A Christmas Memory

One year for Christmas I decided to do something so different that it would shake up my husbands family.  I had them all do an "About Me" type book.  I typed up form papers with questions on them and mailed them to every person in the family.  They started with their full name, where they were born, where they went to school, a favorite school memory, what jobs they have held and many more questions such as these.  We went into our favorite food, flower, color, etc.  I was amazed at the response I got from them.  One elderly uncle had to have some help filling out his pages but we got some wonderful information about him and his life that we will treasure forever.

After I got everyone's information back, I copied enough books for everyone in his family.  The anticipation from them all was very exciting.  They couldn't wait until Christmas day to get their very own copy of the family book.

Everyone quickly unwrapped all their other presents and said their thanks to everyone then it was time to unwrap the books.  I loved watching them all as they tore the paper off and started reading their books.  There was much laughing, talking and even some very quiet moments as they took a journey into each others lives.  What they found the most amazing was that as well as they know each other, they all learned something new about every other family member.  Watching and listening to them was the best Christmas present I could have ever received.

We all still have our family books and we get them out once in a while and read them again and smile at the memories inside of them.  I've heard people say that there's a writer inside each of us and after doing those books that special Christmas, I'm a firm believer in that.

Karen Sperra

Collaborating

One of my brothers called me one day and said he had written a poem and wanted me to put music to it.  He had an idea for a tune for part of the chorus so I held the cassette recorder up to the phone and taped while he whistled.  That was our first collaboration.  Since that day we have written several songs together.  He writes the lyrics and I write the music.

My oldest brother came by one day and had a song he had written but he didn't know how to put it on staff paper.  We sat at the piano and he strummed his guitar and sang while I got the melody and chords written down for him.

While we are all planning our parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration, my next to the oldest brother called and said he wanted us to take turns telling Mom and Dad why we felt lucky to have them as our parents.  There were seven of us at that time (one had passed away) and he wanted us to sing a little ditty between our stories.  He hummed the tune he wanted and I taped it.  He also had four lines of words to sing with it.  We had a lot of fun when we all got together and sang the song and recorded some memories of growing up.

I've also worked on many songs and stories with friends of mine.  Sometimes when you hit a dry spot, call a fellow writer and maybe the two of you can come up with a good piece.  I think collaborating is fun and it's exciting to see what you and someone else can come up with.

Karen Sperra

Keywords and Creativity

My friend, Ethel, who’s been writing for print publications for 30 years decided to learn to write content for the internet. Somewhere between keywords and search engine optimization she lost her way. Trying to satisfy the mechanics, she turned out some bland, pieced together articles from various websites.

“What happened to me?” she wondered. She used to write breezy, imaginative prose sprinkled with humor and creative flair. Writing was fun. Now, writing an article was like slogging through a mud-sucking bog.

Ethel was suffering from acute creativitis.  She didn’t need a doctor or medication, she needed the freedom to let her creative juices run first. Afterwards, she could apply the internet mechanics to make the search engines happy.

If you come to internet content writing as a print writer, you may well experience Ethel’s dilemma. Especially, if you take one of the many instruction courses which tell non-writers how to write internet articles.  Basically, you just look up information on web sites one day. The next day, you “free write” anything you can remember from that research. Put it away till the following day.  Return and edit the material into a cohesive article.

A seasoned writer comes at internet writing from a different place. He might start with something from his experience, gather anecdotes and stories from life around him, and do any factual research necessary.

Keywords will be worked into the article or blog, in fact will be there, they just need to be placed strategically to lure the capricious SEO god to notice.

Ethel’s learning all that, but she’s enjoying her stints at the desk these days. She’s writing lively, original pieces which are beginning to garner an audience, and the attention of the search engines.

Don’t forsake creativity for craft—use both and jump into the fast flowing tide of writing internet content.