awards season

As if I haven't been showered with a bounty of birthday wishes and comments and emails and e-cards and gifts in the past week already...now I've been given awards by several wonderful bloggers.

ROAR
My pal Jill (my partner at Bloggers for Darfur) and her co-writer Kathy at The DHX:  The Doughtie Houses Exchange blog have given me a "Roar for Powerful Words" award...which is humbling, to say the least.  If you don't already read The DHX, check it out.  Jill and Kathy are creating a wonderful resource for families as they document their lives sharing child-rearing duties.  Jill blogs at Eye Level Pasadena and Part-Time Pasadena Housewife, and Kathy blogs at Kathy's Blog.  The rules are:

1.  List three writing tips.
2.  Pass the award on to three more bloggers.

Okay, here goes...first the tips...

1.  Whether I'm writing a poem or a blog post, I just start writing.  Although I love editing (and used to do a fair share of it in business settings), in my blogging life I do very little of it.  (Yeah, I know...it shows.)  :)  I've worked hard to get to a point in my life where I'm writing from my heart instead of letting those goofy voices in my head take the wheel.  When I read how some bloggers spend days crafting a single post, I simply can't imagine it.  Not because I'm putting down their technique, but because I can't imagine staying interested in a single poem or blog post that long!   I know many would disagree with this technique, but I find that the almost-no-editing rule works well for me.

2.  I write for myself.  I know that's a cliche and maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but life's way too short to agonize over what my readers would like to read.  So I just post whatever's caught my interest in the moment.  And the poetry is especially personal--I really don't think about my readers at all when I'm writing a poem.  (Sorry!)  It's the only way I can get over the hurdle of writing a poem in the first place--if I'm writing it just for me.  So when I get comments on a poem that lets me know it's resonated with someone else, that's like bonus points!

3.  My third tip is the tiredest cliche in all of writing:  write what you know.  It's what my journalist ex said to me decades ago.  (It astounds me that he could somehow see the writer in me long before I even knew she existed.  He went on to publish several novels, so I think it's sound advice.)  :)  I'm going to share a shameful secret...  When I was younger, I thought the only people who led interesting lives were in the entertainment business.  And I couldn't imagine why everyone didn't want to work in entertainment.  What a moron.  What I have thankfully learned as maturity set in is that everyone has stories to tell.  Life is inherently interesting and we all have the potential to be storytellers--it's just a matter of whether and how we choose to share our stories.  Aside from what the media and Hollywood would have us believe, sometimes the most fascinating people are the quiet folks right next to us.

Now I'm supposed to pass the award on to three other bloggers.  I'm going to exclude those who already received one from Jill and Kathy.  I'll award "Roar for Powerful Words" awards to...

Maya - I've been reading her poetry for years...and it never fails to knock me out.

Pam - She's my favorite travel writer who understands the expat life because she splits her time between Seattle and Austria.  Pam recently went to Hawaii to write a guidebook and I can't wait to read it.

Lizardek - Liz consistently writes quality blog posts, day after day, year after year.  Her gift of description slays me.  Late last year she created a Lulu book of her Best of 2003-2006 blog posts.

You Make My Day award

2 comments

 You Make My Day
Both Jaime and Leah gave me "You Make My Day" awards.  (See, I told you, an embarrassment of riches.)   The description of this award is: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!

At first I thought:  10 bloggers?!  Then I realized I couldn't stop at 10...I'll be lucky if I don't go over 20!  I'm leaving so many people out--I read so many blogs!  Please know I'm not trying to play favorites--I'm just trying to acknowledge some of the bloggers I read who post frequently and often about inspirational topics (per the award).  Okay, here goes..."You Make My Day" awards go to (and I'm going to skip my ROAR recipients and some of the so-called A-list bloggers that so many of us read):

Amirah
Bohemian Girl
Carmen
Caroline
Daisies
Irene
Jamie
Jen
Jenn
Joan
Josielle
Kelly
Leah
Linda
Lori-Lyn
Lydia
Mari
Patti
Periwinkle
Pixie
Sam
Shelagh

I'm afraid to even count how many names are on that list.  So I went over the limit--sue me!  :)

And that concludes awards season...at least right now on this blog.  ;)