American Idol And Personal Destiny

When did American Idol become the only path to singing stardom?  Whiners, criers, and freaker-outers, please go home and sing.  Do you not understand the odds?  Only one American Idol is chosen, and there are thousands of contestants.  What boggles my mind is the seeming total lack of comprehension that we are all in charge of our own destiny.  You could even WIN American Idol, and still not become rich or particularly famous or even happy.

You want to sing?  Sing.  Practice until it hurts.  If the desire, the talent, and the drive are there, you will eventually become a professional singer.  Why are you giving your power away?  No one else decides if you will become a professional performer.  YOU decide.

I understand that you may be terribly disappointed not to make the top 100, the top 24, or the final 12.  But judging and performances are just moments in time, capsules of how you sound and how they feel on any particular day. 

If you truly bombed, go home and practice harder.  There are no flawless performers and every day is a fresh start.

But please don’t whine. 

You have an incredible opportunity to experience what it is like to be a top performer.  Listen and learn, and take that knowledge with you.  Besides, there are lots of record labels that promote performers who don’t necessarily rank the highest.  And you may go home to a routine gig and find that there’s a record producer in the audience who decides you are worth promoting.

But always, always promote and believe in yourself.  And keep it positive.  Audiences like to watch performers who seem to have it together-- whether you actually do or not is immaterial.

I would love to hear your opinion about what I’ve written here, whether you agree with me or think I'm a crazed writer wannabe.  Please feel free to leave a comment.  And thanks for your time.

Marianne Smith
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://www.writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com



On Having a Nice Rest of the Day

Of course there are many issues in the world right now that are much more important, but I’m sorry to say that I’m obsessed with this single phrase:  “Have a nice rest of the day!”  I hear it almost everywhere I go, and every time it makes me cringe and makes me angry.  And why is it so button-pushing, you may ask?  To me, it feels lazy and disrespectful—two traits that tax my tolerance to the limit.

I mean, is the day running out?  “Rest of the day” sounds so time-limited.  Makes me think of sand fleeing the hourglass.  And I even hear it early in the day.  We’re all harried, and we don’t need to be reminded that the hours are escaping.  What’s wrong with “Have a great afternoon!," or even, “Have a good day!”  I can also put up with “Have a nice day!”  Sounds just lovely when compared to “Have a nice rest of the day!”  Or just forget about the day altogether if its’ so dang hard.  A genuine “Thanks for shopping with us!”  or “Hope we see you again soon!”  will get you lots of points in my book.

Manners and respect go hand in hand, and being mannerly is one of the hallmarks of true customer service.  Granted, I had a grandmother who would threaten me within an inch of my life over mannerly indiscretions and I’m more sensitive than most.  But even if you’re a confirmed finishing school dropout, you can take a few seconds to put together a proper greeting and a proper goodbye--especially in a customer service setting.  That’s an important part of being human.

More aware than ever that the clock is ticking, I’ll stop ranting.  I need to go have a nice “rest of the day!”  And if you thank me for my post, I promise not to say, “No problem!”  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Marianne Smith
Writer At The Ranch
http://www.writerattheranch.com/
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com

Every Duck A Winner

Probably not unlike a lot of you, I’ve had to make a lot of hard decisions lately due to the economy.  Decisions, are, of course, difficult because we are not usually certain of the expected outcome.  At times it is quite difficult to know whether we are making a good or right decision.

And then there is the domino effect:  One decision begets other decisions, and even more uncertainty.  If the outcome isn’t what we had hoped, we are often prone to revisit the whole anxiety-producing decision-making process.

I was in this revisiting place yesterday when a picture of floating ducks popped into my head.  Took me a few minutes to untangle the image, but I was thinking about my favorite carnival game—the one where you pick up a floating duck and always win a prize.  Always.

Yes, I know that hard decisions build character.  Choices test our moral fiber.  We come out stronger for the struggle and know ourselves better as a result.  But I get very tired of uncertainty and the whole process of trying to decide.  And in spite of the fact that there are sometimes fewer choices to be made in tough economic times, they seem to weigh more.

