Carolyn Erickson

It’s an “awareness” month. Can you guess from the title which one?

No Buts About It

As my daughter nears those pre-teen years, I’ve found myself reminiscing. This is an article I wrote back during the toddler years:

This article was first published in the July 2008 issue of Women's Focus Magazine

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love cliches.

But before you run off to report me (tattle-tale), or to cram your copy with them because “Carolyn said it was okay,” let me clarify:

I love cliches with the kind of affection people bestow upon puppies and kittens. And while puppies and kittens can be very effective persuaders, they won’t work in every situation. (I’ll write more someday, I’m sure, about using what works for your business rather than just something everyone says “works,” in general. It’s important.) So I’m not saying you should necessarily use them.

My fondness for cliches is born of awe. Once, long ago, they weren’t cliches. They were original expressions that either by extreme brilliance or happy accident said something JUST RIGHT. So right, their meaning resonated with us. And we loved them so much, we adopted them.

Oh, I know. We get tired of hearing them, like the “new” jokes a first-grader brings home from school.

But that actually makes my point. Think, for a moment, about the chicken that crossed the road. It’s still delightful to any 7-year-old hearing it for the first time. So simple, and yet, so exquisitely unexpected. Perfect!

To get to the other side. To get to the other side!

So yes, in general, avoid cliches in your writing, but don’t be smug. When was the last time you wrote something so good it was absorbed by humankind? The originators of these colorful expressions did what any writer wants to do. We want to give voice and structure to thought. We want to communicate and to connect. In other words, we want to get to the other side.

Scott Stratten of Un-Marketing begins his guest post video at Jessica Knows by saying there are two types of people you don’t want to *p* off: religious groups and WAHMs (work-at-home-moms).

Then he does it. Actually, he leaves religious groups alone. His message to WAHMs is simple: it’s bad business to market yourself as a WAHM unless your prospective clients are other WAHMs. According to Stratten, the WAHM label may carry with it a negative connotation. At best, it is irrelevant to whether you can do the job for your prospective clients.

I suspect his intention with the post is to raise the ire (and gain the notice) of those who proudly embrace the moniker. And just so I’m not a total cynic, I’ll allow that he may truly want to do some good by warning mothers away from using a term that will diminish their marketing efforts.

Choose your words wisely and with intent. If your prospects value the WAHM title, use it. If they don’t, don’t. On the other hand, I don’t advocate trying to hide it. If you set up your website so that you appear to be a large agency in a high-rise office building, the first scream of “Mommy, I pooped!” while you’re on the phone with a client is going to give you away. And if I was the client, I would immediately feel uncertain about your honesty.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to advertise your WAHM status with cute buttons and links to coupon sites. In that, I completely agree with Stratten. A link to your “mommy blog” might be perfectly appropriate; it depends–as does everything else in your promotional materials–on whether it’s relevant to your market.

But take note: When huge companies like Wal-Mart and Frito-Lay enlist the services of moms because they are moms, it doesn’t do to dismiss out-of-hand the possible added value of your WAHM status.

I woke up this morning to a quiet house and the sound of just a few birds chirping busily outside. I was happy, rested, and peaceful and then I remembered why: it’s a whole new year!

The year 2009 is as exciting as a blank page. What will you write on it?

I have some ideas for how I want to write my story this year.

Author Bill Dyszel wrote this little ditty, and sings it to the tune of “Ode to Joy.”

Although he calls it the Freelance National Anthem, I think this speaks to freelancers around the world, nation non-exclusive.

For the record, I work in my pajamas.

Alternate link: Freelancers National Anthem, by Bill Dyszel

I made the shortbread cookies again. This time, I didn’t have the distractions of the post-school/supper-making frenzy, and they turned out perfectly. (Although I still blame my oven for that last attempt.) I also did not slather them with chocolate, since they clearly are meant to be enjoyed in all their buttery simplicity:

Here’s my attempt at a little food-styling…

Okay. Back to work. I’m sure I was supposed to be doing something besides baking and taking photographs.

