'll want to pin a million little tidbits from her posts.

* Another friend A made a hugely bold move and quit her (amazing) full-time job at a major magazine in NY to pursue a freelance career and move back to Chicago (yay for us in Chicago!). First and foremost - I am incredibly impressed by A's bravery, and also by her tenacity. She's been writing away, taking this freelance life by the horns and killing it. You can check her out in this month's Whole Living, where her article on being healthier in the work place made the cover - WOOT! Go A!

* My friend EA is also taking on new challenges in 2012... And she faced her trepidation and is doing it in the blogosphere! The 52 Project will have E and anyone who chooses to join her doing something different each week for the year, with the over-arching goal of simply living a healthier, more balanced, more meaningful and inspired every day. How wonderful is that?! I'm going to join her wherever I feel inspired, and you should, too! It's a fantastic idea, and an inspiring way to approach the new year. I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this on Owlet............

* My former (and maybe soon will be again) trainer and now great friend C is going to kick 2012 in the pants. She's opening her first studio (yoga, fitness, personal training) in Chicago in the coming weeks! It's in Lincoln Park, and as soon as I'm given the green light to release more details I will, but you can feel free to email me if you're local and interested! She's so talented and so strong and she really connects with each of her clients - a gift that makes anyone lucky enough to work with her get more out of their fitness/yoga/training experience then they likely ever had before. This new facility is going to be beautiful and incredible. I will be there regularly. Come with! AND... her previously self-produced annual detoxification guide (earlier versions were printed and sold low-budget to clients only) has been given a total overhaul for the 2012 edition, and it will be sold on Amazon (and at the facility) starting this month! Oh, did I mention I'm the editor?! (a little self-promotion - forgive me)

Good things for good friends to start the year off right. Here's to a wonderful year to come...

Again, Input?

So, I'm just going to call it on the photography challenge, and I'll walk around with my head hung in shame for the next week. Oh well. I'll try it again another time, when I have a more fancy-pants camera, I think.

Back to my solicitation of input, though. I have to turn in my assignment for the non-fiction lesson in my writing class by tonight, and I still haven't decided what to write about. Here's a short-list of "events" that popped into my head as moments that made an impact on me (full assignment can be viewed here)... can you help me narrow??

Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion

Obama Election Night

Katrina

Death of Michael Jackson

Columbine

2000 Presidential Election

Anti-Iraq War Protests in Washington, D.C. (2002-2003)

Red Sox 2004 World Series Victory

...

???

Apology and Input

Clearly I have failed at the Photography Challenge. It's not my fault! I went back East to visit my family for Thanksgiving and I just was too busy being with family to photograph. And the days just slipped by and suddenly I was a week behind! I am going to try to get all the photos taken this week, but if not, it'll be the weekend, which will be past the 30 days of the challenge, but with working during the daylight hours (<shakes fist at Daylight Savings and the season>), it's hard to get any good photos taken right now! Excuses, excuses, I know. I apologize. I do like the challenge, though, and I would like to try to complete it. Don't hold my laziness against me this time.

In other news, I'm four weeks into my creative writing class. It's going well, and I'm enjoying it. Last week's lesson and assignment related to fiction -- which should have made the homework a breeze, right? Except I couldn't get inspired. The prompt just didn't do much for me. I threw something together I'm sure the instructor will poo-poo, but I'm over-inspired by this week's assignment, so hopefully that will make up for it. If I can only narrow my focus. (Always an issue here...)

This week's subject is non-fiction. And the assignment is just broad enough and specific enough to open up a hundred little doors of options. Here it is:

Think of a point in time when you were personally affected by a newsworthy event—historical, cultural, meteorological. For example: watching a disaster on TV, hearing a friend is going off to war, attending a Rolling Stones concert, standing in line with your kid at midnight to buy the latest Harry Potter book, riding out a tornado. (Since it’s been so widely written about, try to find something other than 9/11, but if that’s what’s calling to you, use it.)

Use an exact moment in time as your focal point. Take a mental photograph of that moment. Where are you? How do you look? What are you doing? Who are you with?

Now, write a very short memoir that brings that “photograph” to life. Show what is happening physically and also reveal what’s going on inside your mind. Stay focused on your selected moment, though you may include information that relates to before and after it. This will be written in the first person. If others are present, you’ll probably want to recreate some of the dialogue.

Try to capture this “photograph” in no more than 500 words. Remember, this is nothing more than a draft of a rough idea, something you may wish to pursue further, or not. 

