Tell the Truth and Share What you Learned are two of Mr. Roger’s precepts.
 
When we make claim to the vocation of Writer, our words become our deeds. Every word spoken and written counts because it has an impact, no matter how small. When we write we want to focus on what’s truly important. We don’t want to get distracted or waste words on ideas or thoughts that have not been met with a conscious intention. 
 
As writers, sharing our truth and wisdom relies on our being honest with ourselves first. We also need to tap into our own personal version of reality – our own unique and personal wisdom. You and I may have similar experiences and intentions but our stories will be wholly unique. That is one reason to focus on your truth versus the facts of a story. 
 
What is your personal truth in this particular narrative or scene? 
 
What wisdom of yours can you draw on to share with the reader? 
 
Actually no one has walked in your shoes, as the cliché goes. But we can get close to understanding your experiences and wisdom through your words and stories. What happened to each of us isn’t as important as how we experience and interpret our encounters. This is what we write about: our truth, our experiences, what we learned. Not the event itself so much but what happened to you (or your character in a fiction). The event and facts  frame our narrative but isn't the story.  Only you know the story.

​Don’t tell us what happened. Show us what it meant to you.

Dig deep, keep it simple but honest. 

​Share what you've learned. 


MEET UPS!  Come meet up with me and other writers!  Free offerings: 
 
A virtual Sunday Afternoon Writing Circle from December 15th through till Sunday January 18th 2 till 4:00.  Write from wherever you are. Email me to sign up and for details. 
 
Free Winter Writing Retreat, January 24th at Badger Hollow, home of Suzan and Richard’s. 10 till 4:00.  Email me to register. This takes the shape of the many free writing retreats I have offered over the years to my writers. These follow in the footsteps of William Stafford who offered his home and land to writers. 
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Finally, I will be writing at Sjolinds (in Mount Horeb) on Friday December 27th from 9 till 1:00. Join me for some writing, great hot chocolate and petite consultations.

 
Fred’s 10 Precepts -- 
Be Deep and Simple.
Be Kind to Strangers (even the stranger in yourself)
Make a Joyful Noise
Tell the Truth
Connect with Other People Every Way You Can
Love Your Neighbors
Find the Light in the Darkness
Always See the Ver Best in Other People
Accept the Changing Seasons
Share what You’ve Learned (All your Life). 
 

"How many times have you noticed that it's the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?"  Fred Rogers
 
“Be Deep and Simple” is one of Fred Roger’s precepts. All his precepts can be applied to our writing, either in the narrative or through our process of writing. So, for several blogs forward I will focus on Fred Roger's precepts and how they intersect with other spiritual practices and our writing.
 
To have any of these positive qualities manifest in our life, one thing is for certain: we have to slow down and be present. We can’t rush through our life or writing. We can’t crowd our life or page. Too many obligations or too many commitments mean none of them get the attention they deserve. We must continue to practice being attentive in our precious moments and encounters as well as to our writing.
 
And, we can all benefit from slowing down. 
 
In writing, yes, write the first draft fast and furious. After that, be deep and simple. Deep in writing means to give the reader a full, rich story. Give us details and descriptions. But keep it simple in its depth.  Use one good analogy or metaphor to describe the object or mood of a scene. Be consistent (this keeps it simple). Have a consistent thread of metaphors and analogies. If you use an analogy of the ocean, for example, stick with water, waves and anything oceanic for the rest of that scene, or chapter. 
 
Go slow. Be with a scene or sentence for as long as it takes. Be with your writing in a deep and meaningful way. 
 
Set aside time to write.
 
To Be Deep also means to be vulnerable and uncomfortable. Get beyond the more obvious surface mentions. A simple way to go deep is to change “tells” to “shows.”  Look for the tells that don’t reveal much about the scene or message. 
 
“She meant the world to me (or to him).” (a tell)
 
This above line could be a scene’s worth of narrative. Could be shown throughout the book, depending on the subject and theme. Your reader should know this without you telling them. 
 
 “We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.”  Fred Rogers

Don’t rush to publication either. Don’t ever rush, if possible. You are sure to miss something meaningful when you do. Practice giving every moment the slowed-down attention it wants.
 
Everything and everyone craves attention.
 
In Fred Roger’s words:  "You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are."
 
    
 MEET UPS!  Come meet up with me and other writers!  Free offerings: 
 
A virtual Sunday Afternoon Writing Circle from December 15th through till Sunday January 18th 2 till 4:00.  Write from wherever you are. Email me to sign up and for details. 
 
