Use Your Time Well/Laugh with Your Friday Funnys!

Happy Friday!

Whew! What a tough, disorienting week! But, hey, it’s Friday. Let’s celebrate, we’re that much closer to a vaccine!

First off, think of something beautiful or something that’s going well in your life. I thought of how the roses in my garden are blooming. What was your happy thought?

Remember to check out the new YourFridayFunnys. Laughter is the best medicine! Laugh, subscribe and share!

How To Use Your Time Well

What should we writers do with all this time we suddenly have?

Aside from expanding our writing schedule, how do we preserve what we treasure in our lives?  What’s our job in the face of this pandemic? Here are three things to try:

1. It’s important that we writers share our observations about the current world around us. We write to understand the bad and the good stuff for ourselves, but when writing publicly, try and send out a message of hope in our blogs and social media commentary. I’m not suggesting sugarcoating, I’m proposing that we look for the true silver lining to encourage other people and make them smile.

2. Spend time rereading the books and scripts that first inspired you to write, and also new stuff you haven’t had time too. I didn’t realize that my creative gas tank was empty, but now I see I’ve been running on fumes for a long time. That is my first suggestion: writers read, and there’s something about the written word that connects us with our deeper concerns and interests. For example, yesterday I sat down and read the first 50 pages of the immortal book, Oliver Twist. Although it’s written in a dated prose style, the story of an illegitimate son cast into the poor house system after being betrayed by the wife of his father, and his half-brother, is timeless, and Dickens’ portrayal of the horrors Oliver undergoes remain as vivid as the coronavirus footage we’re seeing on TV. For writers to read other writers is critical.  It’s easy to forget how well our predecessors used language to make their points. We lose the subtleties of words and expressions when we’re inundated with media.

3. As a further exploration, take a look at books written at critical moments in history, and use your journal to describe your own, unique experience of living through this pandemic.