Inspirations

A Writer’s Serendipity or How Research Saved My Book

Lynette M Burrows

As a blogger and science nerd, I try to keep up with science news from a variety of sources. Oddly, that curiosity rarely benefits my writing. My writing style follows a diagonal on the chart below: Lawful Plantser, True Plantser, and Chaotic Plotter. And that’s pretty much how my research goes, too. I start with a plan and end going off script. This is the story of a writer’s serendipity or how research saved my book. My Research Method Targeted research is when one narrows their topic and is very selective in choosing books and articles for said research. Targeted research is always my intent, it rarely is what gives me the most inspiration. I love Google Maps. They allow me to “travel to” areas I’ve never visited. But the maps don’t give me the smells, the texture, or the mood of the place. For those, I search out travel blogs, expat blogs, and personal blogs. Sometimes, I reach out to a blogger for more details. Usually, bloggers respond with more information than I need. And that’s a lovely thing. Sometimes, I need more hands-on research. That may mean a visit to a museum or a road trip to a […]

Inspirational Random Acts of Love

Lynette M Burrows

Inspirational random acts of love are often an act of selflessness too. It’s sad that we need this kind of inspiration. Unfortunately, in the hustle-and-bustle of our daily routines it’s easy to get caught up in our own needs. Fortunately, there are people who perform small acts of love and kindness that inspire us to pay it forward. This is the second of this month’s exploration of Random acts of Love (read the first one here.) The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. William Wordsworth The Beginning According to Wikipedia, the phrase “practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, California in 1982 Today, if you do an internet search for “random acts of kindness” you’ll find dozens of articles identifying inspirational random acts of love for one’s fellow man. One such article, 10 Acts of Kindness by Strangers Around the World, appears on the National Geographic website. The article tells of a traveler touring the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. When her car broke down, many locals stopped to help. In Australia, a toy gifted to a boy […]

What You Should Know About Creativity

Lynette M Burrows

What should you know about creativity? You know you can “Undo the Brainwashing,” that there are more than “3 Ways You Can Be More Creative,” and it’s possible to find “creativity in a time of chaos.” There’s much, much more to learn. Here are a few more inspirational thoughts. What Is Creativity? Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. William Plomer Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas. Donatella Versace  “Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” -Edward de Bono Creativity is intelligence having fun. Albert Einstein In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out. Austin Kleon Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. Eric Hoffer Creativity is based on the belief that there’s no particular virtue in doing things they way they’ve always been done. Rudolph Flesch Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous. Bill Moyers Who Can Be Creative? “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” — Dieter F. Uchtdorf “The creative adult is the child who survived.” — Ursula Leguin In order to […]