collaging for the visually un-artistic

it's a new year which means...a new collage. i love collaging. it's taken me awhile to get a handle on the process, i'm not visually artistic but i'm working on it. honestly, my collages are never going to be masterpieces but as long as they inspire me, i'm happy.




if you haven't ever done a collage. they're fun. it's even more fun when done in a group. our critique group gets together with colored paper, magazines, fun sparkly do-dads, foam letters and shapes, glitter writing pens. sometimes i have a theme in place. other times, i let my subconscious guide my color and picture choices and theme emerges later.

this year's theme is 'love to write'

which i do. go forth, get some craft supplies and go crazy. :)

Lisa

one hundred days

So maybe you are familiar with 100 words for 100 days. This is a writing jump start tool that is supposed to motivate you to write every day...at least one hundred words (which truly is minimal) with the goal that you will begin a more steadfast and productive writing habit. A few years ago my critique group started this and I gamely went along with the idea. One rule: if you miss a day you have to start over.

So...I would enthusiastically jump right in and go gangbusters for...about five days. Then the kids would have a bunch of sports, or the dh and I would have a night out, or we'd have the kids' friends and parents over, or, or, or...and pretty much after the weekend, I'd have to start over. I probably attempted this for a month (maybe longer as I am stubborn) before I stopped writing altogether. The failure to keep at it past four or five days took an incredible toll on my psyche and that was it.

But of course because I am the type of person who REFUSES to give up, I would start the cycle all over again. And because I am also an occasional rule breaker, after failing again and again, I finally made up my own rules. I didn't have to start over. I just acknowledged the day off and kept my own tally of days.



I'm in my third year of going my own way and today I hit day one hundred for 2009.

Writing Friends

My critique group, left to right, Me, Trish Cetrone, Lynn Coddington, Sophie Littlefield, and Cyndy Rymer

Writers who critique are not hard to come by. Pretty much anyone who has been writing for more than a month will have something to say if you put your draft, aka your baby, in their hands.

Whether they offer anything productive is another story. :)

I am blessed to have the best critique group on the planet (and sorry, but no, we are not taking new members). We didn't start out as the best ever, we evolved into our current group slowly and sometimes accidentally. Underlying every meeting, we have each other's best interests at heart, we are not afraid to give criticism but we're also not afraid to ignore criticism (even if we're sometimes wrong in ignoring it!) We each have our own critiquing strength which when put together equals a well-rounded judgement.

I've heard horror stories about professional jealousy from people who are supposed to be your friends. We have managed to avoid that trap because we are geniunely as invested in our friend's career as we are our own. We celebrate our triumphs and our disappointments equally, cheer each other on, commiserate through family trials, go on writing trips and field trips together, inspire and motivate and nag each other when necessary. Such as, thank you Sophie, for the nag, er gentle reminder to write my blog post for the week. :)


So with all the craziness in the world today, I wanted to just say thanks to my fabulous critique group. :)