My mind is already racing around trying to land on a really "good" moment. So, I'm curious. What would you write about? So many directions, right? How to narrow?!

In case you were wondering, by the way, my "hate" assignment from a few weeks ago was a success. I wrote about asparagus and it was the first assignment about which my instructor only had good things to say. Yay!

Ideas?

So, I'm breaking the trend here with my all-Photo Challenge posts for the month because I'm stumped. I've been really enjoying my writing class through the Gotham Writers' Workshop. I've read three weeks' worth of lectures and submitted two assignments. This week's assignment, due before 11/22, is stumping me for some reason, and thus I am posting to see if anyone else can help jump-start my inspiration!

The lesson this week is on individuality... this includes specific topics like journaling, using your own life/experience as a prompt, and voice. The assignment, in summary: list five things you hate (really anything... "big" things like world leaders who lie, or more unique and minor things, like carpet). Pick the “hate” you find most interesting, and write a short piece presenting your “hate”—what it is, why you hate it. (If you would rather not write about a hate, write about something you love. Just change “hate” to “love” throughout the assignment.)

For some reason I just can't get started. I think it's that this is so broad I can't focus. If I try to think of things I hate, the first things that pop into my head are: people who don't say excuse me, and asparagus. These are BO-RING. I don't know what I would say about them beyond that I hate them. And I'm pretty sure I couldn't ramble for 500 words on why.

So. I seek your input to help me get my own gears turning. PLEASE. Please! Please post a comment with something (or things) you hate and would love to randomly rant about. I just need to hear (see?) some ideas to push my brain into gear.

Please?

You'll be rewarded in handsome virtual high-fives.

Writing and Photographing

Two things. Today is the first day of my writing class with the Gotham Writer's Workshop! I'm excited and anxious and first-day-of-school giddy about getting started (even though it's online and no one will see my outfit or nerves!).

In light of this commencement, and in acknowledgement of the attention and dedication I want to give it, I've also decided to participate in this for the month:

(via)

I'm not a great photographer, or even a very good one, really. Sometimes I get lucky. But I really enjoy taking photographs, and I really love photography as both an outlet and an art. I've seen this little challenge summary on Pinterest here and there, and today it popped up on Metal and Mud, and I thought this feels like a good time to give it a shot and get my practice on. So, I think I may go mostly wordless in November, focusing my writing efforts on my class work, and simultaneously trying to capture a little bit of visual something each day for the month. I will keep updating my books/book photo project entries, and if something comes up, I'll give it some real estate, but for the most part, I'll try to stick to the photo challenge for posts, and see what comes of it.

We'll see what comes of it all!

A Big Decision... Well, a Decision Anyway.

In an effort to push myself into sorting out my own life/goals/plans/passions sooner rather than later, and as a means of forcing myself out of the little self-pity-party-funk in which I've found myself wallowing recently, I made a big decision today, and took action!

Okay, so it's not really all thanks to myself. My sweet, loving husband and good ol' R helped me with gentle pushes of encouragement. But ultimately, I had to do something, so I yelled at myself in my head boot camp-general style and then just pulled the trigger and signed up for a creative writing course offered through the Gotham Writers' Workshop. PHEW. (also: AK!)

(Ph: Daily Candy)

I'm excited. Apprehensive and nervous, but also excited. In contrast to my journalism education, I actually have a long and strong background in creative writing that I somehow abandoned over the years. But I have several started-and-never-finished-for-no-good-reason stories, short story collections, and other snippets collected in all sorts of places. Lately I've been feeling strongly like something needs to change. Unfortunately, the economy has not supported my mid-career crisis, and I've had to be more practical and realistic (or at least have felt like I have to be those things) than aspirational. But then today Daily Candy Deals offered a discount on the course and it just felt like a good chance to at least get inspired, so I just went ahead and grabbed a creative outlet when it was handed to me.

While Gotham Writers' Workshop is the leading private creative writing school in New York City, several courses are also offered online, and Forbes selected these as “Best of the Web.” That's good, right? (I'm so nervous! Even though I'll be working on my own time from the safety of my own home/computer... odd.)

This is one of those close your eyes and jump moments for me. I'm self-conscious, but feel like I need to do something now or else feel further stuck in my own rut. And if I can't necessarily change jobs or even careers at will, at least I can further my own interests and talents and passions on the side, right?

So here I go...