Tag Archives: life

by | December 21, 2018 · 12:00 am

…and then I organised a FLASHMOB.

I have been fearless lately. It might be that the stress blew some fuse in my brain, the one that normally stops me from doing anything risky, especially when it’s not clear “what would people think?” Whatever it is, it has caused me to organise a flashmob which could have potentially embarrassed me and about twenty of my colleagues.

It all started back in June, when I was acting in a director role and so was part of the weekly executive team meetings. Normally it meant reading and discussing quite dense reports, but one of those was actually about Christmas party plans. The plans were very safe and conservative, the most controversial idea being that we add an 80’s theme to the festivities. Hold on to your legwarmers, woo-hoo!

By that time the fuse was already gone and I was speaking up at every opportunity. In this case, I suggested that in spirit of leadership change, the entire executive team could prepare a dance number and shock the staff by busting out a move. There was some support from other directors, but the CEO was firm: “I’m not gonna do it.”

But then he said these magic words: “I don’t care what you do.”

So I did.

It took months, but I have managed to convince over twenty people, some in key leadership roles, to spring this flashmob up right after the CEO’s speech. The best thing about it was that the CEO had no idea, much like the hundreds of other innocent bystanders. The music and choreography was by other members of the team, I was more of the cheerleader – and, of course, the participant. That’s me below, in a black dress with silvery scarf.

There was a technical glitch in the middle when the music stopped, but we got it back in order and most people actually thought it was part of the plan. Regardless, this was a hoot and I highly recommend trying it for yourself. Disrupt your office Christmas party! Shock your relatives! Break the Internet!

Whatever you do, have fun!

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by | January 22, 2015 · 1:00 am

Spreadsheets are the writer’s best friends

Well, maybe they are just this writer’s. Somehow, no matter what problem or challenge I’m facing, my first thought always turns to Excel. (Hmm, “Excel”…subliminal messaging? Or truth in advertising?)

Maybe it’s that whole idea of breaking a major problem into its component parts and tackling them one at a time. Maybe it’s tapping into the brain’s reward system, as I did last year, when watching the trend line of “actual words written” motivated me to finish the first draft of Shizzle, Inc. Or, most likely, it’s the fact that without a spreadsheet, or at least a to-do list, I would completely forget what I’m supposed to do or what I’ve already done…

Wait…what was I talking about?

To illustrate, here’s one of my “writer’s little helpers”, the word count tracking spreadsheet:

Shizzle word count log

You can see that the “actual” line is a bit jagged, and occasionally dips below the target, but all is well that ends well – and in this case I got what I wanted exactly when I wanted it – the draft was finished on the day the spreadsheet predicted that it would be.

The latest one is helping me track my progress towards landing a literary agent. Oh, I forgot to mention in my last post that in addition to everything else going wrong, my agent and I parted ways in a sort of messy divorce. So I’m back to square one in terms of plans on how to publish Shizzle, Inc. A depressing thought that only a tracking spreadsheet can fix. So here it is:

Selling Shizzle

It’s really simple. Paradoxically for a die-hard optimist, I expect to be rejected by agents. A lot. Let’s say 99 times out of 100. A simple logic would then dictate that in order to get one agent to believe into a future success of my totally rad first attempt at writing a novel, I will have to submit it to at least 100 agents.

As the spreadsheet shows, so far I’m up to 34 actual submissions. As an easy visualisation tool, the light grey shaded cells show all the agents to whom I’ve sent a query, and the more depressing dark grey ones, with strikethrough font, show the ones that sent a rejection letter or ignored me long enough to indicate a “no cigar” outcome.

So far my spreadsheets got me what I wanted, when I wanted it – 85,000 words in less than three months, and an apartment in about the same time frame. I will be very, very surprised if after 100 submissions I will not hook a single fish…er, agent. I’m not worried, though – if that happens, Miss Fix-it will make a spreadsheet on how to self-publish her “widely rejected” and “ignored by the best” debut.

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by | October 16, 2013 · 2:12 am

First steps

I didn’t know how hard it would be to sit down in front of a blank page, to start writing, not knowing if anyone would ever read a single word…or worse, thinking that if someone actually did find and read my stories, they would say things like “Wow. What a load of crap!”

Of course, there are much harder and scarier things out there. Like parachuting (which is not worth the risk, I mean, really not worth it). And actually, I have written fiction before (if  first chapters of a half-dozen unfinished novels count).  But I have never published or even posted anything in the cyberspace, for everyone to see and comment. Those first chapters of unfinished bestsellers are my personal treasures and secrets, my own fool’s gold.

But, you have to start sometime, somewhere, and for me it is today. Because I want to finish a novel, and because I want for others to read it. Because I want to get better at writing. Because I hope that in a multi-billion world there will be a few (a million?) that would one day close my book (or put down a Kindle) and say “Wow. What else did she write?” Now, that’s a dream worth the risk.

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