If I could choose any living person in this world to have dinner with—anyone—it would be the British actor John Cleese. As a writer, I am in awe of his understanding of the human condition, his willingness to push the envelope and his brilliant use of humor to first catch our attention and then to connect us to each other.
A writer is always in search of the original. We pick up existing ideas and hold them up to the light, looking for the glint of something new in them. We ponder: starting, stopping, thinking some more.
But in this hurry-up world of ours, we are not rewarded for pondering. We must come up with ideas quickly.
“Come on now. Spit it out!”
It has become unacceptable to stop and think first. And yet Cleese’s whole take on creativity and storytelling is to give yourself the time and space to play with ideas, to ponder, to not go with the very first idea that comes to you.
For instance, in sketching out Mama’s character in my memoir, I am asking myself, “What is Mama’s worst nightmare?”
Writing and blogging ideas are all around us, if we just keep our ear to the ground. This week, I’ve been thinking about kid lit a lot. Children’s literature has a rich past and a ripe future.
1. Be fearless.
My friend Gini Dietrich over at 
I threw out a question on Facebook this week that brought some very interesting responses. I asked, “ Do your values come into play as a blogger? As an entrepreneur, biz owner or author?”
I was at a conference in Washington D.C. in the late 90s for an exclusive group of winners. We came from 31 school districts and 26 states. Our proposals had been chosen from more than 5,000 from across the country, to be funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
10 Reasons No One Notices Your Blog Comment
Of the many ways to get more traffic to your blog, commenting on other blogs, if done right, can be one of your best strategies. If you find blogs that share some of the same types of readers you’d like to attract, getting known on those blogs will help you promote your own.
You make an interesting observation, or add value with helpful advice, or have a unique take on the blogger’s topic and—bam—other readers will check out your blog and learn more about this fascinating person (that would be you, of course).
All good.
Except when it’s not.
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