Reverb * 2 weeks
Due to various developments, I have not done any Reverberating over the past 2 weeks. Every day I’ve looked at the prompts, but my urge/creativity in responding to them has not overcome the life I’m trying to juggle. It’s been interesting, though, to have them in the back of my mind; when coping with ragged life, moving through whatever comes with some level of intention is helpful.
Plus, I’ve used one of their “tools” to do a spreadsheet of goals for the coming year.
I’m feeling kind of excited about a grab bag of attempts this year. I want to train as a doula, to set up my Fictional Character Counseling Service, and to get both fiction and non-fiction queries out the door at a measurable rate. (2010 taught me this: non-fiction is a slightly easier market and when you do sell, it’s not $20-, but $300-, for pieces of comparable size. Bring it on, megatron.)
Fictional Character Counseling, you ask?
Yes. I’ve worked with a number of writers’ groups and a number of writers now, and my editing contribution tends to be thematic, interpersonal, and motivational. I read books like the dreams of main characters. And people I’ve done this for have suggested that it’s a service they’ve found useful, whether it’s just as a sympathetic reader or it’s to help them work their character down off the ledge of “OH MY GOD I DON’T WANT TO DO A SECOND ACT” terror.
So, for themes that won’t lie straight, characters that misbehave themselves into plot snarls, second acts that fail to launch, and “this book doesn’t make sense” terror, I will offer either help at a distance or, like Lucy from Peanuts, find a drink-stand-at-the-side-of-the-road and charge my nickles for advice. My goal is to have a website – with blurbs from authors or characters – up by May, and cards to scatter at NaNo events. *g*
I have no idea if that service is feasible. From doing it anyway, I know it’s useful… but whether it’s useful enough for someone to pay some cash for, dunno.
I suppose it’s doula-ing, of another sort.
…. Also, an actress friend, upon hearing my “yay driving” theme, pointed out there’s a lack of female stunt drivers in Vancouver. Well! My friend Monkeypants may be best suited to such a job. The school is somewhat expensive. But starting a career in stunt driving in middle age? WHY NOT? *g*
Happy to blurb for you! Testimonials from crazed writers!
Hurray! Yay blurb!
(THANKS!)
That is a wonderful, whimsical, totally useful service. I love it.
I’ll blurb as well, if you need it. Also, link to the stunt school, please? My life is curiously bereft of e-brake slides.
How did you decide to train as a doula? It’s something I’ve found myself getting very curious about; a lot of that is, I think, because though I don’t want children of my own, and am unlikely to have them (I aspire to be a crazy cool aunt), I am extremely curious about the experience of pregnancy and labour.
I’ve been honored to attend a number of births, Paige; the first, before I’d had kids and while I was in university, was because my friend’s husband was leaving to work up north and I came in as her coach. I believe I talked with so much admiration and reverence for birth-time – which does substantively, to me, feel different, like the room is filled with generations – that others also asked me to be present at their births.
Also, perhaps, that I was one of the first to have kids.
But I really love to support women who are birthing, and I have some skill in helping people find trust in themselves. And I’m running out of friends who are going to have babies. *g*
WV: cangeena coach.