Hey all, happy March! I know it sounds odd to say as I write this and it is only March 6th, but boy is this month flying! Why does it seem that January and February go on forever, (well, more January of course) and then March comes and boom, it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day already! I’d like to be upfront here and let y’all know that I tested positive for Covid (edited from the flu as I hadn’t taken the test yet) and have a fever, so I am not quite sure where this post is going to go, but let’s see what happens, shall we?

I have been going through some past posts and I realized something, there are almost no humorous moments in them. I find this rather disturbing as I am generally known to be a funny person. I love to make people laugh and even considered going into stand-up once upon a time back in my theater days. But here on this blog, which is supposed to be all kinds of personal and documenting not just my writing journey, but my own, I find my posts to be lacking in the humor department. Of course, now that I’ve put the pressure on myself to make you laugh, I am thinking I shouldn’t have said any of this ‘out loud’ as it’s like telling someone not to think about pink elephants and then suddenly that’s all you can think about. (Again, flu, fever, pink elephants just seemed like a fun thing to think about. Let’s all pause for a moment shall we?)

Annnd, we’re back!

So large, colorful trunk-faced mammals aside, the humorous component has yet to surface. Unless it has and I am just so used to my own quips that they blew right past me. Anywhooo, I have been reading a rather funny book by Emily Henry whose books I just love because I literally laugh so hard at times, I have to put the book down to compose myself long enough to get past the sentence that brought tears to my eyes and my inhaler to my lips and have noticed that I lack such segments in my own writing. Not that the novel I wrote (and am now editing) is supposed to be a comedy, but I was hoping to get a few of these little moments in there to keep the reader on their toes. (By the way, that rather long sentence above is basically how I speak in real life and it is no wonder I need an inhaler, just to get through such a mini-monologue.)

But I digress…I’m not saying that humor should be in every book. Quite the contrary. We need diverse offerings. But when I read something like this and it comes to me at the right time, like when I need a laugh the most and the trigger sentence sneaks up on you like a seagull waiting for you to drop that bagel in a convenience store parking lot, well then, it makes you not only literally laugh out loud but for a writer makes you think about your own writing and what can you do to improve it.

I mentioned in the last few posts that I had been reading a series for my February Cancer fundraiser and after I completed all 9 books (in the shortest month of the year thank you very much), I needed a change. I dove into my TBR pile to grab something a little different that would make me laugh and Ms. Henry’s books never fail me in that regard. The beautiful thing about reading is that for the writer, it inspires you. I won’t go into too much detail as I already discussed this very topic last week, but it never fails to astound me the level of inspiration I get while reading something I really enjoy. It doesn’t even have to be the same genre, just something that gets in your head and suddenly, ‘hey, there’s that hook for that one section that I’ve been looking for!’ Of course why it comes to you at that moment is always a mystery and frankly, it doesn’t even need to be while you are reading! Hell, I once wrote a crime noir short story after watching an episode of Friends. Who knows how the brain works?

Which brings us to suggestibility. I have the mind of a sponge and I think the advertisers out there are on to me. One of my favorite commercials that I could watch over and over again is the Haribo Gold Bears ad with the football players. No matter how many times I watch it, I laugh. So of course, while picking up prescriptions one day, I had to get the damned things because I could hear them talking in my head. (The football players, not the gummy bears. Just wanted to make that clear.) There is now a Lay’s potato chip commercial that was a popular ad during this past Super Bowl and used the Barry Louis-Polisar song, “All I Want is You.” It didn’t make me want to run out and buy a bag of chips, rather it made me want to watch the movie Juno again for like the 75th time because it is the song used in the opening credits scene. And really, the movie never gets old, so any excuse to watch it and I’m all for it.

I have a quirk where I can’t move past something until I’ve done something that’s in my head. I’m sure there are many out there who are also like this, but this is how I ended up writing the first seven chapters of the sequel to my first book that has yet to be finished on the editing side. Actually, it’s why I’ve started several other books because of this same reason. I could be doing something, like I’m doing now and suddenly an idea pops into my head. I have to get it down now or I will forget it. Granted, I have some neuro issues with my health that cause me to forget things quite easily, but that being said, I can’t just jot a note down about the idea. I have to full on begin the entire process of getting the story down in a draft for the future or it’s gone forever. Which is why it takes me so long to get through a first of something. ADHD at its finest.

