Bikes May Use Full Lane

There exists a bit of irony with this sign because there are two meanings here, literally.

Biker Perspective

You have permission to use the full lane whenever you like. Bikes may use full lane.

Motorist Perspective

Beware of idiots. Bikes may use full lane.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive future articles in your inbox --- Subscribe to our free newsletter

A Lesson on Dating Your Story

I found a note I'd written on Facebook back in 2009 and after reading it, this whole thing about dating your stories is much clearer. I hadn't realized back then what I was really writing about. But, let me share it here and you will see the elements of time and distance as it happens in relationships. Take from it what you will, but I enjoyed reminiscing! All based on true stories.

Fishing (22 years ago)

He baits my hook and shows me how to cast. I think I am doing pretty good, but am embarrassed.

I think to myself that he looks so cool doing something totally foreign to me, but I want to spend time with him and learn what he's doing and learn why it's something he enjoys. I love him so much and want to be a part of his world.

My heart skips a beat when I feel a nibble on my line.

I jump, "Oh my goodness...what was that?"

He smirks, "Just a nibble...let me show you how to hook one when that happens."

He comes over and puts his arms around me and gently guides my hands over the pole. I'm hoping he doesn't feel my sudden reaction. I guess he could make fun of me and laugh at my incompetence but he doesn't. I know I love him that much more.

Shortly into the day, I manage to tangle my line. He fixes it with a smile on his face. I also manage to let go of an entire "rigged" pole. We watch it float away. It was probably REALLY expensive, too.

His response is an amused chuckle and a gentle smile of tolerance and admiration.



Fast forward 22 years

He's prepping our daughter's rod. I try to be helpful and prep ours to save time. I do it wrong, of course. I tangle one line accidentally...now he's pissed. I forgot to loop the line over some stupid lip. Duh.

I back away and let him fix it.

I check my Blackberry for updates. One update on Twitter...OMG, a celebrity just posted another pic! Facebook update from three friends. Spend some time reading updates on the Blackberry.

He scowls at me and hands me a freshly baited pole.

I thank him, wondering if I should post a Twitter comment and respond to my friends on Facebook. I decide no. He might get pissed. I can't be so blatant about it.

Fish are not nibbling. Maybe I don't notice because I'm tuned into crackberry notifications. Either way, no notifications, but my daughter catches a fish! Her friend catches a fish! OMG. Time to take a picture...NOBODY MOVE!!!!! Pictures captured, moments saved!! WOOHOO!

Maybe I can post them to Facebook? I look over and he's watching. I quietly slip my Blackberry into my pocket.

Back to baiting, waiting, listening....nothing! I'm impatient. Maybe it's the crackberry calling me. I wonder if I can type blindly with my hand in my pocket.

I let go one hand and the rig falls from the pier. Into the ocean. Not good.


Suddenly, my Twitter feed updates and the crackberry bleeps. I pretend I don't hear it. He pretends he doesn't know I'm pretending. We both just watch as the pole floats away.



If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive future articles in your inbox --- Subscribe to our free newsletter

Making Progress with Strategic Communication

My first discussion post for Strategic Communication class asked how we viewed communications in the past and to reflect upon the materials provided by our instructor. Which perspective did we find most helpful to our understanding of strategic communication? You all know me. I can't resist using personal experience in any challenge. This is about progress, so why not?

When Hatch (2013) mentions Malinowski’s photograph of the anthropologist observed by the natives (p. 39) it struck me as funny and reminded me of another photograph I had found years ago. In my photo, one guy is digging a hole. Joe, according to his name tag, is surrounded by several folks with similar name tags, only each of the observers has a title rather than a name, with “manager” on the end of their titles or “lead” at the front: Operations Manager, Lead Technician, Total Quality Manager, Facilities Manager, Heavy Equipment Manager, Lead Gopher, etc. all surrounding, watching, and pointing at Joe, the hole digger. Ironic? How many managers does it take to dig a hole? Zero. Just hire Joe.

This guy has no name.

I think I’ve been kicked around over the years with having a boss clearly focused on the modern organization theory and driven by the contingency theory in organizing teams, to having a new boss who might be a fan of the postmodern perspective. I’ll explain:

My old boss owned a software company and when he put me to work on a project team, I always found myself faced with clients having insatiable appetites for sabotaging my work. Though failures on my part, each project was a successful outcome for my boss, because he had predicted my failure. He would swim in terms such as risks and constraints, assumptions, deliverables, and return on investments, all things measurable.



In my blind desire to be successful, I didn't realize my boss had not placed these same criteria for success on other analysts, so I quit playing his game and played like the others, refusing to provide him with time-wasting flowcharts, timelines, and graphs. Soon enough, I was taking on projects, reaching out to clients, and making successes (completing goals and objectives I had set for myself).

The old boss has since retired, taking with him his mask of the grand narrative. I can relate with the postmodern perspective much more because of my painful experiences dictated by the tyrant.

