Tag: life

A year ago today, I received my official Oregon business license establishing Easy Writer Editing Services as an LLC and, most importantly, a source for the IRS to tax. It was a big leap, especially for someone whose best mark in the long jump was about 4 feet. But sometimes you have to take a risk in order to follow your passion and do what you love rather than just doing what you must.

I’d spent 23 years as a journalist, columnist and eventually newspaper editor before semi-retiring and taking a job as a postal worker delivering mail and packages for the next year-and-a-half. During that time, I met and worked with some amazing folks who perform a very difficult job. I learned — and delivered on — nine different routes, getting know which dogs (and people) would bite and which ones just wanted a cookie. But all along, I felt something was missing. My mind wandered a lot. Story ideas kept nagging, along with my love of working with others who lived there lives in pursuit of utilizing words to communicate, educate and inspire.

I spent the last 6 months as a postal worker formulating and laying the groundwork for my exit strategy. I needed a business name, logo, alcohol a brand, website, alcohol a list of services and a fee structure, not to mention state and federal licensing, a business bank account (can’t cross the money streams without a good money launderer), a computer, business phone, printer, more alcohol an invoicing and payment system — so many details. And what if, after that investment of time and money, it failed?

As I mentioned a few posts ago, each morning I find a photo I’ve taken — sometimes for the sole purpose of creating these daily memes, other times to the chagrin of my kids — and turn them into a meme offering advice or an inspirational thought to share with other writers. After 25 years, I have acquired a lot of baggage wisdom on the subject of writing. I share these daily affirmations to my editing service’s Facebook and Instagram pages for multiple reasons.

Aside from the opportunity to offer a thought or insight that a fellow writer might be needing that particular day (it happens), it’s also a great way to jumpstart my creative day, whether working on someone’s else’s manuscript or my own. Though some celebrated writers like Hemingway had a different approach to finding their creative muse, I have found it beneficial — and this is just me — to not be passed out drunk by 11 a.m.

So, I make memes, blending images with a kernel of inspiration, knowledge, insight or occasionally popcorn. But generally it’s the first three.

Photography has always been a big part of my life, stemming from my early love of cinema and continuing through photography classes in high school, my many years in journalism and, now, as a way to tap back into my creative roots.

Part of the journey in this new chapter of returning to creative fiction, conjoined with helping writers through my editing services, has been a daily effort to blend the two into inspirational opportunities. The result has been a routine of beginning each day by taking one of my photos and utilizing it to illustrate an important point, tip or simple encouragement for my fellow writers. What started out as a promotional tool has developed into something I hadn’t anticipated: a morning meditation of dovetailing two of the things I love most.

It’s kind of a version of haiku, challenging myself to find the just the right words, within a limited space, that embellish a photo in a very specific way.