I’ve found that the only time I can really focus on anything these days is while I’m either reading or writing. I love true crime shows. Love. Them. My Sunday nights are dedicated to the ID network and I’ve affectionately dubbed them “Serial Killer Sundays” but of course, that is just one day out of many that I’m glued to these demented shows about real and tragic things that have happened to people. However, if it is a two hour Dateline, I am screwed. Every Friday night for many years, I hit the remote to watch the weekly two hour episodes. (Unless it’s baseball season or I was going out, then I’d record it. Just want to make that clear. Let’s go Yankees.) I’d sit and get through the first hour on the edge of my seat thinking I’ve solved said crime and of course the big twists always happen in the second hour. About an hour and a half in, they lose me. Even though there are still massive plot points to reveal and moments of ‘oh crap I didn’t see that coming,’ I’ll have moved on to a game on my iPad or listing more vintage jewelry on eBay. (For some reason I find Keith Morrison’s voice soothing and motivational to get my work done on my listings.) But while doing these things, I lose the momentum of the show. I know it is not Mr. Morrison’s fault. If anything, I love his voice so much I want the man to read the eulogy at my wake! I just can’t stay focused enough to make it to the end without having to rewind sections over and over again until what they’ve said on screen finally lands in my brain. I used to have this issue with my reading. Turns out, it was part of the dyslexia I didn’t know I had until I was in my 40’s. But tv has been betraying me as of late and I am just thankful to live in an era where rewinding is possible.

We all have that thing though that we love, that we can spend our time truly focusing on. It can be music, it can be a craft, it can be a job you love, hell it can even be getting behind the wheel of a car and taking off for the weekend. Your focus is strong and that means, it is something that makes you happy.

While you may already have something like this in your life, be open to suggestions. Maybe you are on YouTube one day looking up how to fix that toaster that just won’t brown the bread on one side no matter what you try and a video comes up on airplane model building. Maybe it’s something you have wanted to try but never thought to look up! Maybe it sparks a creative side of you that, while it may not be  model building, but by the mere suggestion of it, has you thinking about buying that watercolor set you’ve been eyeing on Amazon or trying out that new dance class that just opened up downtown. Yes, these suggested videos can take you down a rabbit hole of doom scrolling to things you had no intention of ever watching and now your daily ‘for you’ on either YT or TikTok looks like a mashup of Martha Stewart flower arranging diy’s mixed with how to throw a ninja star with style and grace tutorials. In some ways though, that’s the fun! Maybe you’ve been restless and looking for something new to try, well, these side videos may just help you find that one thing you’ve been looking for.

Look, I’m not suggesting you go on a 12-hour binge on YouTube or TikTok. (Been there, done that.) I’m just saying, as focused as you may be on some things in your life you should also be open to the occasional suggestion that may come from a source you weren’t expecting. You really think that there is a correlation between Friends and a noir crime story? My brain tends to connect the dots in a rather strange way, but you get my point.

So this week, I challenge you to look around your space. Pay attention to the everyday. Do you walk past a building you never realized gave weekly classes in something? Do you like that donut you had this morning for breakfast and always wondered if you could make them? Maybe there is something you do that just doesn’t excite you the way it used to and you find yourself daydreaming of doing something else. Why not look it up to see if there is a call for it near you, or if you can find a video on how to get started! Or maybe, just maybe, fixing that toaster felt great and now you want to fix other stuff as well because using your hands in a constructive way can be so much more rewarding than sitting in front of a screen all day. (Plus the feeling you get every time you make a slice of perfect toast just gives you a sense of satisfaction you never thought you could achieve in life!) Give yourself the opportunity to explore different areas of life and you may find your own Haribo Gold Bears at the end of the rainbow!

Until next week my friends…Cheers!!

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Disclaimer, this post is not sponsored by any of the above mentioned goodies, but hey, if I’ve got you thinking of gummy bears and potato chips, click here and here!

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Need a good laugh? Try an Emily Henry book!

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Find me on eBay (as well as my other shops) if you are so interested: linktr.ee/stuffwefind

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