Free Winter Writing Retreat, January 24th at Badger Hollow, home of Suzan and Richard’s. 10 till 4:00.  Email me to register. This takes the shape of the many free writing retreats I have offered over the years to my writers. These follow in the footsteps of William Stafford who offered his home and land to writers. 
 
I will be writing at the General Store in Spring Green Wisconsin, Monday December 16th from 8:30 am till 2:00!!  Join me. Come, write and I will happily offer some free consultations on your writing (in between mastering a few great sentences myself). I will be working on my novel that should be ready to send out by the end of February to some lucky publisher or agent. Great food too! 
 
Finally, I will be writing at Sjolinds (in Mount Horeb) on Friday December 27th from 9 till 1:00. Join me for some writing, great hot chocolate and petite consultations.
 
"As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has- or ever will have- something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression."  Fred Rogers 
 
"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." Fred Rogers 

Fred’s 10 Precepts -- 
Be Deep and Simple.
Be Kind to Strangers (even the stranger in yourself)
Make a Joyful Noise
Tell the Truth
Connect with Other People Every Way You Can
Love Your Neighbors
Find the Light in the Darkness
Always See the Ver Best in Other People
Accept the Changing Seasons
Share what You’ve Learned (All your Life). 

​

Humility is one of my superpowers. This mention of course is a contradiction, much like the guy who got the humility award at work and wore his badge of acknowledgment for weeks. However, what I mean here is we all have this superpower, inherently, if we choose to access and develop it. 
 
Humility as a writer can go a very, very long way.
 
Humility was not one of my strongest qualities until a few years ago when I started working for the UW, Madison as an educator and for the local paper as a reporter. I also joined Al Anon, which took what little humility I did have to attend. 
 
Up till a few years ago, (excluding the first 10 years of my vocation as a Social Worker in MPLS) I have been on my own. Since 1989, I’ve been my own boss, in private practice or hired as a private consultant or educator. In that time, I have run successful practices in Minnesota and Wisconsin, trained internationally, authored 11 books; taught in several different settings, and have written freelance for magazines and papers. (For a couple years I even did a quarterly article as a psychic for a national teen magazine, Astrogirl, where I wrote predictions on the stars. Surprised?) I pretty much made my own hours. Feedback came from those who attended my trainings and workshops but never from someone who would be considered a boss or supervisor.  
 
Working at the UW, writing for the local paper and attending Al Anon offered many lessons in humility I could not have gotten elsewhere or on my own.
 
I have always been open to feedback, guidance and even criticism from publishers and editors. I can attribute my writerly improvements to taking on their feedback and integrating it into my work as a writer.
 
Still, I was on my own to do what I wanted with their suggestions.
 
When it came to working for the UW I was unversed at being supervised. My first evaluation was like a foreign language to me. And it disrupted my inner status quo. I have had several lessons in humility writing for the local paper, some which come through simply sitting in on the monthly board meetings, to being accountable to the editor and readers of the paper. I have only developed my skills as an educator and reporter because I have had feedback in areas where I needed to improve. Al Anon is a practice of humility every time I attend a meeting where I listen to stories about our shared humanity. We’re all just fumbling through this life – nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to hide. 
 
Increasing my humility has made me a better human being and most certainly a better writer. 

As a writer, humility lets you learn from others; gives you an inherent willingness to learn and grow in your writerly skills. Humility as a writer includes:  
 

• listening to the Other.

• being nonresistant to feedback.  Don’t take it as an affront to who you are as a person instead as a way to be better, write better. Take ownership of what is yours and move on. 
• An openness to being influenced by others, always.
• Receptivity to your limits and flaws 
• Listening for the bigger story (it’s not about you)
• Being vulnerable in your writing; taking risks 

 
Humility shows us how everything is connected to everything and everyone else. Our actions and choices are never isolated. 
 
Our heroes in our stories all have humility. Some more prominent than others. The villain I can reassure you, does not. 
 
Humility begets serenity – a foundation to Al Anon.   I’m still teaching through the UW. I am still writing for the local paper (as of this week anyway), and I’m still a proud member of Al Anon. I hope to strengthen this superpower till I can walk anywhere, serenely and joyfully, writing my merry way. 

​I wish the same for you. 

I recently helped clean up and stage a house for viewing. I removed clutter, made sure nothing was in front of the large windows, so the light could get in, and took down some family pictures. This staging allows for the viewers to see what's really there, instead of someone else's stuff. This way, they can project their dreams onto the space. They can better enter the space and imagine it as their own when there's not too much clutter.

