ALWAYS Celebrate What Happens Between Your Brain And Your Keyboard
Make damn sure that when you reach 'Oddball' Levels....UNLOCK all of them!
They always tell you to write what you know.
But what if the things you know are all over the friggin map?
You could be the best gardener in your country but also have grassroots experience in navigating a divorce as painlessly as possible.
You could be an incredibly skilled pastry chef who knows how to custom-build a panic room hidden behind the bookshelf in your study. Oddly specific, but I bet someone knows this!
Or you could be an ultra-confident solo female traveler who intimately understands how to survive and thrive through grief, knows how to build a fantastic Substack community, and has the best dog ever. (Okay, this is me 😁 and that was the world’s longest run-on sentence)
But you see what I’m getting at, right?
Your journey is not linear.
Life throws a whole buffet of random side dishes at us. They’re not all matchy-matchy, and that’s the best part! Sometimes, we want to eat egg rolls and fettucini for dinner and then have cheese for dessert.
Don’t feel weird about having a website that sends visitors all over hell’s half acre on several different journeys. Because you never know when you’ll come across another one of you. In fact, I’ve met a BUNCH of you. I believe we’re called multihyphenates and multipassionates, and there’s plenty of space for us all! ( and , I’m looking at you!)
Go ahead and write what you want.
Teach what you want.
Specialize in ALL the things because someone out there needs to receive your gifts, and we aren’t showing up with just ONE gift in our Santa sack.
I didn't mean to invent writing workshops nobody asked for...they just sort of happened.
One thing I’ve been dying to put together and start teaching is the skill of destination writing. Anyone who’s been following me for a minute knows this, and I have finally gotten around to putting those wheels in motion.
HOWEVER, while I was so focused on that, something else was relentlessly tugging at my heartstrings. I’d just never mentioned it because I wondered, “How the hell does it fit in with Wildhood?”
Answer: It doesn’t have to.
It’s not travel-related, or Substack-related, or even dog-related, but it is very deeply Kristi-related, and it’s really cool. It’s another workshop I’ve put together, and I can’t WAIT to meet the souls who join me for an experience like this one.
And then there are the other hundred ideas bubbling up in the background that I’m holding off on because summer is coming. (I love leisure time to a fault)
Recently, I participated in someone else’s writing workshop…
invited me to one of his workshops. I didn’t ask, and he didn’t tell; I just said YES because saying yes to life has led me down some pretty incredible pathways.I legit had no idea what I’d signed up for.
It felt so great entering a virtual room full of strange faces and names, all smiling and happy to be there. And then…..the word poetry fell out of Zach’s mouth and I was like….
Never in my life have I touched a single stanza of poetry. I felt like a complete and utter misfit, which was perfect because Zach’s workshop was called Misfit Writing Workshop. Zach, is this why you invited me? Is it that obvious? 😁
You’ll never guess what happened, though. I walked away from that session with things that resembled POEMS!
I still don’t understand poetry, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t learn how to write paragraphs that magically transformed into beautiful pieces of poetry. I especially loved the ‘ransom note’ writing skill he taught. It’s a very agile tool and this was the first time I’d heard of it.
Full disclosure: One of my poems made me cry (after the workshop, so nobody could see me 😁)
What’s the point of my rambling?
The point is, if you have a weird or unusual or off-the-wall idea to put out there….just do it! There are all kinds of things people don’t know they’re looking for until it bonks them on the noggin.
After all, I’m about to start teaching others how to write like dead people. Nobody knew they wanted that until my dead guy went kind of viral on Medium a few years ago.
Your thing is not for everybody, but it IS for somebody.
Write ALL the things you know and then pass it on like the buried treasure it is.
I’m dying to know who clicked ALL those buttons, just in case there was something cool behind each one.
What’s the weirdest topic you’ve either taught or learned in an online workshop?
My favorite line here is "specialize in all the things"!
How amazing that you got invited to a poetry workshop and it created an inner shift. Things like that happen when you say yes which is why you are our fearless leader and we try to be like you.
My mind does ramble, even when I comment on notes. I will have to even edit my comments because like my wife says I "Squirrel" all the time (in reference to the animated movie "UP"). Keeping a solid string of thoughts is a challenge but oh! My coffee is ready.