FOR WRITERS ONLY...OR NOT

B.I.C. – no I’ll not talking about the lighter, although using a BIC lighter to get a fire going under a stuck writer may not be a bad idea. BIC means, Butt in Chair, this being the best position for a writer. Discipline is what it takes to continue to crank out words. My blogsite is titled: Need More Words, because that is what a writer always needs. I will qualify that; a writer needs more of the RIGHT words. Sometimes it is words for the story and sometimes it is words coming from someone who gives them wisdom or is there to cheer them on.

Today I want to give you some Words of inspiration from other writers.

“The most important thing for a young writer to learn is that writing doesn’t come easy: it’s work. There’s no point in fooling with it unless you have to—unless you have a need to do it. A publisher friend of mine says that most writers are not real writers; they are just people who “want to have written.” Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.” Robert Penn Warren

“Ask yourself in the quietest hour of your night: must I write? Dig down into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be in the affirmative, if you may meet this solemn question with a strong and simple, I must, then build your life according to this necessity.” Rainer Maria Rilke

“The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At this moment he’s alive and you leave it to him.” Graham Greene (I love this one)

“Writing is simply the writer and the reader on opposite ends of a pencil; they should be as close together as that.” Jay R. Gould

“Hitch your unconscious mind to your writing arm.” Dorothea Brande

“The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him.” Rachel Carson

“Get black on white.” Guy de Maupassant

“If you wish to be a writer, write.” Epictetus

I will end with that quote.
Happy writing.

Photos: Courtesy: Morguefile

Vertically Challenged...Part 2

Grocery shopping is an adventure for those under 5’ tall.
When the item I want is on the top shelf, at the very edge, I can reach it with some stretching. But if that first can or box is gone then the challenge begins. I stand on the bottom shelf, if I can get my foot there, and I can sometimes grab what I want. If the item is back any further I look through my purse for something that is long and ridged, like a comb and then I reach up and try to scoot that item to the edge of the shelf. I have had a few things fall and almost hit me on the head. Did you know that grocery shopping could be hazardous to your health, and I’m not talking about what you purchase to eat? If I have nothing in my purse I begin looking for a store clerk or a customer who is tall and ask for their help. Sometimes I don’t need the item bad enough to go through the gymnastics to get it.

When I am at church, conferences or any place where I am sitting in a chair taking notes I have to cross my legs to keep my book from sliding off my lap, it gets very uncomfortable after a while. Folding chairs are agony for me to sit on for long periods of time; they just don’t fit my body.

I need a desk that is custom made so that I don’t suffer the pain in my shoulders and neck from my hands being at a straining angle when writing or using my lap top. If I raise my chair so that my hands can be in the correct position my feet are not on the floor but on the legs of the chair, as I am seated as I write this. Putting the lap top in my lap doesn’t work unless I can be seated in a very low chair because the lap top would not stay on my lap; it tends to go the direction my knees are facing, that is down towards the floor.

More adventures will be coming. How do you cope with the above issues if you are 5’ tall or under?

Vertically Challenged...Part 1

I have a handicap. It’s not a handicap that earns me a special parking place, but I do have limitations. I will be sharing about this over the next few blogs.

In “politically correct” terminology I am “vertically challenged.” To individuals 5’0” and under the world is “super sized.” The average height for U.S. women is 5’4” to 5’5”.

So what is the big deal about a few inches you ask?

I have lived my adult life looking at the world from the perspective of 5’ and did not realize what I had been missing until I tried on a pair of my daughter’s 5” platform shoes; she stands 4’11” tall. These shoes did not just have a high heel but the actual bottom of the shoes was 5” high. When I first put them on I was afraid of falling off of them and injuring myself but once I got my balance I walked around my house seeing things from a new perspective. By the time I took the shoes off I was mad at the world and felt cheated. Do you have any idea what a difference 5” can make????

I could see out the window above my sink and I could reach the top shelf in my cabinets. The view was breathtaking from way up there.

If I was 5” taller I could sit in a chair, all the way back in the chair, and still have my feet on the floor. Shopping for furniture is a chore, not a pleasure for me. I try every sofa and chair that looks even remotely like it might fit me and stand up disappointed.

I will be sharing many more hazards of being short but I am putting a call out to all you “short” people to share some of your adventures. Let me know what you have experienced.

Image: Sheilaellen via Flickr