Consider telling in writing as clutter. I like to go through my drafts with a yellow highlighter (there is one on the Microsoft Word too), and highlight all the tells. In my. nonfiction, I highlight all the information dumping, where I tell the reader too much about what I want them to know. Clutter. In nonfiction there is likely to be some telling (a few family photos left on the wall), but too much causes the reader to lose interest.

When we write we are staging a scene for our readers. We want them to see what's there, while at the same time be able to experience the scene in their own way. This encourages us to show, not tell, and to give descriptive details that are relevant to the narrative (and theme). Choose what details you develop. Let the light into the scene by clearing out the clutter, while at the same time reveal the authenticity of the scene. 

With all the false and divisive narrative going on right now, it's good to read something real. Something that reveals the truth behind a difficulty or challenge but also gives us a way through. Let the reader be in the room while at the same time inviting them to project their thoughts on what is or could happen in this scene or narrative. Trust your reader. 

Remove the clutter and give room for the reader to engage in their own way.  

Upcoming Writing Events: 

Mind • Body • Word: A Yoga & Writing Retreat this January through the UW, Madison, Continuing Studies..  More information and Sign up.

The Abundant Writer's Life A one day session for 10 writers on Living the Abundant Writer's Life
Thursday February 27th, 2020 at Healing Services on the River in Prairie du Sac. 9:00 till 4:00 .
 Explore and identify unique ways to generate income, capture readers, and live successful and plentiful as a writer. Generate tangible ways to make your writer's life abundant.   Learn more and sign up.

“How is your book . . . your novel going?” Angus inquired politely as he sipped at his coffee. “The one about the Scottish saints?”

Antonia sighed, “Not very well, I’m afraid. My saints, I regret to say, are misbehaving. I had hoped that they would show themselves to be, well, saintly, but they are not. They are distressingly full of human foibles. There’s a lot of jealous and back-biting going on.” 

Angus was puzzled. Antonia was talking of her characters as if they had independent lives of their own. But they were her creations, surely, and that meant they should do their creator’s bidding. If she wanted saintly saints, she could have them. “But you’re the author,” he said. “You can dictate what the people in your book do, can you not?” -taken from, Love Our Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith.
 
Most important is to let your writing take you where it does.

All my writing prompts and techniques, all my approaches to writing are to allow the writing to take you where it will. Don’t interfere with the narrative by insisting that this or that must go here. There is a big difference between force and discipline when it comes to writing. Don’t try to force ideas or rules or scenes. This will only cause you angst and resistance to writing. Forcing anything onto the page (or insisting it not be written because it may upset the reader or you just can’t go there), makes for a lesser read. 

The discipline in writing, fiction or nonfiction, is to listen. Once you hear something, you get it down in all its detail. The discipline comes in how you are going to get it onto the page, not whether to include it or not. Listen to your characters if you are writing a novel. Listen to your memory, passion and body, if you are writing anything autobiographical. 

Let the saints argue.
Know that you will offend someone if you’ve written the full breadth of your story.
Don’t intentionally leave anything out as you write your drafts.
 
Let your writing take you where it will.
 
“Antonia reached out for her cup of coffee. “Not at all,” she said. “People misunderstand how writers work. They think that they sit down and plan what is going to happen and then simply write it up. But it doesn’t work that way.”

Angus looked at Antonia with interest. Some of his paintings had turned out very differently from what he had had in mind at the beginning. Light became dark. And dark became light. Was this the same process? He had thought it was simply mood, but was it possible that the work acquired its own momentum, its own view of things? 

“Oh yes,” Antonia went on. “The author is not in control. Or, rather, the conscious mind of the author is not in control. And the reason for that is that when we use our imagination we get in touch with that part of the mind which is asking the ‘what if’ questions. And that is not part of the conscious mind.” 

“What if?”

“Precisely,” said Antonia. “What if. All the time, every moment, your mind is going through possibilities.”   –taken from, Love Our Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith.
 
What if, dear Writer, what if? 


 
Join me and other writers this Friday the 8th of November from 9:30 to 1:00 at Sjolinds in Mount Horeb to gather, drink excellent hot chocolate, write, and explore the What If’s together. I am happy to give you some free Sherpa coaching in between lines. 
 
Upcoming!:  A yoga and writing retreat in January (the 10th through the 12th). Want to explore your What If’s?.... join me at the 2020 Writers’ Institute and sign up for my Soulful Writing, Master’s Class. Want to make a living as a writer? It’s possible. Sign up for my The Abundant Writer session on Thursday February 27th. Email me to register.  

Enthusiasm is the nutrient that feeds a successful writer's life.  Writing for the joy of getting our words and ideas, our histories and stories on the page. If you don't get satisfaction from writing I recommend you give yourself permission to let the idea of finishing or getting published go. More likely you do get some satisfaction from writing (or you wouldn't likely be reading this blog). 

