Hi,
Tis the last week of the fortnight half-term and also of October.
To those of you enjoying Halloween, I hope you have a good one, whatever your plans are 🎃
Well provided they are kind and ethical. 🙂
maeUrGh, hALidYs gon wOK3 Agaun! 😁
Typewriter
The other day I was looking in a gift shop – they sell items from artists & makers around the area 🩷 – and my gaze fell upon an old mechanical typewriter. A proper sturdy item; one that looked like it would survive heavy ordinance (BTW, happy Fallout Day, gaymer geeks 🤓).
For a moment I remembered struggling with one in the mid 80s, wondering if it would improve my school work. TL/DR: it didn’t, it just highlighted my terrible spelling and grammar…. a bit like this blog does, only with no piccies 😁
As to why try, I mean, my hand writing was – and still is – bad. Ah, old skool just write faster advice – that’s worked out well…. NOT. 😁 It’s also a terrible teaching or coaching approach, IMO.
Which two bits of unrelated and seemingly disconnected bits of brain fluff, brings me around to today’s topic: why I write Lessons Learned or – if your prefer a ragebait headline, Who They Bloomin’ ‘Eck Does She Think She Is? 😁
Brain noise…
Being a bear of both little and an odd brain, there’s times when I need to just stop, take a breath, and have a talk to myself. It helps settle the noise and, if things are not going well …
(overwhelm, overload, multitasking but not finishing, Imposter Syndrome, and/or social panic! Yiiiiikes Scoob! 😁 )
… it helps centre me and puts Grown-up Lynn in the driving seat. What is actually going on? What are you seeing or hearing? What did you need to do? It’s okay, we’re not under threat, etc.
That calmer and perhaps even Wise Brain helps, and – if I may – it is the voice (vibe?) that comes to me if someone’s struggling, or I’m writing about my own issues.
Don’t “just do X better”
I would like to hope that anything in here, on YATGB, is taken as a What Lynn Did Next kinda thing. Not as some rules or truth, but just observations and personal experiences.
I think there’s a large element of sharing what’s happened and hearing (reading) your experiences. That’s also that old magic phrase of Make What You Want To See.
I feel that’s a wee bit different to Write What You Know, because I’m coming from a creator point of view. That could just as easily be music, art, comedy, software, groups, games – any content (to use a modern word). It’s doing what you want and maybe, just maybe, a few folk might join you if they like what you’re doing.
If folk don’t join you, hopefully you’ll enjoy making the stuff you do. It’s not completely about the audience – it’s just getting the idea out of my head, and feeling what it looks like written down. I still don’t know what you dear readers will read or respond to; and I don’t try to second guess it either 🙂
I just write what I would like to have read back in the day, and here we are 🩷
A wee bit peopley
Despite my introversion and curse of a sarcastic tone, I enjoy the company of others. Just, being an introvert, I need to recharge elsewhere 🙂
But there’s the…. not so much giving advice… but the old empathy kicks in and I don’t like to see people struggle or suffer. Okay, caveat: if they’re an evil s*** – maybe that’s Karma paying a visit 😁
Snark aside, we all make mistakes and if we’re lucky, we get to learn from them. Tu that end, I will often listen to friends, family, and (until recently) colleagues about their worries, concerns, and even trauma. Not that I’m a trained counsellor, just someone with friendly ears and who looks with kind eyes.
Yeah, and…?
If there’s a point to this waffle, it’s these:
- I’m here if you need me and know I’m not a counsellor, so you might need a health professional 🩷
- If you’re struggling with something* and you think I might have been there too, I’ll share what I can.
- If you’ve got an idea for a Lessons Learned or something to discuss, just let me know.
- If you do get in touch, if it needs to be private, say so, and that’s how it’ll stay.
L x
( * Not mathematics, mechanics, plumbing, gardening, sport, geopolitical issues, identify politics, economics, or, well anything academic 😁
Actually, let’s stick with the YATGB mission statement and usual trans* topics eh? 😉🏳️⚧️ )
Well, that’s quite an apt post for Halloween. When women with some experience of life (OK, older women) had advice to impart or healing to offer, the village would gladly take up their proffered help. But if they became too useful, popular and too insistent on rights, such women would get accused of being witches by the local nobility/priests/magistrates who found their authority being ignored in favour of Old Mother Lynn.
Your kind offer to be an available ear is noted and gains you three Wonder Witch points.
Sue xx
That’s a very interesting connection to Halloween and history, Sue. I guess those who challenge the power structures of the day, in whatever era or locale, are ‘on the list’ for daring to do things differently.
The Ever Lovely Mrs J seems to be the Wise Woman in her organisation. While Mrs J keeps others’ confidences and secrets, she will often say “I was having a coffee today, and then someone turned up and just opened up.” I think this is Mrs J’s kindness and approachability, but maybe I’m biased 🙂🩷
Thanks for the Witch points. I will add the extra stars to my chart, and hope it brings down the patriarchy 😉🏳️⚧️✊
I can vouchsafe for the efficacy of your wisdom, Old Mother Lynn. 🤔 No, a better reference: Granny Lynn-a-waxed. Yes, better, cos Headology.
We, all of us, could do well to heed that old calling of just sitting, chatting, sharing and listening. Thank you for the offer, as well, I know it’s non-specific. but it is heard.
I was told to get a word processor, by the way, and for many years that did the trick. Lately, I’ve refound the love of writing by hand. Can recommend it highly as a mindful exercise and as a way of letting ideas flow more nnaturally – plenty of scrabbling around at speed followed by having to slow slightly to get it on the page.
Granny Lynn-a-waxed? LOL 😁
“The problem with some follicle related beauty treatments,” said the old witch, “is while the hair goes out, so does the skin shape. Still, I can now glide without a broom; soaring the night’s airs with my bingo wings, like a daredevil squirrel.” 😉
-Ahem- Only experiences and sharing here. I’ll let you decide their usefulness. 🙂
Hmm. Not using a wood processor but writing? I think I can see how that might change things for you.
For me, the use of pen & paper would give full end to end encryption…. sadly, not with a decoder key 🐙
“We think it’s some type of esoteric Cthulhulic script, Sarge… That or a spider fell in an ink pot, and high on the fumes, dried itself off on the paper.”
Well, that made me giggle a bit! 🤭
My handwriting was similarly (and remains) impenetrable, but I have been experimenting with a newer style. Much slower, but maybe slightly more legible? The jury is out, I’m not sure anyone has actually attempted to parse it yet.
Hmmm. I wonder if it’s possible to relearn a better form of handwriting? 🤔 There’s a thought.
Lynn,
Totally get what you mean about needing to pause and let Wise Brain take over when things get noisy.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts (and your humour!). Always a pleasure to read your posts.
Lotte x
Thanks Lotte. Good to hear you enjoyed the post. It felt like one of those times of “You’re not going to be able to write anything else, until you’ve written this” 🙂
Also – and to riff on Jonathan Swift’s writing: “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it…”. Could the same be said of panic and wisdom? 🤔
I think you have a tremendous amount of great advice and content here. If your goal was to create what you wish you’d had, you’ve absolutely achieved it. I definitely feel that! You’re also a real inspiration for my own blogging.
(Also, I missed you! Real life has kept me busy. I haven’t made the time to stay caught up on blogs. Rectifying now.)
Hi Michelle. Welcome back and thank you for the very kind words. I guess that when things can be a bit pants (translation: ‘not great’), having something to read or someone to talk to, might make a wee bit of a difference.
Good luck with your writing and catching up. 🙏