Writing / Righting with Dyslexia

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You would think the last profession a person with dyslexia (seriously try and spell that word) would choose to be is a writer.

I was one of those kids who was called stupid and retarded because I couldn't grasp reading and I sure as hell couldn't spell, we won't even mention math. Growing up, there was a weekly spelling test in my 5^th grade class. Every Thursday I would pretend I was sick, going as far as to heat my forehead with the hot bulb from the lamp and sprinkle my face with water, even making wretched sounds in the bathroom trying to throw up. My mom was no fool and never fell for my antics, and off to school I was sent.  

I studied really hard for these tests, and I would fail miserably every week. Then there came the day when I was sent to the trailers. Those hot, airless, single-wide government buildings that the Special Ed teacher would come and pull me out of class—in front of all my snickering classmates—and then imprison me in this old smelling, cheaply-built room and try to teach me something I couldn't grasp. The labels were cruel and tore down what little self-esteem I had. I still fight the names today.

It wasn't until the end of the six grade that I actually finished a book—a short book, Ramona the Pest by Beverly Clearly. Eventually I read everything Beverly Clearly wrote. Things finally started to click in junior high, largely in part to my grandmother who was an English teacher and realized that I learned in pictures not with spelling or sounding things out. That's just a crazy practice.

Fast forward to today. I am still razed for my inability to spell. There are just some words that I will never spell right. The word dyslexia for one, and anything that has a lot of vowels, and just forget anything that starts with psy/phy.

How does this affect being a writer? Editing is hard, the bear of my existence, and I usually spend way more time on editing than a lot of my writers friends have to.  I will see the right word and it's the wrong word. Unless someone points it out, to me it is the right word. I miss little things with my posts on social media no matter how many times I reread them, and yet I'm a writer. I should know this stuff, right? Feeling stupid is sometimes a daily struggle. I know I'm not stupid, but when a mistake is found, I am once again that defeated little girl pretending she is sick to get out of taking a spelling test.  

It wasn't until I recognized my own child suffering that I starting researching dyslexia. For so long this was a thing that I was ashamed of. Well, that thinking had to change and change quick as my child was not going through the hell I did! I have mother bear tendencies. What I found was surprising and I wish I could tell all those who made fun of me the strengths that dyslexic people have.

They are creative types and think in pictures. This comes in handy being able to put myself in the shoes of my characters. It also helps with three dimensional problem solving. Dyslexics tend to be entrepreneurs as they want to control their environment. They also have cognitive and emotional strengths even though they have difficulty in decoding words.

When I got deep into the research and realized how many successful writers were dyslexics, it helped push me to take my writing seriously. The real problem was finding the courage to let people read my writing as they were going to pick it apart word by word and make fun of me. Not to mention opening myself up to REVIEWS! Luckily, I have connected with some wonderful critique partners who don't judge me, except me for my eccentricities, and for the creative visual writer that I am. Developing a tough skin over the years has helped too.

For more information about dyslexia, and a list of 25 famous Writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Agatha Christie—just to name a few—check out this site. http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/success-stories/famous-authors-with-dyslexia  

Another great resource, and the book that changed my life, is the Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis. Here is also a fun youtube video if you are or know of someone struggling with dyslexia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEpBujdee8M
 

Tiffinie Helmer is a USA Today Bestselling Author with twelve books currently out with her thirteenth, BUSHWHACKED, due to be released on May 19^th. To learn more about her and her books please visit her website at: http://www.tiffiniehelmer.com
 

I Got the Writing Monkey on my Back

Writing can be a difficult undertaking. You spend a lot of time alone, in your head going over things that don’t exist except there in that brain of yours until you commit it to paper or computer screen. You have to accept and deal with rejection, a saturated market, and very low pay for long hours. Why am I doing this to myself!?  - I am doing this because I am an addict and what I am addicted to are those incredible jags of blissful joy I experience when I fall into that groove and the world disappears as I completely go there - to that place in my mind, where my story lives. I am in my brain in this place it’s created and my fingers are furiously tapping out words, flowing onto my screen, filling it unhindered with sentences and then paragraphs. I am alive with my characters, feeling the rain or the sun on my face, smelling the scent of a birch forest, newly mown hay or a battlefield.

