Category: Creativity

SAFE IS RISKY

SAFE IS RISKY

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

In Tom Peters’s book The Pursuit of WOW (Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times), he asserts via Bob Pressman, Co-CEO of Barneys, that ‘safe is risky.’ In other words… same old same old doesn’t excite anyone. Those people and companies that look the same and act the same as everyone else are not safe these days. Kodak. Blockbuster Video. (WHO!?)…Lol.

By always playing it safe, we can remain invisible. By keeping our heads down, our eyes diverted, we don’t have to face risk. And we will be “safe.”

There is no safe place. Covid taught us that.

So… the better course is to be vulnerable and take the risk. Hang it out there. And slide into the Home Plate of life with some righteous and wonderful bruises from fighting the good fight. 

Seth Godin in the altMBA would tell you, “Everything costs.”

The risk of being safe is not living fully. Which stinks.

Safe. Is. Risky.

NOTE: Image compliments of Pexels Free Photos.

Checking Boxes

Checking Boxes

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

I took Seth Godin’s altMBA class. It had been on my list since 2017! Yay. I finally took it. Check.

Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi on Pexels.com

I wanted a one-and-done. I wanted the magic ticket from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The golden ring on the Merry Go Round. You’d think I was old enough to know that checking a box and doing the work are two different things. I checked the box.

The checked box stares at me. I stare back. We know one of us will lose.
“I have to go on to the next box,” I say.
The box says nothing. Of course. Boxes can’t talk. But, if it could talk it would say, “You know, you’re not done yet.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you have just started.”
The box goes silent, as boxes do. I’m thrashed by a stupid box into stunned, meditative silence. I look out the window. I glance at the floor, my dog, and my computer screen. It’s right. The crazy inanimate lame little box has a brain around the checkmark that taunts me as if to say, “Do you want to uncheck this box? What about putting a question mark here?”

Oh. My. God. Maybe there’s power here. Maybe, just maybe, we have chanced on a tool to cause pause. A tiny flick of a mark on the page can change the way we think about the important stuff.

Checking boxes is fun, but is it right?

Villains

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

Novelists Need to Know!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What is a villain, anyway?

What do you think of when you hear the word villain? It’s the ‘bad guy.’ Okay. Yes, but it’s more than a bad guy. Villains are without remorse. They. Are. Evil. They have no moral compass. No sense of right and wrong. They are motivated by things we cannot fathom, but we know a villain when we see one. Most of the time. The Literary Terms site indicates that the villain “comes up with plots to somehow cause harm or ruin.” There is no good side to the devil villain, they say. He (or she) has no redeeming qualities. The villain’s goal is to sow chaos and despair, and a good example is The Joker in the movie “Dark Knight.” Writers of fiction might want to explore why their villains get that way. Was it a bad childhood? A broken home? Really? Why is the devil evil? They say he was cast from heaven… he was an angel at one time, but why would anyone want to leave heaven? Or rather what did he do to get kicked out of heaven?

Why would Hitler be such a jerk? Stalin? Mussolini? Any of those guys? These real-life human beings represent variations on a theme of a fictional villain, from the fanatic, to lunatic, tyrant, traitor, outcast, and everything in between. Or maybe they made it so writers could write more realistic villains. Should we thank them?

How does a villain differ from an antagonist or anti-hero?

That’s a great question. The antagonist as defined in the website above is “the character who causes a problem or conflict for the main character.” They might not be evil, but may just be someone who makes it difficult for the protagonist to reach their goal. The antagonist could be society, or a stupid little brother, or a BFF who keeps the heroine from becoming prom queen, or saving humanity.

If You Are a Writer…

… these are important questions. Villains and antagonists are at the heart of story. What is the protagonist trying to do? What is their motivation for doing it? How badly do they want it? Will the antagonist be their undoing or will the villain tear down their defenses, make it too hard, and set them on a path of despair and failure? Readers keep turning the pages because they want to see what will happen if the heroine will succumb to trials and give up or press onward. The readers will want to keep flipping pages. Then what happened? Did their hero lose? Did they fall? Did they go to the dark side? Will their friends be able to help them? Flip. Flip. Flip.

Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com

I Have a Villain and an Antagonist

In my novel, Deathlist, the Ultimate Hack, Death is my gorgeous, unhappy protagonist, the devil is the villain and God is the antagonist. Yup. God does a good job of getting in Death’s way of being able to quit her depressing job. The Deathlist is a receptacle of everyone’s death date, which would be a good thing to know, I think. You may not agree with me, but I believe it has value. In fact, if I knew I were going to die this week, I’d do even more not to die of Covid, wouldn’t you? What a crummy way to go.

Well, that’s a little ways from talking about villains, but I guess I’m done. Meanwhile, would you say Covid is a villain or an antagonist? Let me know what you think.

I’m really done for now. Over. But not out. Yet.

A Book Review

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins
The Fortune Teller

The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved “The Fortune Teller.” I won’t tell you how it ends, but I was hooked from the first page. I liked the main character, Semele, because she was almost as much in the dark as we were, which made her discovery all the more satisfying. I was intrigued by the Tarot cards, impressed by the research, and enthralled by the mystical feel on each page.
There was a tinge of foreboding, as we don’t find out the identity of the enigmatic “VS” person until almost the end, and the villain is, well, a very good (or bad, depending on your POV) villain. Other characters were well-drafted and moved Semele’s story along, from the boyfriend, Bren, to her boss and her client, who . . . No. I can’t tell you. It would ruin it.
Suffice it to say that I’m now seeking my own “perfect” set of Tarot cards.
Also, Gwendolyn does an excellent job of speaking. She presented at the California Writers Club in September and taught us how she uses Tarot cards (along with runes and other unconventional tricks) to help inspire and move her writing projects.

I wonder about the forces around us, and about the fortunes we create for ourselves, realizing that we may not be in control at all. Ever.


“The Fortune Teller” was one of my favorite books.



View all my reviews

Moderation

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

“Nobody does moderation well.”

–Greg McKeown (@GregoryMcKeown) author of “Essentialism, the Disciplined Pursuit of Less”
CHERRY PIE by Werner22brigitte at Pixabay
  1. When moderation doesn’t work.

Author, speaker Greg McKeown revealed during a Tim Ferriss Show that he gave up sugar for a year. It was reportedly easier than cutting back, a.k.a. moderation.

The folks at Alcoholics Anonymous know moderation doesn’t work. An alcoholic cannot ‘pick up.’ Not even once, or they’re back to day one. A newcomer. AA has been around since 1935 and it has worked for a lot of people.

2. Moderation takes discipline.

Seems crazy in a way, but sometimes it’s easier to never start than it is to start and stop. One bite of that cherry pie leads to two. Then, “Ah heck. I’ll just finish the whole piece and start on my diet tomorrow.”

3. Moderation leads to decision fatigue.

We have a big toe in the water, but we haven’t moved to the immersion stage. We’re on the fence. It’s a kind of decision fatigue that author Gretchen Rubin discusses in her book “Better Than Before.” We can’t move forward or backward because we have not made up our minds. I’m tired just thinking about it.

4. Moderation undermines good habits.

Abstinence sounds monkish, but if it invokes a good habit, it’s freeing. Habit-supported abstinence eliminates temptation and saves the right kind of energy for more creative endeavors.

Lastly, we cannot forget this quote:

5. “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” ~ Oscar Wilde