Mine weren’t as light-colored as Charmian’s (probably left them in too long), but YUM anyway.

Of course, I had to slather them with chocolate.

And someone tried to sneak one. (This photograph was her idea. I think she has a natural talent for multimedia communication somewhere there in her extensive skillset.)

But I can hardly blame her! They were incredibly easy and very good. Thanks to Charmian for the 3-ingredient shortbread cookies recipe.

When a few of my writer buddies and I decided to take a free online photography course together, we agreed that it would be totally self-paced. And it seems at the moment that we’re all taking advantage of that. Even Morguefile.com, which hosts the course, is undergoing renovations right now.

Who am I to argue? I’ll still be snapping pictures of family and friends and moments of holiday cheer, but I won’t be posting any photography assignments until after the beginning of the new year.

I don’t think Santa will bringing me a DSLR …unless he can get me to make up my mind which one I want (or I win one for taking that online survey last week ). I drool over great photographs and convince myself that all I need is an SLR and I’ll be shooting with the same kind of artistry; but then I come back to reality when I see what can be accomplished with a phone camera.

Then there’s the fact that DSLRs don’t have much in the way of live preview. (The ones that have it are reported to be very slow when that feature is enabled.) They also have buttons and menus and functions and turn-y things that I would have to learn to use. And oh! Once you buy the camera, you need lenses, flashes, tripod, camera bag … and you have to learn how to use all of those too.

My Canon S3 is really very good for the money, and it takes great photographs. It’s auto setting is superb, and the manual settings let me do most of what I want to do. The one-button video function means that whenever I have my camera, I also have my camcorder, which produces good quality video and sound.

Still, maybe Santa should remain on standby. There might be a time when I really do need 1600 ISO, or 1.4 F-stop.

Since I skipped two weeks of meal-planning, I guess you could choose to consider this post two weeks late. I choose not to do that, and instead, I maintain that I am three days early with this post. That puts me waay ahead, world.

Add to that the article I turned in yesterday, two days early, and I’m feeling pretty smug.

And then when I think about the week’s worth of laundry (NEXT week’s) that is just about finished in the dryer, I might even be able to convince myself that I am supermom.

Groceries bought and put away.
House orderly and clean.
Weekend plans set.
Supper cooking in the pot.

Yes, I am looking pretty good. This happens every November, because November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). It’s when non-fiction writers like me think they should probably take another shot at that novel they’ve always wanted to write, if only to convince themselves that they should stick to non-fiction. NaNo participants all have the same goal: to write 50,000 words of their novel in 30 days.

It’s ridiculous. It’s crazy. (And who ever decided it should be in November, anyway? Isn’t this month busy enough with all the holiday planning?) The first time I did NaNo, I had characters, something of a plot, and tremendous zeal for my project.

I made it to somewhere in the neighborhood of 11,000 words.

That’s not 50,000.

But I did have the cleanest house in the lower 48 and even took up YOGA for goodness sake. NaNo does this to me. Suddenly I have other, very important things to do. And even though I recognize that I’m procrastinating, I still do it. Like writing this blog post. It was very important that I post this right now, three days early. You can understand that, can’t you?

Em. Oh, yeah. So here it is:

Friday – Chili (Mmm)

Saturday – Chili (Mmm-Mmm! It’s even better the next day.)

Sunday – Spiral Ham with baked potatoes and Southern-style collard greens (Charmian, close your eyes for this next part) The collard greens are from a can.

Monday – Tilapia, spinach, and maybe some risotto – although that would require another trip to the store.

Tuesday – Ham-n-beans. I can’t do anything about this. The family loves it. They must have ham-n-beans after we cook a spiral ham, every time.

Wednesday – Texican (tostados)

Thursday – The fake, redneck kind of Beef Stroganoff. Hey, at least I use real cream.

Friday – Pizza

Saturday – You really expect me to be able to think that far in advance? I think it’s a birthday weekend, so we’ll probably go out.

Sunday – Something awesome.

There you have it! Now, onto organizing my digital photos…. Nah, I’m kidding…. There’s that laundry to fold.