There is no right way to do things and by the time you’ve grown accustomed to your comfort zone, someone comes along using new terminology for the same things you’ve been working on for years, but now you’ve become seated in your ways and management isn't happy. They want change. The newly employed use fancy words explaining the same symbols of the past and management is in awe.

The emerging discourse, through hidden meetings where veteran employees are excluded and new employees become heroes, plays out until someone at the top realizes there is a communication problem which if left alone could likely embarrass the organization as a whole.

It came at a meeting and was announced that our CEO made this perfectly clear. The word “dashboard” is not to be used in any context when introducing our new portal to members. He insisted there is a public profile and a personal profile. Why not the new flashy “dashboard” terminology the new guy used the other day? Because we are not implementing a DASHBOARD, it’s a personal profile page!

How much does communication or lack thereof play a part in your successes and/or failures?



If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive future articles in your inbox --- Subscribe to our free newsletter

N is for Narration

10 Signs Your Narration is Failing

1. You're writing in 1st person POV and every sentence starts with an "I" or "My".
2. There is no white space on the first page of your manuscript.
3. It takes you 3 sentences to describe what should only take you a few choice words.
4. The first page of your manuscript reminds you of the Star Wars opening crawl.
5. Your manuscript contains a mixture of past and present tense verbs...everywhere.
6. A scan for the word "that" in the first two chapters of your manuscript retrieves a count of 89. Likewise for the linking verb "was".
7. The first page of your manuscript makes you think been there, done that.
8. There exists a typographical error on the first page of your manuscript, worse...it's in the first paragraph.
9. You haven't mastered the use of there, their, and they're.
10. Your narrator herd a noise instead of heard it.

Visit my Alphabet Links:

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

New Year's Eve Party Goers

Last year I gave you the 5 Stupid New Year's Resolutions post. This year I decided to have a different list for you. I've compiled a list of different types of people you're likely to run into this New Year's Eve. That means tonight!

The Party Guy - There's always one of these at every New Year's Eve party. He does it all. He does the funnel. He does the Hulk Hogan flex. He does the random sucking of face with the drunk girl passing by. He does the belly flop into the pool. And, he does the face plant onto the floor after the dropping of the ball in Times Square. He'll be lucky if he doesn't drown in his own vomit before sunrise.

The Jocks - They come in a group of five. You won't get any free drinks from any of these guys. They're all married and too busy watching football or the Ultimate Fighting Championship. They're on a fixed allowance, it's the only night of the year they're given permission from their wives to hang out, and they're working on their Bromance.

The Loner - He's the guy all by himself at the bar, watching everyone. He's not sitting facing the bar either. He's facing the crowd...with his arms crossed. Think Jeffrey Dalmer scoping out his next victim. Creepy!

The Polite Charmer - He's the one sent over on a reconnaissance mission to a table full of women. He'll buy a round of drinks while conducting his research. Data bank indices: which ones are single, who is the hottest, who is the most DTF. Charming, ain't it?

Ok, enough picking on the guys. Here are the women you'll find. I'm staying in this year, so you won't find the grumpy old lady in this crowd! =)

The Eye Candy - All eyes are on her. The guys are appreciative, their dates, livid. She's typically wearing a skirt which doesn't fully cover her voluptuous ass cheeks. She's looking too cute bent over the pool table while trying to make a shot. There are ten guys trying to get to her to show her the correct stance and how to aim.

The Gaggle - A group of ladies who stick together no matter what. All have long, brown hair (more than likely extensions). All wear skin tight clothing, hoping to attract some idiot willing to buy them drinks for the evening so they can make rent at the end of the month.

The Drunk Dancer - You know, the one who climbs onto the bar or high top table to show off her pole dancing skills. For some reason it never really works out for her.

The Puker - She's the one who gets drunk an hour into the evening, thereby leaving her friends to take turns holding her hair back while she pukes away in the bathroom all night.

Happy New Year to all my friends in the Blogosphere! See you next year. ;)

Deep POV by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Throughout the years, I’ve purchased my share of “how to” books on writing fiction, but this one was worth mentioning because it is short and very comprehensive. I purchased Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point ofView two weeks ago, and like many books I plan to read, it sat on the bar until I could find the time to get some reading done. This almost never happens, but when we decided to make a trip to St. Augustine, I packed an overnight bag and grabbed my book off the bar on our way out the door. I’m so glad I did!

Only fifty nine pages, it is full of information related to getting into your characters’ heads and staying there. Jill Elizabeth Nelson provides a brief summary of POV terms and concepts before introducing the Deep POV methods she uses to keep her readers riveted. In several of her chapters, she provides examples and exercises which help when applying these methods. She also provides her own revisions for comparison.

Ms. Nelson doesn’t just tell the reader how something should be done, she shows by the examples she provides in the book. She shows how a shallow sentence can be transformed into a tight, Deep POV sentence.

