A sit down comic

Anything/anyone can be a motivating force in one's life. You just have to be on call and learn to pay attention.

My latest motivator is the book A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin. She is not the best known performer, but it isn't because she never tried. She did. She took every opportunity to get her name and talent out there no matter what. Her life, like mine has been a smorgasbord of experiences. Reading this book not only encouraged me to not give up, but to add more humor to what I am doing.

For some time I have had a dream of being a motivational speaker; of getting my thoughts and experiences out there. Not to be important, but to cause others to think. In a way this is exactly what I am doing with my blog. The difference is, I don't have a wooden stage and I pretty much sit down. Thanks to Ms. Griffin's life story I was able to see that some of what I write gets a bit too serious. I don't recall who said, "Laugh and the world laughs with you", but it is a good thing to remember.

Just yesterday I had a very comical experience with a word document I was getting ready to submit to the Chicken Soup site for a future book. After reading the story guidelines I noted the word count needed to be 1,200 words or less. Next stop I clicked word count on my word document and it was over 1,400- I thought.

Part of the fun of editing is cutting out words to make the work fit. Going over my story, I spent some time doing just that. I cut this, I cut that, I added a better word here and there. When I was finished I rechecked the word count and realized I had been looking at the character count not the word count. What! I had done such a good job of elimination the story was now 300 and some words.

I began another rewrite, putting words back in, much the same as a stand up comic or motivational speaker might do in preparation for a performance. When I was finally satisfied and had read the story as a reader, not as a writer, I submitted it to Chicken Soup. Its journey is no longer in my hands, but I know I have done my best and have a really good feeling that my work will be published in their future publication, Volunteering & Giving Back.