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The Intrinsic Value of Stories and How They Change Lives

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By Tiffany Matthews

Why do we tell stories?

In the olden days, stories were told around campfires to pass time and to pass on the history of our people. They were lessons wrapped in myth, meant to teach us about the ways of the world and principles that our ancestors before us once stood for. Today stories continue to be an influential medium especially through clever storytelling.

As children, we grew up listening to and eventually reading fairy tales, only to be told later by adults that these classic tales are not true. Real life is no fairy tale and that we should not believe in happily-ever-after. Neil Gaiman refutes this and has emphasized the importance of stories, even fairy tales, through this statement:

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

In his children’s book, The Graveyard Book, Gaiman further reiterates the value of stories and how one story can change a person’s life.

“We who make stories know that we tell lies for a living. But they are good lies that say true things, and we owe it to our readers to build them as best we can. Because somewhere out there is someone who needs that story. Someone who will grow up with a different landscape, who without that story will be a different person. And who with that story may have hope, or wisdom, or kindness, or comfort. And that is why we write.”

Another author, Stephen King, confirms the power of stories and how they can influence lives. Writing tales that resonate with readers goes beyond fame or wealth. In On Writing, King said:

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well.”

Stories allow us a brief respite from the daily pressures of life, an escape into a place where anything and everything is possible. Though these tales may revolve around fictional characters, they reflect the same struggles that we go through and inspire us to overcome these challenges just as they were able to. This is why I agree with Gaiman’s sentiment, that one story could change your life forever.

A story about a woman reconciling with a long lost father may seem ordinary to people, but to one person, it could be the catalyst that would launch him or her on a quest to find an estranged parent. That touching tale could spur you into action and hunt for that missing parent through Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn (this is more on the professional side though), a social database like Mylife.com or whatever means you could find. It could take you on a journey you never expected and discover the infinite possibilities you never considered before.

Stories are powerful things, portable magic that you can share so that others too can find the inspiration they need to defeat–both literary and real–dragons.

Author’s Bio: Based in San Diego, California, Tiffany Matthews writes about travel, fashion and anything under the sun at wordbaristas.com. You can find her on Twitter as
@TiffyCat87.

3 Steps to Finding Your C-Spot

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I’m talking about blogging, people.

Your C-Spot is your creativity spot, your happy place, where you feel your flow, mojo, juices, ideas, you get the picture.

Sometimes it feels as though great writing is like lightning in a bottle–fleeting and electric. But I think you can do some specific things to capture the lightning.
Writing is like capturing lightning in a bottle

This is our homework assignment for the coming week.

Step One – Find the Perfect Time of Day to Create

Let’s use a sample writing prompt (in case you need one). Write for 30 minutes on the subject of “what I learned from my first job that I’m still using today.” Liz has written some inspiration for finding your writing voice. When you’re ready:

  • Day 1, write first thing in the morning, right after you eat breakfast.
  • Day 2, write in the afternoon, after you’ve already gotten your non-writing tasks done.
  • Day 3, write just before bedtime, when it gets quiet in your house.
  • BONUS Day, if you normally write during the week, try a weekend (or vice versa).

Take note of how your “flow” feels in each time-frame. Was it easy to write, or did you stare at the screen for a bit?

Step Two – Find the Perfect Physical Location to Create

Using the same writing prompt (substitute your second job), choose three different locations where you can write. Try your dining room table, your desk at work, in bed with your laptop, out on the porch, wherever you feel comfortable.

Did this affect your writing?

Step Three – Add Ambiance for Creative Flow

Some people need to have music playing in the background, and some need to write in absolute silence. Using what you already know about your style, experiment a bit with your writing environment. Light candles, turn the TV off or on, put on noise-canceling headphones, try writing with pen and paper instead of a keyboard…go crazy.

How did that work? Did changing the ambiance change your attitude? Did it spark new ideas?

At the end of the experiment, you can try mixing and matching your time of day, physical location, and ambiance to find your perfect “C-Spot.”

Want to share yours?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Image: Flickr CC

How I Unclog a Case of Writer’s Block

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By Stacey Thompson

Writer’s block. It happens to the best of us. You may have had a good night’s sleep, a comfortable chair, the right resources, and a topic… and yet, your writing muscles refuse to flex, and you are left staring at the flickering prompt at the upper left side of a mostly-empty screen, or driving a hole into your pad with a pen.

