Join me in a Nature Journal Series

It is fair to say there are a lot of stressors at work in our lives today. Mental health professionals advocate for self-care to better ride the currents of chaos. Meditation, yoga, or tai chi are great activities for relieving stress. Some people find strenuous exercise to be a stress release. We each have a niche where we find the most solace and comfort. My niche is nature. I believe keeping a nature journal is an ideal method for gaining perspective, finding quiet, and acknowledging beauty in our messy world.

Over the next several weeks, I will write a series of posts on keeping a nature journal. We will cover a range of topics from selecting the right notebook to artist's tools like pens, pencils, and paint. We will use creative writing exercises to activate your senses allowing you to see, smell, and hear amazing aspects of the natural world you may have overlooked in your busy life. I hope you join me by bookmarking, following, or checking this blog regularly.

Writing to you from the field,

Marshal

New Workshop!!!!!

Irons in the Fire

You know that cliche' right?  Well, a freelance writer must, at all times, have several irons in the fire. Time management and project organization are essential skills for the trade.  Often, when I tell people what I do, the responses I hear are things like, "I could never work from home" or "I wouldn't get anything done, there are too many distractions."  Balancing living at home and working at home is a skill that takes practice and commitment.  The very phrase "work-at-home" is a bit of a misnomer for me because I conduct a lot of research and interviews away from my home office.  But, today was one of my 6.5-hour work-at-home shifts and I thought I would share what I did during my shift:

Morning:

• Completed a real estate profile for a newspaper, added cutlines to photos, created an invoice, sent all to editor meeting deadline
• Downloaded photos for the next real estate profile - I toured the property on Sunday afternoon
• Read and responded to work-related emails
• Drafted and sent a query to an international magazine
• Made a phone call to local magazine to follow-up on recently emailed query
• Drafted a short bio to provide to the venue for marketing one of my upcoming writing workshops
• Drafted an article
• Spent about 20 minutes doing online research for two articles

Lunch Break: quick shower, feed and walk dog (studying trees on the walk - research for a work project), eat a snack, get the mail, brew tea

Afternoon:

• Sketched marketing material for an upcoming writing workshop - hence the tree research
• wrote two blog posts
• refined a book outline
• Drafted another article

Note, I did not make any phone calls or send emails not related to my work. I didn't do any housework or run errands. I was not tempted to turn on the television. I truly enjoy the work I do and look forward to my time to research and write.  Marketing is a necessity and I must send several queries a week to editors to provide a steady flow of assignments.  Time management truly is a necessary skill for anyone working from home.

My Reference Shelves

The internet provides quick access to a vast amount of information.  Yet, I often refer to books for facts, quotes or guidance when writing. Some books allow me to enhance my vocabulary, use the precise term or revisit grammar skills. My collection of writing reference books is a treasure to me.  Though I refer to some more than others, they are all essential tools for my work.

They include:

• 3 dictionaries - 1 traditional, 1 on biology and 1of legal terminology
• 3 thesaurus - variations between the three make me keep them all
• the Associated Press Stylebook. I actually have two of these.  My old one from college days and a new edition. I highly recommend purchasing a new one every few years because terminology evolves at an alarming rate.
• an assortment of grammar and vocabulary books. I read these for inspiration (I know - NERDY!)
• "Make Your Words Work" by Gary Provost
• "18 Minutes" by Peter Bregman. This book is a wonderful guide on time management, a necessary skill for any writer.
• "Words Worth" by Terri Brooks
• My absolute favorite book on writing - "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser.
• a 22-book and growing assortment of nature field guides
• approximately 40 books on various topics related to special education and developmental disabilities
• several books by or about great writers such as, Thoreau, Muir, Emerson, Whitman, etc. Several of these are "vintage" books I have purchased as library book sales. 

There is a phrase in the writing world that says, "Writers are readers." Books come into my house, are read and passed on so others can enjoy them.  But, like the reference section of a public library, my writing reference collection is permanent and for on-site use only.  I encourage you to begin or build your reference collection. If you discover any great titles, let me know and I will consider adding it to my shelves, too.

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for my thoughts and tips, news and nonsense about writing and the creative writing process.

Today I visited a local library book sale.  This particular library holds the Friends of the Library Book Sale twice a year and it is always worth the time to browse the selection.

I came home with....

• two dictionaries - one on biological terminology, one on the vocabulary of success
• 3 vintage field guides for my growing field guide collection
• A book of poetry of John Donne
• Excepts of the writings of Whitman
• Poetry of John Keats
• "Emerson's Poetical Works"
• Ray Bradbury's, "The Illustrated Man"
• "Watership Down"
• "The Memory Keepers Daughter"
• 4 books on mindfulness, meditation and healing
• a SOLO Mountain First Aid Manual
• A guide to natural healing
• 2 music cds.

One hour well spent to gather plenty of reference material, entertainment and treasures for my collection.