Today, I want you to try something. I want you to think like a writer.
This advice comes from author and teacher Lou Willett Stanek and her book, "Writing Your Life, Putting Your Past on Paper."
The process is simple — start to notice things.
Stanek says: "Writers notice things like seagull's evil eyes. ... They smell the rosewater on their grandmother's hands. ...
"Walking through the world with your senses alert sharpens your ability to recapture your personal past, the slippery heritage of your experience."
Stanek says writers never stop seeing and listening — and taking notes.
Keep a notebook handy (or use your cell phone) to capture a moment before it passes — those flashes of memory triggered by smells or sounds or something someone says.
You think you will remember. But you won’t.
Stanek tells a story about author Pat Conroy. He was at his mother's bedside as she was dying and she said to him, "Son, I find it hard to relax while I'm dying, knowing you're going to write down every damn word I say."
And ... he did. Her words were used in his novel "Beach Music."
Most of us will not roll our lives into best-sellers, but your memories do not have to be published to be important. They are a huge part of you and important to those who admire, respect, and love you and want to remember you.
So, take a moment today. And think like a writer.
I’m Lonny Cain … and that’s my Perspective.