She discusses everything from Narrative Distance to Prepositional Tells to Sensory Tells. These are all exceptional topics and after reading about them, I am anxious to begin transforming much of my own pages.

My favorite transformation from this book:

Shallow: With smug satisfaction, he turned in the perfect paper.

Deep: He smirked and dropped the paper onto the teacher’s desk. Shazam! Let’s see Mr. Perfectionist give him anything less than an “A” on this one.

If you haven't read this one, I think you will enjoy it. Have you read any "how to" books lately which have you excited about writing? Please share!

50 Shades of Evil

A red-headed, twelve-year-old brat with matted, curly hair and a freckled face says to a middle-aged lady, "Wow, you're old."

The middle-aged lady says, "Oh yeah? Well, God blessed me with good hair."

What is evil and how do you find the simplest form of it?

Have you ever thought something in your mind, even if for a fleeting moment and then immediately scolded yourself, Shush! That's just EVIL? It’s as simple as that. Say what you thought and evil is exposed. In writing fiction, write that which you would not say. It's the purest form of evil you could ever imagine.

Because evil hides within the confines of the intelligent, all-knowing recesses of your mind, it is literally undiscoverable to the innocents of the world. That's why it is so powerful when exposed. Evil lurks just under the surface of our thoughts. Some unsuspecting evil doers allow the penetration of this surface, others dare not.

Here's an example:

A dear friend shows off her ring and says, "Look, Diane! Frank proposed to me last month." 

It looks a bit tight on her finger, she must have gained a few pounds in her month long complacency. Wonder how much she'll gain once she's been married a full year? (evil lurks)

"How lovely!" I say. (penetration does not occur)

Since we are in first person POV, the evil goes undetected by the other character. How can we change this and make the other character aware of the evil without exposing its source and outing our antagonist?

A dear friend shows off her ring and says, "Look, Diane! Frank proposed to me last month."

It looks a bit tight on her finger, she must have gained a few pounds in her month long complacency. Wonder how much she'll gain once she's been married a full year? (evil lurks)

"How lovely! Take it off and let me have a look," I say. (Subtle penetration, undetected)

The friend attempts to take off the ring and is embarrassed. The ring will not budge. (Effect of evil)

"I'm on my period and my fingers are pretty bloated right now." (Combatting evil)

Now let's do full on evil and not be so coy about it.

A dear friend shows off her ring and says, "Look, Diane! Frank proposed to me last month."

"How the hell did you get that thing on your fat finger? It looks like a knot in a sausage link."

My favorite is the subtle penetration. There's nothing more evil than someone who has control over the situation and goes literally undetected. That is pretty evil to me.

So tell us how you serve up your evil! Are your characters forth-coming or do they play coy and hide from the rest of the world?

Change Your POV

Someone once asked me why changing the point of view of a story is so important when you get stuck. This is harder to explain than if I just show it. But, I'll explain first and then show an example.

When I start out a story in one POV, like 3rd person POV, I have more freedom to develop my main character. It's easier to describe their actions externally and I can paint them how I want, but it's more difficult to convey their thoughts and develop the character from an internal aspect.

Some differences that I see when changing POV is that I'm careful not to pay too much attention to myself as the main character while in 1st person POV. It's a different feel to it because the way I show my character is limited but it also has to feel real. In the examples below, there's such a big difference in the way the story is told and that's why changing the POV could show you a different path that might be better for your story.

This is the opening paragraphs of a short story I wrote about a disturbed teenager involved in an online text-based role-playing game. Written in 3rd person POV, it feels like a story being told.

"How about that ownage ya fucking putz." Todd unleashed the last missile from his character's repertoire of spells. His latest victim fell to the floor in a heap. Todd hit the F6 function key on his keyboard to bury the corpse and to reveal the entire inventory dropped by the now dead elf, Tolkien Vernette. He pressed F2 and picked up the loot. Two Swords of Taiken, three golden gauntlets and a pile of coins.

"Easiest level 42 punk I ever took out," he said. He flipped up his middle finger to the computer monitor, his knuckle making contact with the glass surface. Thunk. He pushed the keyboard aside and made his journey to the bedroom, his bulkiness filling the hallway. It was 2 a.m. and a school night.


The same opening paragraphs written in 1st person POV is drastically changed to connote a disturbed kid without the character having to tell the reader anything at all. Everything is conveyed through the actions of the main character and it feels like a story unfolding.


I typed in the last missile command to kill the elf. Stupid mortal. I laughed and finished him off. Pretty weak of him to run, but it was fun watching him drop to the floor. One dead elf named Tolkien Vernette. Bury. Get all. Sweet! Two Swords of Taiken, three golden gauntlets and a shit load of coins.

It was too easy. I flipped the bird at the computer. "Rest in peace, dipshit." Then I went to bed because it was a school night.


I think every writer should play around with POV because not all stories are best told in one POV over the other. My rule is if I want to tell a story, I use 3rd person limited. When I want to experience a story as a particular character, I use 1st person.