Getting More Tech Savvy

As an O.P. (Old Person) I really have to push myself to keep up in a world that is more and more being lived virtually, online, by means of texts, tweets, and YouTube videos. I’m going to lay aside for now my Old Person belief that we are hurtling much too far in that direction and in danger of losing our groundedness in what we can actually touch, hear, and feel. I plan to spend the next couple of months working to become more tech savvy.

Here’s where I am right now—not up to date, but some years beyond the 20th century. I have a desktop computer and a tablet, but no smart phone. I do have an ordinary cell phone, but I don’t use all the features on that. I have a Facebook page (I’ve been told to refer to that as FB), which is sadly in need of attention, and a brand new Author FB page. I have an outlook account and a gmail account. And I have this blog.

I need to update my computer skills, especially with applications related to writing and publishing, starting with Scrivener and In Design. I have good intentions, but I’m impatient with long learning curves. (There are so many interesting things to do, like collage, tap dance, and walk outdoors in nature.) But Scrivener and In Design would be useful tools, and I need to spend the time necessary to learn them.

I’d appreciate any suggestions (shirleywilsey@gmail.com). In the meantime, I pledge to do the following:

• Check my email and FB page daily.
• Post to this blog at least twice a week.
• Finish the Scrivener tutorial.
• Watch at least one how-to video.

That will do it for now. I don’t want to set myself up for failure. Wish me luck.

Believing in Yourself as a Creative Person

Our culture is not particularly kind to creatives. We are pushed from babyhood to be good, quiet children and to color within the lines. Some of us absorb these strictures so thoroughly that we are, even as adults, ashamed of our weird, naughty, noisy, undisciplined, crazy, creative impulses. “What do you mean you want to write poetry, paint pictures, make music? Act, sing, dance, write a novel? Do something practical,” urges that stern voice in your head. “Be a teacher, a lawyer, a nurse, a doctor, a CPA. Why are you spending all this time on what can never be more than a hobby? Get real.”

As for those brave iconoclasts who have the guts or foohardiness to buck the system and actually do their art, we vacillate between hating them and envying them. “There, but for the doubtful grace of the voice in my head, go I.” “I could do that—maybe better.” But I didn’t.

I have decided to stop being a good girl and start coloring outside the lines. I’m going to challenge those voices in my head and listen instead to the girls in the basement: those subterranean spirits who’ve been holding on for dear life through all my long and less-than-creative life. I’m going to let them out into the sunshine, pale, dirt-smeared and hollow-eyed, like the prisoners emerging from the dungeon in the last act of Beethoven’s Fidelio.
 

Imagine being locked up in this dungeon.http://tinyurl.com/h6g749q

With the help of friends, books, and sheer cussedness, I’m going to let my creative self go for it. I’ve begun by publishing a book of poetry. I’m going on there by grabbing any chance I can to do something different and creative.

This Saturday I’m taking a painting workshop. As someone who decided in the second grade that she had no artistic talent because Miss Kittleson gave her a “C” in art, this is a stretch. It may turn out so bad that I’ll end up just scraping the paint off the canvas, like Van Gogh in the asylum. But I’m going to do it.  

And next week I’m auditioning for a part in a musical! My years of singing alto in the church choir and taking tap classes on Thursdays should come in handy, right?

I’d like some company in my creative madness. If you would like to join in this quest to become a truly creative person and to have some fun while doing it, feel free to share your breakout creative plans here. Use the comment section below or send me an email at shirleywilsey@gmail.com. Together we can change ourselves and may be even the world.