What gets you enthused? Jazzed? When you consider working on your writing, do ideas flow to you as if the GO light was switched on?  

​Do you know where the switch is? 

You can make a living from writing. You can live an abundant writer's life. Now, I didn't say from your books or poetry, self-published or not. Even those who have best sellers have other avenues of income and vocation. You need to as well. This is where the Tree of Life comes in. Instead of thinking in terms of creating something markable or checking your Amazon numbers -- focus on what brings you joy. What do you enjoy doing? What do you want to write about? How do you want to engage with your readers? What else do you enjoy doing besides writing? What gets your attention as a reader? 

How do we live an abundant's writer's life?

The question we start with here is this: What is the theme of your life (or core themes)? This is your tree's trunk. Just as we identify the core theme(s) in our writing, we can do so in our life as well. Once we identify our book's (or blogs or essay's) theme -- Everything that goes into the piece must be thematic. Everything branches out from our theme(s).

And money can be made, and that's a good thing.

True in the writer's life too. If you want to make a living from your writing you need to identify your theme(s) and design your Tree of Life, your abundant writer's life, from that theme. Our theme is rich with history, passion, stories, pivotal moments, knowledge, and readers. The enthusiasm will be feeding and nurturing you all along as you explore and discover your theme(s) and your avenues of making a living as a writer. 

I am offering a one day session for 10 writers on Living the Abundant Writer's Life. I use The Tree of Life as a template to help you explore and identify your unique ways to generate income, get readers, and to live successful and plentiful as a writer. The template is universal but your Tree of Life will be unique and generate tangible ways to make your writer's life abundant. Date: Thursday February 27th, 2020 at Healing Services on the River in Prairie du Sac. 9:00 till 4:00  You will leave enthused, with helpful handouts, and real-life ways to abundance. Lunch on our your own. Drinks and treats included.  $85.  Dear Writer, I won't turn anyone away from this opportunity. So, if you lack the funds at this time -- no worries, let me know what donation you can give and let's  get you signed up!) Contact me at: julie@julietallardjohnson.com 

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“At that instant when language seems to match experience, some rift is healed, some rupture momentarily salved in what Hart Crane called, ‘the silken transmemberment of song.’” Mark Doty, The Art of Description: World into Word.
 
In Buddhist practice we challenge our solipsistic states. We open up to our experiences and encounters with others with an appreciation that our experiences are not all about “me.” In writing for the local paper these past couple years, I learned another layer of removing the “I” as a way to deepen the reader’s experience. In journalism, I learned (thank you Matt) that there should be no sense of the author within the article. The piece after all is about someone or something else. When I included myself in the piece, the piece became subjective rather than objective, and not about the subject. This removing became a discipline, this removing of the self from my stories, just like in my Buddhist practice of becoming less self-centered.  
 
When, as a Writing Sherpa I consult on autobiographical pieces and on my client’s memoirs, I help them remove themselves for similar reasons. When we write, “I felt,” and, “I saw, I think, I remember, I don’t remember,” these references get in the readers way. They are redundant because the reader knows this is your view, your perspective. So, getting into the scene or narrative without these personal references strengthens your readers connection to your story. The reader can be in the experience, which is want you want for your readers. 
 
Instead of I felt sad, describe sensations in your body and your emotional state. 
Instead of I saw . . . show and describe what you saw. 
Instead of I thought . . . show and describe the experience in a way that invites the reader to have similar thoughts. Draw on metaphors and similes. Give the reader some details around certain objects or observations in the scene. 
Instead of I don’t remember . . .  well, leave that one out entirely. Mention of what you don’t remember doesn’t build up your story, it’s a distraction from the story and may illicit distrust in your reader. 
 
You are of course the main character in memoir. So, you are likely to use the “I” as you write your story. Practice removing all the references to the I that are not necessary to the narrative or scene. A worthwhile discipline on and off the page. 
 
“It sounds like a simple thing, to (write) what you see. But try to find words for the shades of a mottled sassafras leaf, or the reflectivity of a bay on an August morning, or the very beginnings of desire stirring in the gaze of someone looking right into your eyes, and it immediately becomes clear that all we see is slippery, nuanced, elusive.” Mark Doty, The Art of Description: World into Word. 
 
Upcoming Events include the 31st Annual Writers’ Institute, March 26-29, 2020 where I will be offering a Master’s Class on Soulful Writing; a Winter Yoga and Writing Retreat with Molly Chanson, January 10th -12th, and in late Spring, 2020 the Free Library on Wheels launch, along with the launch of my latest book. (I’m a woman in search of a small trailer that can be converted into a free library on wheels). 

