Monthly Archives: August 2020

A new project: AOK Writing

Believe it or not–before the pandemic even started–I pitched my ‘Act Of Kindness Writing’ idea to the local community college.

And then came mid-March.

And then came a July email from the college’s community education folks.

They were interested.

Here’s a 50-second video pitch they asked me to produce.

And then, even though I’m a little slow on the uptake, I decided…

Why not create a version
to test the project’s appeal and value to others?

And then I decided to stop opening paragraphs with ‘And then…’

More on the project:

  • You will have an authentic audience for your writing.
  • With fewer volunteer opportunities due to the pandemic, you can ‘do good’ from the comfort of your home.
  • You can join a community of like-minded writers.
  • You might/will learn a few tech tricks to doll up your work.
  • Your creative impulses will be strongly encouraged.
  • You can choose to contribute some/all of your work and experience and ideas to a digital gathering place and to collaborative pieces. [A mosaic or collage of excerpts, for example.]

By the way, who am I?

Let me know below if you’re interested in the free mini-course.

Curation Corner: A writing conference on one page

Fellow writers, in these pandemically, financially-challenging times, here–courtesy of BookBub–is your ticket to a writers conference and you can keep your bunny slippers on the whole time. [Hey, guy-writers, I’m not judging…]

The word cloud above supplies most of the topics. Check it out and run the sessions in the background while you’re baking writer’s block brownies for your self-selected ‘intermission’. Don’t forget the Italian roast, though I know some writers from the great state of Virginia prefer tea. ;-]

Telepathic writing…whoa!

Today I’m sharing an insightful 2014 piece by Jon Brooks entitled Quentin Tarantino’s Telepathic Writing Technique.

It is packed with concepts and ideas that I hadn’t before run across.

Brooks introduced me to ‘mirror neurons’, which “fire both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.” [Wikipedia]

Okay, where does Quentin Tarantino come in?
From Tarantino’s 2013 Oscar acceptance speech: “You guys [friends] don’t realize how important you are to my process. I don’t want input; I don’t want you to tell me if I’m doing anything wrong. Heavens forbid. But, I write a scene and I think I’ve heard it as much as I can, but then when I read it to you – I don’t give it to you to read, I read it – but when I read it to you, I hear it through your ears. And it lets me know I’m on the right track.”

As he reads, then, Tarantino’s mirror neurons fire and he picks up the listeners’ reactions to his work.

What does that mean for the rest of us who are not quite chalking up multiple Oscars?

Take that one extra step beyond reading your work aloud–find an audience who follows the rule of: No feedback, please! Brooks justifies this rule with his observation that people often don’t effectively express their impressions and misguided feedback may well lead you to the toss the whole project.

Brooks closes with this: “You want to know what you think about your work as a first-time reader, not someone else.”

Considering our current pandemic conditions, you may be relegated to telepathic writing over the phone. Hey, it’s called playing the cards we’re dealt, right?

I also tried recording a piece of my writing aloud–and then listening to that recording. I’m not sure if that recreated the mirror-neurons experience, but I will try it again. It does add some distance between yourself and your work.

So, give it a try.

Let me know how telepathic writing worked for you.