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KISS Your Way to Flow

KISS Literary Worries Goodbye

KISS is keep it simple silly.
Keep it simple silly. Get in and get out. Get that job done!

Keep it simple silly to KISS your way to flow. Make sense, yes? First, employ active voice rather than passive. Limiting prepositional phrases tightens text. Next, keep the writing brief. It will be remembered, because it is refreshingly on task. Finally, take time to polish your writing. Whether it is a blog post or a status report. Leave time for it to set, then check it before you hit the send or publish keys.

Active, Brief, and Polished

Using the active voice is smart. It gets the job done. Ambiguity shows up less so readers stay focused. Also, the use of active voice will score higher SEO ratings than passive voice does.

Be brief. Keeping things short helps busy employees or clients read an email or letter to the end. We’ve covered brevity in this blog. See more here: How Many Words Do I Need?

Polishing prose is important. Make sure you look for commonly confused words, such as their, there, and they’re. Correct any confusing wording before sending the work out. It separates you from those who do not take their writing seriously. Here are some easy ways to proofread: https://wewriteitright.com/the-3-best-ways-to-proofread-a-document/

Your Turn

Take any writing you do and KiSS it. Review it for active voice and brevity. Then, polish that baby up. You will feel great sending out your work, because you’ve added value to it. And, your readers will feel that compassion and will enjoy reading it to the end.

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

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TGIFF – Thank God It’s Friday Flow

Cliché Finds Flow on Friday

Grow flow on Friday with gratitude.

Congratulations, you’ve made it to Friday. And, at the workweek’s end, there is time to find flow. But, where do you go to find flow? First, realize that flow can happen anywhere at anytime. Need proof? Look at this past post on finding flow in a card and party goods store. Simply click right here: https://wewriteitright.com/visit-flow-in-a-party-goods-shop/

How Gratitude Leads the Way

Use grateful eyes to take in the world around you. Then, instead of planning to hit the bars and clubs when the clock strikes 5:00 PM, other options present themselves during these times of pandemic. Why not take a virtual tour a museum? Or, take a walk or bike ride through a park? Or, spend an hour working on a poem, and essay, or a blog post. When you are grateful for the options you have – even if you are working from home amid shutdowns – then that is enough.

Your Turn

Playtime creates greater flow.
Spirographs, Etch-a-Sketch, and Slinkys are just a few ways to re-enter flow through playtime. What was your favorite activity as a child? When was the last time you tried it as an adult?

Think back to grade school, junior high, or middle school. Think about the electives that you took that helped round out your schedule. Did you take dance or music classes? Weight training? Or, perhaps, like me, you did candle making. Whatever it might be, try to reunite your lost teen with your adult self. Take time to write, dance, sing, paint, or play with your Spirograph!  You’ll be glad you did!

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

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Music’s Rhythm Rolls in Flow

Roll with Music’s Rhythm for Flow

The Rhythm is gonna get'cha!
Take a music break to find flow through rhythm.

Music’s rhythm is a great self-help tool. Creatives can easily put it into practice. The spontaneous drum beat, rattle shake, or chime ping finds flow. How? There are a few reasons. First, movement is forward reaching. Each sound created resonates into the future. Next, the strumming, tapping, or jiggling is a pleasurable physical sensation. The action moves us outside the current situation. And, the rhythm is comforting. Finally, music and other art forms re-enforce the experience. Bongos patted during an enhanced poetry reading is an example.  A synergy heightens both the drummer and the poet. And, that interaction influences anyone listening in a positive way, too.

The Sound of Music

Having assorted instruments in an office makes it easy to take a music break. Then, when tension builds over a looming deadline, a few minutes spent plucking a juice harp can help. And, of course, a guitar or miniature xylophone, or even the soothing sound of a metronome, can do the trick. The point is to find sounds that feel reassuring. Or, satisfying, to listen to or create.

Your Turn

Over the weekend, take time to dig out your harmonica. Or, find the bugle that is in the attic from marching band in high school. Polish up the instrument. Need to buy one? Look at thrift stores or music shops for used triangles, tambourines, or other small-scale instruments. Put them on a shelf in your office. There they will be at the ready for a spontaneous jam session. Work out any block with ease. Realize that the music literally lifts your vibration internally and externally.  As Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine reminds us: No way, you can fight it every day/ But no matter what you say/ You know it the rhythm is gonna get’cha…. Want the whole song? Click here to watch after the ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-INTCDod2TA

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

 

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Walk on Wild Side for Flow

Groove Into Flow with Wild Whirl

Who doesn’t want to take a mid-week walk, maybe after work, on the Wild Side? And not the Lou Reed Wild Side. But a trip to a part of town where there are abundant ethnic restaurants, vintage clothing shops, and a yoga studio or two, can be a fun way to find flow.

Wild Side inspires flow.
Wow! You never know what you will find in an after work stroll on the Wild Side.

Look for the Advant-Garde

Be on the look out for new, unusual, or experimental ideas in bohemian neighborhoods. For example, vintage clothing stores are great places to consider storylines, develop characters, and define settings. Just going through the racks of dresses, which are usually grouped by color, can give you inspiration for new complications. Where else would you see a sleek silk scarlet gown with a mandarin collar next to a red with white polka dot Minnie Mouse-inspired number? If you are in Ybor City near Tampa, check out La France, which is chocked full of inspirational clothes and accessories. See their page on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/lafranceybor/

I stayed a summer in New York’s Lower East Side. Wrote my first chapbook of poems in a four-story walk up on Clinton St. right off the Williamsburg Bridge. The restaurants alone became backdrops for poems, as did my first experience using the Chinese laundry around the corner. But you do not need to travel to New York to find flow. Keeping your eyes open for the cool yoga and dance studios, the pet shop, or the candy store in your town can drift you to flow, too.

Your Turn

Take time today to check out the record shop or the old-fashioned five-and-dime you’ve been meaning to encounter. Linger over the stacks in an old bookstore. Let the environment speak to the ear of your heart and whisper inspiration to you at every turn. But, most of all, have fun. You will go back to work energized from taking it all in.

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa

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Art Stroll Refreshens Flow

Find Flow with an Art Walk

Art finds flow.
Sign of the times. We can see ourselves reflected in the world we choose to live in and find flow.

Sometimes flow is found when we view art as symbols. This notion is worth considering for a few reasons. First, art helps to open up our minds to our desires. Next, art helps us to see others who are not so different from us. Finally, art let’s our imagination take flight. We can get all of this – and more – on an art stroll. Take it at noon, or even as an afternoon alternative to a long coffee break. It can invigorate our creative flow by refreshing our senses.

Consider the Possibilities

Woman drawn on building is graced with ivy creating her hair.

When we look to see beyond our own noses, there may be artistic representations of people who remind us of ourselves. Then, the magic such as a mural carries us to flow through the plants that grow around it. They become part of the art. Such symbols bring us creative flow through the openness of the image. For example, this mural of a woman whose hair is composed of ivy.

Sometimes we need to simply imagine all of the good flow around us for it to appear.

 

Then, we may pass by another mural of John Lennon. The title of his song Imagine is painted along side of his ghostly half-face. There are times when we all feel like we are in two places at the same time. And, too, we can all imagine what is not draw on stone.

We can imagine peace and love.

And, as the song goes, it’s easy if you try.

Your Turn

Take an art walk and soak up the images you view. Then, get out your journal and write for 15 minutes about any topic that comes up in your mind. Note the time and date that you start and stop the entry. Then, go back to it later and see if a poem, essay, or piece of flash fiction arises from the experience.

Here’s to growing your flow,

Marisa