Sometimes life seems like one difficult decision after another.  Getting concrete feedback about how your decisions worked out can take years, and sometimes you get kicked hard right in the butt.

Wouldn’t it be nice if every decision was a good one and came with a fabulous prize?  Then I think I wouldn’t mind the whole process so much.  Pick one.  It’s good.  Pick a different one?  It’s good, too.  All your decisions are great, your kids are above average, your women are strong, and your men are good looking.  Ducky, yes?

Hope some of you will comment about your decision-making ducks.  Now if I could just decide what to write about next time…

Marianne M. Smith
Writer At The Ranch
http://writerattheranch.com/
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time

Egad! I have NWS

Well, I've been working through some stuckness in  my novel writing and have discovered that I have a terrible disease.  I have NWS.  In case you aren't familiar, that's NICE WRITER SYNDROME.

Who knew that I'd have trouble killing off favorite characters?  I even have trouble torturing them!  Since I love to read whodunits and especially serial killer and forensics stuff, this just amazes me.  While I'm not diabolically evil, I'm no goody-two-shoes.  A little tasering, a few bullets; it's fiction. What could it hurt?  I should be able to do this.



Of course, the first character I was trying to off is based on a good friend.  Thinking that must be the issue, I moved on to the next character, who was purely fictitious.  But no, I had to go take a walk and several deep breaths before I could wreak havoc upon her.  And then I felt guilty.

There is definitely something wrong with me, and the prognosis isn't good.  Hmmmm...how to become more evil?  Ideas, anyone?  Please save me from a life of writing cookbooks!

Marianne M. Smith
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://www.writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@WriterAtTheRanch.com

My Morning As Professor Y

Back at work after Turkey Day and I'm having the best time with a new web resource: http://guru.com/. This site is a freelancer's dream, and it's also great if you need to hire a freelancer. And don't just think writing. The site hooks up employers and workers in technology, a myriad of creative arts, and business fields.



I spent my morning putting in a bid to write as a wacky professor for a sci-fi site for kids. Last week I applied to rename 750 works of art for an online art seller. This site is never dull!



Need a lawyer? A writer? A web designer? You can submit your proposal and receive multiple proposals and bids quickly.



Brain-stretching always results from my dances with guru.com. Check it out! Also, I'd love to hear about your favorite web resources. Feel free to post 'em!

Marianne M. Smith
Writer At The Ranch
http://writerattheranch.com/
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time

Writing or Rodeo?

Momma said there would be days like this. Got up in a great mood and went down to the barn to move my Belgian mare to her outside paddock. Seems she did not get up in a good mood and moving her 100 yards took well over an hour. And I thought I had horse whispering skills!

Back to the house to work on some personal writing and get some much needed coffee. Tried to focus on email first but my Newfoundland puppy kept barking nonstop, which is unusual. Checked his views but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Back to email. More barking.

Finally gave up and went outside to see if I was missing something. The back yard was full of donkeys! Seems some fencing was damaged in last week's windstorm and I hadn't noticed. But the donkeys had. (Donkeys don't usually challenge fencing, but this was not turning out to be a usual day.) Back to the barn to get halters and tools to repair the fence. Then returned the back yard donkeys to the rest of their herd.

And let's see, about that writing...

Writer At The Ranch

Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time

http://www.writerattheranch.com/

Ok, It's Official

Ok, it's official! I'm back into writing again in a big way. Ya'll hold me to this: I am going to finish my novel by or before December 1, 2011. I've never put a completion date in writing before, and the novel keeps getting shifted to the back-burner. No more! I'm going to git 'er done.



And check out my updated web site: http://www.writerattheranch.com/. Would love to have feedback from you, whether it's good, bad, or ugly. I promise. You can email me at wordsmith@writerattheranch.com or just post it here on my blog. If you do see typos or outright goofs, please let me know. It's important to my commercial well-being.



More soon, ya'll. Time to do more word shuffling!



Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time