Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

A Metaphor: When a Brand New Blog Flowers

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Writing | 5 Comments

Guest Post by Stefan Knapen

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some. - Herbert Rappaport

I was thinking, is the opposite happening to blogging? So many blog planters, but are there enough people to smell the blog flowers?

The problem is that readers don’t know where the great flower beds are. In the great field of flowers, it is getting harder and harder to find the unique and thriving flowers, those that keep growing, and keep showing more and more unique and compelling content.

See your blog as a flower — a single forget me not. Give it water, new posts, frequently. Make sure it grows and grows. Don’t be shy to invite people see it. And after waiting, the one who finds it will tell other people to come smell that flower. And the scent of that flower will become known. Your blog is being read more.

The conversation is like seeds and spores on the wind. Given to each other, everywhere. But it isn’t the beginning of a new flower, but it can be the beginning of a new post. So it can be fruitful.

Are there enough people to smell the flowers? Maybe yes, maybe no.

But there are too many small flowers. So for flower to be found in the big field, you have to wait and make it noticeable. Make sure your flower will be seen.

Do something with every seed and spore of conversation you get. Use those words to inspire you to grow your blog even bigger, even better. And after that your blog will be the prettiest flower field of flowers because you used what you had.


More seeds more pollen make more beautiful flowers. One thought on a blog and the conversation about it can turn a single forgot me not into an entire field.

Thanks!

Stefan writes as The Dutch SchoolKid

——————
Stefan,
Your comments on this blog have often inspired thoughts that are like flowers to me.
Thank you for this.

How do you keep your flowers growing, thriving, and blooming?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Images: sxc.hu
Work with Liz!!

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STORY TELLING

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 35 Comments

Usually I’m the one telling stories here, but when I find someone who’s better than I am, I stand aside. Today is one of those days. I’m pleased and delighted to announce that a woman I admire has agreed to write with me on Successful-Blog. I won’t say more. Her words introduce her better than I ever could, which you know is saying something … meet Kathryn Jennex, who’ll be writing a column called, Practical Communication, every week (and more when I convince her she must.) — Liz Strauss

Story Telling

by Kathryn Jennex

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.” ~ Ursula Le Guin

We are all storytellers, each and every one of us. Studying public relations and sociology led me to an understanding of how to tell stories for business and to study people and gain an insight and understanding of the human story itself. I have been a closet writer for years telling fictional stories and in the last few years a very part-time filmmaker creating visual stories. My work as a project manager for an online web space provides me the opportunity to gather stories and share them, inviting people to participate.  

 

Whether we’re talking among our friends, writing a social media strategy for a non-profit, taking a photo, or designing a marketing strategy we’re all telling stories. The best stories are the ones you can relate to, that remind you of something similar in your experience and cause you to engage and hopefully, take part. Good storytellers rely on audience participation and make the experience shared.  

When I hear your story, I want to be able to tell you are PASSIONATE about it. I want to sense and feel you believe in what you’re saying. Beth Kanter does this so well. When I read what she writes I believe her, I hear passion, concern, and I hear her knowledge about the story she is telling. How to do this?

By all means be real. If you’re going to take the time to tell the story, make sure you do it honestly and be prepared to engage in the response.

I listen now to lots and lots of stories every day and I love it. My work in social media fits in perfectly with all this and gives me exposure to many, many stories. The best stories, make me want to reach out and somehow respond or comment back, whether that is a post on SEO, a really cool product or service. ROI, or mentoring.

Are you telling good stories? Please share one way you tell your story.

Kathryn aka @northernchick

What William Tully Said … About Great Writers and Great Bloggers

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 12 Comments

A community isn’t built or befriended,
it’s connected by offering and accepting.
Community is affinity, identity, and kinship
that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

Who Influences the Way that You Write?

We study writing. We can read the work of great writers we admire. We ask for the advice and help of those who’ve mastered some skill, but in the end, all of that advice and input is influence not a handbook. Every blogger and writer finds his or her voice without much help. We practice until we discover which rules work for us. A great writer, a great blogger, gets to be one by doing to it.

Here’s what William said . . .

1. why are ‘great writers’ typically associated with fictional stories?
2. is writing not a form of art left to the eye of the beholder?

I’m told that Hemingway is a great writer… What about Orson Scott Card, Bill Bryson, or even the one writing this blog or this comment?

I agree that we (as writers) should be reading great writers, yet I completely disagree at the same time. For example, I have a very unique style of writing… The style is simply a reflection of how I speak and teach. Same pauses, inflections, and YELLING… sometimes.. Yet the last thing on my list is to sit down and read some Shakespeare, simply because the style is absolutely nothing I can relate to.

Douglas Adams (Last Chance To See) is perhaps the single book with a writing style that I can COMPLETELY relate to and respect. Now, is he a great writer? Certain circles, he is a respected author. This book? Relatively unknown. Bill Bryson is another author, who in my opinion, is absolutely brilliant!

I guess I’m not entirely sold on reading great writers helps with great writing. I think having a grasp of your chosen language is key, and just simply reading is key. I would sooner read something by a great THINKER than a great writer…

William Tully from a comment on April 5, 2007

A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

25 Words that Connect Us — Pass It On!!

Filed Under Community, Successful Blog, Writing | 12 Comments

Can 25 Words Change the World?

The Living Web

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 25 Words that Connect Us Project. It was another amazing example of the power of writing. It was also another challenge to make this one shine as brightly as the words.

Thank you for your wisdom!