Do a Google search and you’ll find that many writers have their own ways of dealing with this creative blockage. It’s not exactly a one-size-fits-all proposition, so it’s a good idea to get as many ideas as possible. Utilizing those bits of wisdom, concoct your own anti-writer’s-block remedies. Hopefully, one or more of them work.

Let me enumerate mine, and see if any of them work for you:

Unfamiliar Ground

Find a new place to ply your craft. Stand up, pack your mobile writing implements (paper notepad, notebook computer, restaurant receipts, toilet paper, human flesh scroll, etc.) and wander. In my case, I pack my tablet (equipped with a cover/keyboard, because I can’t type fast on a touch screen), some loose change for coffee, and a Taser pistol (you can never be too careful).

The new sights and sounds definitely help me get out of the funk, and for as long as I find a comfortable spot to whip out my tablet and type away, I’ll be able to get some paragraphs out.

Drop It Like It’s Hot

When the first remedy doesn’t yield any positive result, I just stop trying for the meanwhile and distract my mind with something else entirely. This should be easy for most of us, as the modern world is rife with distractions. You could live your entire life distracted, in fact. Those closest I have come to that is a three hour Fruit Ninja binge on the tablet. Made my fingers hurt, too.

Time out from writing gives the mind some time to recharge and recuperate. Unfortunately, we who write for a living don’t have the luxury of too much off-time, so this solution may not be the best course of action to take when writing projects are restricted by a deadline.

Get Physical

Corollary to the tip above, go engage in an activity that requires the least synaptic activity. This ranges from sports and fitness-related stuff, to exposing your mind to slapstick, lowbrow, and even outright pornographic stimulation. Nothing is taboo (except if it’s against the laws of the land, of course)!

Too much of anything can be detrimental, so be sure to set limits to your physical fun-time distractions.

Nothing

Well, not absolutely nothing. Meditation, yoga, drinking tea, isolating yourself in a dark room, or even a light nap are ways you can calm your tempestuous mind and rejuvenate your creative juices. Find a place you can be undisturbed for hours at a time, and proceed with the refilling.

Yeah, it means you have to put away your tablet and other mobile devices.

I hope one of these tips will be the proverbial plunger that will help unclog your creative pipeline!

Author’s Bio: Stacey Thompson (@RedHotStacey) is a professional writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and a lover of weird little animals. She is based in San Diego, California, and is definitely not beyond seeking expert advice from competent and highly professional consultancy firms like MyCorporation. Stacey and her gang have a blog, Word Baristas.

How to Write and Get Your Work Published

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By Alisha Webb

Many people feel as though they have a story in them, or simply the innate ability to get an important message out there, but the majority don’t really know how to go about doing this. Here are some tips as to how.

getting published

The yearning

Writing is in your blood, at least it should be if you feel like you have something to say that you would like to get published. If it’s not in you, then it can be the hardest thing in the world to push and so perhaps you shouldn’t even begin to try. If you feel that it is there, however, but you don’t know how to let it out, then this might be the right place for you.

Writing cannot be learned in the same way that you used to read your textbooks at school in order to fill you in on the parts that you weren’t sure of in your English literature exams. It can, of course, be studied, but the dedication and need to get published goes a long way past any kind of formal training.

Routine

From afar, writing might seem like some romantic pastime; a passionate, instinctive practice that soars through the writer and forces itself onto the page. In an ideal world this would be true and it would also be very easy. Unfortunately, this type of gift is a very rare one and the vast majority of all writers really have to force themselves to put the words on the page. The double misfortune is that those words often just do not want to come and instead you are left staring at an empty page.

Once you have accepted that the words do not always, or even often, flow like water, it is essential that you designate a part of your life to writing. You name the time, as this is preferably done daily, and then you eradicate everything else from your life during that time. This is not a magic trick that will unleash your natural powers, there still will be many hours sat alone and wordless, but this 100% commitment to your work on a daily basis is of paramount importance if you really hope to eventually succeed.

Admit your imperfections

A big predicament many writers find themselves in is that they are unable to ever finish the work they have started. It is very easy to fall into the trap of being incapable of letting your work go. You must admit that nothing will ever be perfect and know when is the right time to call it a day on a certain piece of work. If you don’t do this you run the risk of getting stuck in a rut which you can’t move on from. It is much better to have two or three “finished” pieces of work that you are not completely happy with rather than dwelling needlessly over one that will never get finished. Even the great novels that you read at school would be tweaked by their authors if they were able to go back to them now. Accept that yours is not everything you hoped for and move onto the next one that you promise will be better.