​I just sent off my fiction manuscript to my editor and friend in Vermont.  My mind therefore is a total blank. I'm not even sure what to make for breakfast. So, nothing new comes to me to share with you today. Instead, I offer up one of my favorite mind-transformation practices that has helped me deal with dark and negative thoughts.  This is an excerpt from my book, The Wheel of Initiation. 


Wherever I went, a new life begun,
hidden in the grass, or waiting beyond the trees. There is a spirit abiding in everything.   –William Stafford, from the poem “You Don’t Know the End,” in The Way It Is 


Back, a couple decades ago, I found myself at times inundated with certain dark thoughts that just seemed to appear randomly and out of nowhere. They would show up at different times in my life and interfere with an otherwise pleasant time. They didn’t seem to have any cause. Asking why they existed only generated more unhappiness on my part, so I decided to pay more attention to when they arose. Knowing that the medicine is next to the wound, that the solution is within the question, I noticed how, if it weren’t for these random dark thoughts, I would be feeling connected to my experience at the time. I would be more present. In fact, they tended to show up at times that would otherwise be particularly beautiful. 

Skillful means: You Become the Trickster 
In this case you choose to become like the Heyoka, the Trickster. I have shared this practice with countless clients and students, and they report back how remarkable the results are. When negative, contrary, or dark thoughts arise in the mind, turn inwardly toward the thought as if you are about to greet it. Then do a small bow and say to it, “Thank you.” Know that this particular thought or belief would not be arising if the opposite weren’t actually true. Then notice and open up to what is really going on— touch the beauty of the moment. Turn your attention to your present experience. 

You then become the Trickster to the negative thoughts. You free yourself of a negative perception by not letting it block your view of reality, of the present experience. Instead it pulls you more into reality, because it becomes a flag that something beautiful, something real is actually hap- pening right now. Let’s say you are enjoying a wonderful conversation with a friend, and you begin to have thoughts about what an idiot you are, or how bad you feel about your body, or something along those lines. 

Then identify these thoughts as flags and turn and face them. Bowing to them in gratitude, you say, “Oh, thank you, you would not be showing up if something beautiful weren’t happening.” The Trickster has taken back the moment. Soon that particular flavor of negativity will stop showing up—you have tricked it into oblivion, because it no longer works to distract you from the moment or to undermine your experience.

"Difficulty at the Beginning" is the 3rd Hexagram from the I-Ching. The I-Ching is an ancient Chinese oracle that I have come to rely upon since the age of sixteen.  

"It is through the meeting of Heaven and Earth, that individuals are born; and this birth is replete with difficulties. It is only through struggle that we finally attain form."  Hexagram 3, I Ching

Our life is full of beginnings. Each morning is a start to a new day. When we commit to a project, a relationship or an intention, we give ourselves a start to something. The I Ching counsels us that "if we persevere a great success is at hand." The success of completion, the success of relationship, the success of connection and financial reward.  And the success of figuring something out. 

I find that the difficulty (at the beginning) is what makes a commitment worthwhile (and engaging). For readers, if our novels, essays or memoirs don't start with some conflict or difficulty, we are not likely to hook our readers.

We seek the tension and drama of a good read.  We seek resolution too. But our successes and resolutions come after our perseverance through difficulty. 

"Beyond the difficulties and pressures that surround you, a success lies waiting." Brain Browne Walker, The I Ching, A Guide to Life's Turning Points. 

Of course I recommend writing as you go. Write through your difficulties. And make sure your future reader is given the richness of your challenges and difficulties, whether your stories be fictionalized or full-on truth.

Without our difficulties where's the story?

​

Difficulty at the Beginning         by Karen Holden 

I sleep folded, as if I had no bones;
my hands so bent and flattened in sharp
downward curve to my chest that I wake
up numb. My knees lifted, ankles crossed,
feet curled, as if I was made of strips
of paper, or green bamboo. My shoulders
curve inward so far I walk with a slump,
the knobby human knuckles of my spine
grind and shift as if they remember
the black fluid body they once were and the
brief, ventilated life of dark and fragrant 
pleasure. I can imagine the quick movements
from flower to flower through air as fine
as hair and no sleep until death. Each
morning still, it is as if I emerge from 
some gray spun cocoon formed from strands
of my own being, and fight my way through
that same fine air;  flexing, merely
waiting for my wings to dry.  

Karen Holden, Book of Changes, Poems. 

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