My characters on occasion will do things not in any draft that I’d come up with. For a moment I will go, “Where did that come from?” and then go okay and keep going because often it works with the story or makes it better. I had one character outlined to be with Fellow C, but when I got into the groove and was progressing with the story, she showed me whom she wanted and it wasn’t Fellow C at all, but a charming side character I’d created for credible historical background and it was beautiful and meaningful, more so than it would have been with Fellow C.

I don’t want to leave this state and am trying to get back to it as often as I can. Sometimes there are days when I can’t into that grove and I feel like that last kid in the Pied Piper of Hamlin, who wasn’t fast enough and he’s knocking at the door, begging to be let in. When those doors open and I enter that state of creativity it is one of my greatest joys and it keeps me coming back to write more.

It so happens that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor of psychology has defined this state of being and he calls it “The Flow”.  Athletes experience this as well, Japanese martial artists refer to this state as “mushin no mushin”- mind without mind, Chinese Taoist call it “Wu Wei” – without effort.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his colleague Jeanne Nakamura came up with a list of things that happen when one is in the flow. 1) You experience focused and intense concentration. 2) Action and awareness merge. 3) A loss of reflective self-consciousness. 4) A sense of personal control or agency over the situation of activity. 5) A distortion of temporal experience, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.  6) Experience of the activity is intrinsically rewarding also referred to at the autotelic experience.

According to Csikszentmihalyi three things need to happen to create the flow. 1) One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. This adds direction and structure to the task. 2) The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows them to adjust their performance to maintain the flow. 3) One must have balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and your own skills. You must be confident in your ability to complete the task at hand. There is also a cycle: Apathy, worry, anxiety, arousal, Flow, Control, Relaxation, Boredom.

I will share some links and videos on my Facebook page if you’d like to further investigate the wonderful work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I leave you with a quote from a Titan of a writer.

People spend a lifetime thinking about how they would really like to live. I asked my friends and no one seems to know very clearly. To me it's very clear now. I wish my life could have been like the years when I was writing 'Love in the Time of Cholera.'   Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Wrath of Aphrodite: Book One by C.G. Williams https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/368898

Visit C.G. Williams on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/CG-Williams/213033882211270

Alaska and summer

I don't know if you can find a better combination of words.  We've got sun, sun sun.  Hours and hours of it.  And outdoor sports.  Boating.  Fishing.  Camping.  Biking.  Hiking.  Everybody is outdoors, enjoying the lengthy summer days. 

And then there's me.  I do get outdoors at least three times a day.  When I walk my dog.  Go to the store.  Water the blackberries.  The rest of the time, I'm holed up.  Putting words into play.  Researching all sorts of cool/interesting stuff.  Playing piano.  And doing handcrafts.  You name it.  I like doing it.  Okay.  That's not entirely accurate.  I'm not much of a knitter.  And I might as well just confess it. 

I'm a counted cross stitch addict.  

Hi!  Jackie Ivie here, blogging about - of all things - cross stitch.  Why?  Because it's incredibly fun.  Yes.  I do cross stitch.  I admit it.  I've usually got eight to ten projects going - which is why I finish so many.  I have so many options on what to work on, I'm never bored.  It's a perfect craft for long, dark, cold Alaska winters.  

And it's a great accompaniment while I'm watching a DVD/researching the latest thing in jet aircraft.  Or what an updated WWII Diesel truck would sound like.  Or the night Alexander the Great razed Persepholis.  Or looking over the Temple of the Jaguar in Tikal (city of the Mayan empire.)  Or learning about the Forbidden City.  Angkor Wat.  The theory of special relativity. 

What can I say?  I do all kinds of weird/cool research, because you just never know when you might need this sort of knowledge for your vampire.  Or maybe your historical.  Or maybe just to confound your kids.  Or maybe I really am the nerd my kids call me.

