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Friday Morning FYI – 3/11/2016

March 11, 2016March 10, 2016 Ron Delaney JrLeave a comment

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

I recently told a trusted friend I was working on my first adult novel. As any readers of this site know, everything I’ve previously written has been middle grade. Anyway, she was excited to hear I was stepping up my age range, eager to see what I could turnout if I let loose and gave my darker voice over to a larger, more complex narrative. That brings us to this week’s FYI:

Any of us can do anything we put our mind too, but we’re often better suited to one version/aspect of something than another. The problem is we often don’t know what that is, and ‘decide’ rather than ‘discover’ our talent. The artist who paints and paints and paints, only to find out much later, thanks to someone’s prompt or request, they’re a phenomenal sketcher, and then becomes a world-class tattoo artist, for example. Or someone who writes short stories, thinking a novel is beyond them, and a few years later becomes a bestselling novelist.

Experiment until you find your comfort zone, and then experiment more. You’ll probably surprise yourself.

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 3/4/2016

March 4, 2016 Ron Delaney JrLeave a comment

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

It’s snowing this morning in NJ. Not the fun easy-to-enjoy snow, the tiny, frozen, feels-like-darts-to-your-eyes sideways snow. It’s hate snow, really. I love winter, but no one loves hate snow. When I got into my office, a coworker looked up and said, “You must love this weather.” That leads us to this week’s FYI:

When you love something (or someone), you need to accept the worst with the best. This is not new information, of course, but I’m seeing it all around me more and more, especially when writing/reviewing/reading. Also with friends, coworkers, people on the train, etc. In the moment, it’s easy to rage at something bad that’s happened, but when you take the time to sit quietly and reflect, everything is part of a process, or cycle, or series, and everything teaches you something. Except Fuller House. That sh!t’s useless on every level.

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 2/26/2016

February 26, 2016 Ron Delaney JrLeave a comment

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

A few weeks ago, I FYI’ed about cobwebs. This morning, heading to the coffee shop near the train station, I noticed a massive shadow shifting and swaying under the train bridge. Turns out it was being cast by the same cobweb on which I’d previously reflected, blowing in the bullying morning wind. That leads us to this week’s FYI:

The smallest thing/word/event can cast an enormous shadow. Be mindful and take nothing for granted, but also accept you will not always see how the small things (or what seem to be small things) have huge impacts somewhere down the line.

And to my writer friends, don’t forget this when building your worlds. Not everything needs to be grand and obvious. In fact, the tiny things are often the most interesting.

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 2/5/2016

February 5, 2016 Ron Delaney JrLeave a comment

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

This week’s FYI is about doing things that scare you (not, like, wrestling a bear or something though; that sh!t’s nuts):

The book on which I’m currently working scares the hell out of me. Not because it’s monster/ghost/vampire scary, but because it’s the first thing I’m writing I feel might be beyond me. The MC is so deep and so damaged, and the themes are so relevant and poignant, I’m terrified I can’t do any of it justice.

And that’s kind of awesome, because only doing things at which you’re already good is boring. Except Snowboarding. And bowling. Either snowboarding or bowling when you’re not proficient mostly sucks. I know.

Anyway, yeah. Do things that scare you. Do things you think you can’t do. At worst, you were right. At best, you’ll surprise yourself.

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}