Read

You cannot operate in a vacuum. If you want to get published you need to be aware of the places where your finished work could find a home. Being aware of what is out there and sending these people your work often helps you make initial connections that will prove more fruitful in the future. This is an essential part of the process. Reading other people’s work can give you the confidence to see that there is a market for the material you yourself are looking to write.

Do not fear rejection

Sending out your first piece of work to an editor can be the most nerve wracking thing in the world. You have laboured over this piece of material for hours and now you have to let somebody tell you that it isn’t any good. You have to be ready for rejection. It is likely that you will be knocked back many more times than you are accepted, but this is all a part of the real learning process. Never take praise or criticism personally and be thankful for all and any of the comments that you get. The flutter you feel in your stomach when you see an email or a letter come back to you from an editor is one of the best feelings in the world. Remember that this feeling comes before you know whether the answer is a positive or negative. It really doesn’t matter all that much. If you are a true writer, you will carry on regardless, and one fine day they will be writing English literature textbooks that include your own work.

Good luck.

Author’s Bio: Alisha is a British writer working out of Barcelona and a content developer at York Notes; you can connect with her on Twitter.

Spring Cleaning for the Mind

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By Tiffany Matthews

There will come a time when you find yourself unable to write, not just for hours at end, but days and weeks. The worst is when those weeks stretch into months. By then, the screen’s cursor constant blinking would become a taunting reminder that you have yet to type words, not even one word. If you’re suffering from a serious case of writer’s block, simple tips to beat blank page syndrome will no longer suffice. Badly burned out and drained of every last drop of creative juice? It’s time to call in the big guns.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

When a writer friend suddenly announced on Facebook that she was going to unplug and go away for awhile, I was concerned. I wondered what she could possibly be going through. I had my answer when she resurfaced online three long months later. Apparently, she had been dutifully following a 12-week program based on Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. Judging from her relaxed and happier mood, the long break has been helpful in restoring her creativity as well as productivity. The program also helped her get over her major case of writer’s block and gave her more insight on the artistic process.

Some people will not like everything about The Artist’s Way. The long period required to complete the program will not appeal to active writers–who are trying to survive daily life and–who can’t afford to break off from work just for the sake of creativity. There are a couple of things in this book, however, that they can can still do–morning pages and artist dates.

Morning Pages

Every day for the next 12 weeks, you have to pen three handwritten pages, all done first thing in the morning during a stream of consciousness, which means you can’t look back at the previous pages you have written. If you’re not a morning person, you might think twice about waking up early for this exercise. You’ll probably wonder how you can write when you’re still drowsy. Once you get started, however, you’ll be surprised to discover clarity and how easily you can fill up 3 pages. When you write, don’t think, just let the words flow. Ramble if you must. When you read the sheets, you’ll find out that your true thoughts–some repressed–and find a way to resolve some of the issues that have been in your mind for a long time. This practice of morning pages also helps transform writing into more of a daily habit and makes the words flow easier.

Artist Dates

“Artist Dates are assigned play.” Once a week, you must embark on an expedition alone in order to explore what is of interest to you. It doesn’t have to be overly artistic, but it should fire up your imagination. An artist date should be fun and whimsical, something that encourages play. Art is all about the play of ideas, so open yourself to fun things that you want to try. When we experience something new or something that we enjoy, it helps fuel our creativity and build up another reservoir of inspiration that we can draw from. Artist dates replenish our creative juices, adding new ideas and images that bring us closer to our inner artist and craft new masterpieces.

General Cleaning

Sometimes people dread spring, not because they are not looking forward to warmer weather but because it’s time for spring cleaning. Cleaning your house from top to bottom until you drop can be therapeutic for writers and artists, not to mention productive. Just remember to invest in a good vacuum cleaner. The no-handles type can help you get rid of every speck of dust, even in those hidden corners under beds and furniture that you can’t reach. Who knows, you just might get some great ideas while you’re cleaning. Having a sparkly clean house also feels very rewarding especially after all the hard work you’ve put in. The actual spring cleaning helps relax your mental state and makes you feel refreshed. The more relaxed you are, the more your ideas will flow so you can now get back to work.

Spring cleaning isn’t just for the house. Sometimes, we need to apply it to ourselves so we can recharge and welcome new changes that will help us grow as writers and artists.