Then again...it could just be because it disguises my cross stitch addiction. 

 

And just last weekend, I got to start someone else on this addiction.  The art gallery in Palmer Alaska took part in the summer art walk (really cool idea, huh?). 

 

They asked me to partner up with 9-year-old Sammantha (you read that right.  She's Nine Years Old.  She's amazingly talented.  Already.)  Sammantha designs and constructs jewelry pieces, and I have to tell you, she's good.  And Sammantha brought something extra:  she has a little sister named Megan who is also extremely creative.  I spent some time with Megan, showing her the art of cross stitch, and assisting her with needles, and thread, and counting. 

(Yes.  That's us on the floor in this picture!) 

I had a ball!  Thank goodness we had people there with cameras - since I am never prepared - and we got some great photos. 

 

 

 

 

 

One is Sammantha, me, and the gallery owner, JoAnn. 

 

 

 

Another is of me and Audrey, a lovely woman who came by and let me tell her all about cross stitch. 

 

It's not just the pattern, you see. 

 

It's the material. 

And the weave. 

And the thread manufacturer. 

And the thread count. 

It's the beading. 

It's the metallic accents. 

It's the storage systems and pattern conversion,

and...

 

Oh dear.  There I go again.

**************   

 --- Jackie Ivie

 

Rote Skills and Creativity

by Tam Linsey

I've often wondered why so many writer friends I know like to crochet or knit. For a long time, I refused to put a hand to a ball of yarn, insisting I had no time for such endeavors. But my critique group had dubbed themselves the "Critters and Knitters," and one by one, those who did not know how to create using needles or a hook took up the practice.

I gave in September of 2010, toting a single skein of cotton yarn and a crochet hook to our yearly writing retreat. I just wanted to fit in. I made a dishtowel, and felt I'd mastered the double crochet, so I moved on to making circles and got a matching set of coasters.

I learned the half-double crochet stitch and made a bathmat for my cousin as a wedding gift. How cool is that? I love homemade gifts.

Then came the back post stitch. And various types of increasing and decreasing stitches. Shell stitches, popcorn stitches, V stitches… Next thing I knew, I was making broomstick lace and creating sweaters and fingerless gloves.

My critique partners laugh at me.

Out of all the Critters and Knitters, I've become the most obsessed. I'm infatuated with textures and shapes. The feel of different types of yarn possesses me. When I'm stuck on a passage of my writing, I pick up yarn and hook and put a few stitches onto my latest project until my head clears. I've become so comfortable with the action of crochet, it is like second nature.

Now I realize why writers like to do hand-work; it engages another form of creativity and clears the mind just enough to find the plot point or character choice or perfect twist without occluding our thoughts about the story. Rote skills require us to engage a different part of our brain. (Plus keeping my hands busy keeps me from eating! lol!)

Playing Solitaire, taking a walk or a shower, even going for a drive can do the same thing. But I find I can be easily taken away from my writing if I leave my seat. So crochet works best for me.

Do you have an activity you find re-engages your creativity?

© Tam Linsey, 2011. All rights reserved.

Creative Gardening

Creativity is like a growing plant. A writer must nurture it, water it every day, and fertilize it with a balance of ideas from many sources. If you do this, it will grow.

But what about acts of nature that sabotage your garden? What about the hailstorm of the loss of a job, or the flood the death a loved one may cause, or even the sunshine drought of visiting relatives preventing the proper care of your creativity?

My latest manuscript suffered a few acts of nature this year, and like one of those misshapen cucumbers that starts out fat and juicy at the stem end and tapers down to a shriveled, moldy blossom end, the manuscript has become inedible.

So I have decided the best thing to do is pluck the fruit and discard it before it sucks the energy from a plant that could produce more cukes. My writer friends have been like pollinating bees, and a new fruit has set in my mind, swelling with potential. Much as I might want to find a way to use the old manuscript, the best course of action is to redirect my creative energy. It is sad and exciting at the same time.

Have you ever had an act of nature sabotage your creativity? Were you able to save your fruit? Or did you find it best to put your creative energy elsewhere?