[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEYoQhTfCZc&w=475&h=297] This post is #31 in a series of 50 dedicated to the art and life of writing, in support of the 50 for 50 Project to benefit WriteGirl. If you like it, or if you think it could have been improved by a better writing education for its author, please give generously. And pass it on.
FOR THEM OF YOU WHAT HATES WATCHING THE VIDEOS:
I have been feeling a little bit down these past couple of days because we are in the Dip.
Which means I am in the Dip.
And DAMN, you can read or think or talk all you want to about the Dip, but being in the Dip is an entirely different matter.
So from the depths of the Dip, an email came from my friend, Jennifer Lehr. She's one of the amazing women writers who did an interview for this project, and she's been hugely helpful behind the scenes as well. Plus, she gave actual cash. Which is very much appreciated.
Anyway, Jennifer made a very good suggestion, which boiled down to DO SOMETHING. She said it much more nicely and she gave specific suggestions (both of which are hugely helpful) but basically, she's right: if you are stuck, DO SOMETHING. Something you haven't done before. Something to move yourself out of where you are. And hey, while you're at it, maybe show a little gratitude, because there is never a time when that is a bad thing.
So I made a video, and we'll see, but I'm going to keep making them. Maybe not every day, but as much as I can. Although maybe every day. Maybe I'll get better at them if I make them every day, and I'll grow to enjoy it, and people who like video better than they do reading (freaks! all of you!) will have something nice by way of a "thanks."
One of Jennifer's suggestions was to share some of the terrific emails and comments I've been getting since this thing began. So today, just randomly, I picked a nice one from Clara Boza:
As a writer, reader and all-around word nerd since B.B. (before birth), I can only dream of what an organization like WriteGirl might have meant to me as a shy teen girl with few role models for pursuing my dreams. WriteGirl rocks!
Because that's the essence of my reason for doing this: I wish I'd had a WriteGirl. And from the comments and feedback I'm getting, and the things I see on Twitter and Facebook, along with the things I hear from the WriteGirl women volunteers, I'm not alone. Girls need this. Probably more than boys. Everyone needs support, but it's just incredibly tough on girls growing up in this culture. So many weird, confusing messages get thrown at them from every angle, and too often the most important thing gets lost.
Which is that how you look on the outside is not nearly as important as how you develop what's inside.
I want these girls to hear that LOUD and CLEAR.
I want them to hear it over the advertising and the magazines and the reality TV crap and everything else that shouts at them 24/7.
Thank you for your support! Keep on trucking! Never, never, never give up! And all the rest of it.
I love you all!
xxx c