You shared thoughts about technology, spirituality, love, playing, friendship, family, relationships, pain, war, suffering, sorrow, selfishness, kindness, empathy, vulnerability, hope, oneness, distance, proximity, intention, synergy, generosity, reciprocity, first contact, listening, service, faith, joy, fun, inspiration, investing, neighbors, networks, diversity, experience, expression, dreams, sharing, humanity, imperfection, interconnection, creativity, living, reaching out and changing the world.

Here’s what you wrote.


25 Words that Connect Us
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: wisdom of)



Click the single right arrow to move to the next slide. To embed this on your blog or share it with others, just click the “embed” tag on the viewer.

I checked twice to be sure I got everyone’s selection. But if I missed you please let me know and I’ll edit and add you in immediately. The 25-word authors are:

Amy Derby
Stacy Lang
Karin H
schizo
Chris Brogan
Luke Gedeon
Kara
Robert Hruzek
Todd Jordan
Avital
Todd Smith
Bob Whaley
Karl Edwards
Davina
Mark Salinas
Joanna Young
David Taboada
78% water, 12% caffeine
SpageAgeSage - Lori
Michael VanDervort
VanillaCokehead
Wonderwebby
Heather Rast
Kelly Erickson
Work Happy Now!
Connected Creativity
Giovanna Garcia
Shadows Edge
Make or Break Moments
Damien Franco

Thanks to everyone who participated by writing or reading!

I’ll be updating this when enough new submissions come through.

And if you missed it . . . 25 Words of Work / Life Wisdom — Pass It On!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy the eBook to get comfortable writing on the Internet.

Is That Noisy Guy On Twitter Creative or Just a Pain in the . . . ?

Filed Under Idea Bank, Inside-Out Thinking, Successful Blog, Writing | 15 Comments

It’s Complex

Paradoxical Creativity

When Csikszentmihalyi wrote Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, he found that it wasn’t easy to pin down what determines a creative life, it seemed to hinge upon the determination to follow a creative instinct.

What Dr. C. did was describe how creativity works. He laid out how culture evolves as curious and determined individuals transform domains. He explained how we might learn from the lives of those men and women to add creativity to our own. He found the commonalities in their struggles and strategies. This is what he said about them.

Are there no traits that distinguish creative people? . . . If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it would be “complexity.” By this I mean that they show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes — instead of being an “individual” each of them is a “multitude.” Like the color white that includes all the hues in the spectrum, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves.

The qualities are present in all of us, but usually we are trained to develop only one pole of the dialectic. We might grow cultivating the aggressive, competitive side of our nature, and disdain or repress the nurturant, cooperative side. A creative individual is more likely to be both aggressive and cooperative either at the same time or at different times, depending on the situation. Having a complex personality means being able to express the full range of traits that are potentially present in the human repertoire but usually atrophy because we think that one or the other pole is “good,” whereas the other extreme is “bad.” . . .

Perhaps a central position, a golden mean, is the place of choice, what software writers call the default condition. But creative persons definitely know both extremes and experience both with equal intensity and without inner conflict. –Csikszentmihalyi, p. 57

He named ten antithetical traits both present integrated in dialectical tension and called them the Ten Dimensions of Complexity. I call them the Ten of Paradoxes of Creativity.

Either way, they make us crazy.

The 10 Dimensions of Creative Complexity

Each trait that Dr. Mihaly uncovered is a contradiction, a complexity, a paradox. Each contributes to making it hard to predict creative responses. If you consider the list as a whole, you’ll see how such a “complex individual” might find “fodder” that fuels curiosity, innovation, and original ideas. It’s also easy to see how less “exhuberant” people might find these contradictions confusing, difficult, and frustrating. What do you see?

  1. Creative individuals have great physical energy, but they become extremely quiet when they are at rest. This restful period can lead others to think that they are not feeling well or that they are unhappy, when the truth is they are fine.

  2. Creative folks tend to be both highly intelligent and naive at the same time.

  3. Creative people are disciplined and playful simultaneously. In some creative people, this can mean that they are responsible and irresponsible at the same time as well.

  4. Creative minds move between a spectrum of fantasy and imagination and a firm grounding in reality. They understand the present and need to keep in touch with the past.

  5. Creative individuals seem to be both introverted and extroverted, expressing both traits at once. An image to explain this might be that they are shy showoffs, if you can picture that.

  6. Creative people are sincerely humble and extremely proud in a childlike way. It requires ego to have a risky, fresh idea. It takes self-doubt to hammer it out to a workable form.

  7. Creative folks don’t feel as tied to gender roles. They feel distinctly individual. They don’t feel the barriers of authority or the rules of what they are “supposed to do.”

  8. Creative individuals are thought to be rebellious. Yet, in order to be creative one has to understand and have internalized the traditional culture. Therefore creativity comes from deep roots in tradition. Creative people are traditional and cutting edge.

  9. Creative people are deeply passionate about their work, yet can be extremely detached and objective when discussing it.

  10. Creative people are highly open and sensitive, which exposes them to pain and suffering, but also allows them to feel higher values of joy and happiness.

I plan to pair Dr. C.’s research with my educational background to offer some actionable ideas for stretching our creativity as we go about our business and our lives.

Creativity in Action

So is that noisy guy on Twitter nuts or creative? So if I’ve made you curious, even just a little bit, that’s start. Curiosity is the cure for boredom. Curiosity fuels ideas. Ideas keep blogging alive.

Move it forward by asking everyone you meet today one question. Make today “one question interview day.” What will your question be?

Mine is this . . . Do you have paradoxes in your personality?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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