Author’s Bio: Based in San Diego, California, Tiffany Matthews writes about travel, fashion and anything under sun at wordbaristas.com. You can find her on Twitter as
@TiffyCat87.

How Real-Life Local David Turned Tables on Large Chain Goliath

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By Nimish Thakkar

New York could easily be one of the most competitive marketplaces for restaurants. From small operations to large franchises, the food industry is clamoring for a share of the pie in what appears to be a “war for consumer appetites.” A large food franchise recently established its presence near our office. When the chain made a splash in the local media many business pundits were under the impression that a local Italian restaurant could soon be working on its exit strategy.

Their predictions were on the mark for a few months but were subsequently falsified. Since the past few months, lines at the local restaurant have been much longer than the franchise and their phone order pipeline appears to be expanding exponentially.

I have always been a netpreneur and the restaurant business is as alien to me as space exploration but when one keeps the knowledge radar tuned to the “sponge dimension,” surprising strategy lessons can be uncovered from the least expected sources. As an entrepreneur, I was naturally curious to understand how this real-life David overpowered a much larger and formidable Goliath.

My research provided some insights that are equally applicable to any business operation (online or offline):

Relationships are still the best marketing investment

When I visited the larger franchise, I was greeted by college students who were only too eager to ring the register as opposed to understanding my preferences or winning my long-term repeat business. At the restaurant, the scenario was just the opposite. The staff was keen on accommodating my needs and providing me with the best service and the most memorable experience possible.

On my second visit, the owner instantly recognized me and followed-up on a conversation from our previous meeting. What happened next surprised me even further. After the order, I gave him my credit card. Unfortunately, their credit card terminal was not working that evening. I offered to drive to the local ATM and pay cash but the owner graciously smiled and asked me not to bother. “You can come and pay me tomorrow. It is raining outside,” he said. I thanked him and returned the following day.

I shared the story with friends on my social network and won him some word-of-mouth publicity. Almost every customer that walks into that restaurant has something positive to say. Passionate customer orientation has enabled this mom-and-pop operation to transform customers into “walking PR machines,” a task that even the largest ad budget cannot replicate.

Lesson #1: Build a customer-centric business, focus on providing value, and go as far as you possibly can to build long-term relationships.

Showcase clear “differentiators”

During my first MBA class, one of my favorite marketing professors taught me a great mantra: “To be successful, be different.” I still implement his advice in all my personal and professional branding campaigns. It works.

Are you the best at delivering widgets within a 24-hour timeframe? Do your widgets offer something your competitors don’t? Are you at the cutting-edge of technology in a way your competition does not touch? Don’t keep this knowledge to yourself. Let your customers know how you stand out from the competition.

Reverting to the protagonist case study, the local restaurant had posters all over the place explaining how their food choices were different. They identified how their ingredients were healthier and sans any form of harmful chemical additives or preservatives. As a client, I would have never known this fact had it not been brought to my attention. Perhaps the franchise doesn’t use these ingredients either but their marketing literature doesn’t promote this information.

Lesson #2: Clients may not often be able to differentiate you from the competition. Instead of allowing them to draw negative conclusions, make the task easier by clearly demonstrating how your business is “different.”

Focus on generating positive reviews

“As millions of customers check online reviews before purchasing from any business, having a strong group of fervent customer advocates can go a long way toward building your business reputation and revenues,” says Vijay Kakkar, Small Business Owner and CEO of SaiTravel.com, a company that specializes in providing discounted travel fares.

The converse can be true as well. Dissatisfied clients can wreak havoc by writing vengeful reviews, posting bad experiences, and tarnishing your business image on social media.

Lesson #3: Turning your customers into “viral advocates” can do wonders for a small business.

Many local businesses host events, develop special contests, and leverage a myriad of viral marketing strategies to push their business success to the next level. A local non-profit organization hosts an annual charity event. In addition to the routine paraphernalia associated with these events, they have a sweepstakes contest where the first winner could claim an enviable portfolio of prizes. From blogs to social media, the prize descriptions invariably go viral.

Small businesses thrive on personal relationships and creativity. Transforming customers into passionate fans is the key to surviving in a hyper-competitive economic landscape.

Author’s Bio: Nimish Thakkar is the CEO of DontSpendMore.com, a site that helps consumers save hundreds of dollars every month. He is also the owner of ResumeCorner.com and SaiCareers.com.