Writers’ Community

The Illumination Tribe: Writing Tips, Good Vibe, and Butterflies…

A peek (or pique?) into my work and life. And inspiration by other writers on Medium and Illumination

Hi, girls and guys. Time for some confidence-boosting and sharing again. From the stories of Dr Mehmet Yildiz I learn that our Illumination community is growing nicely. Barely one month old, and I already met great writers here.

I like the vibe!

Some of you I welcomed on LinkedIn or Facebook. We share work on Twitter. And I talk with editors and writers in Slack. We’re doing great, my writer slash reader-friends.

Let’s not forget to write and read with fun. Highlighting, commenting and clapping when you’re touched by another person’s words in whatever way. You can hold the button and clap as much as you like, up to 50 claps!

Writing starts with reading. Receiving starts with giving…

Recently, I read stories by Agnes Louis, Bridget Webber and Anna Rozwadowska. A story by Arthur G. Hernandez piqued my interest in their work, and I’m very glad I found them!

I also read stories by Karen Banes, Cathren Killedjian, Willem-Jan Ageling, Nivaaz, Annelise Lords, Paul Myers MBA, Kira Dawn, Sylvia Love Johnson, Matthew Donnellon, Brian E. Wish, PhD, Shreya V, Selma, Salam Khan, Daniella Mini, Charles Roast, Amy Marley, Henery X (long), Diogenes, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Eliot Kersgaard, Jessica Cote, Kristen Abram, Gillian Sisley, Simona, Stacey Christiansen, KeepingItRealWithAnnick, Bill Abbate, Matthew Gliatto, Kevin Heads, Karen Madej 💛, Chris Hedges 🦄, Kevindoylejones, Jezebel, Thomas Guy Lovett, and many others.

And wow! I see threads from poets spring into existence! One poem inspires another and another and another! I think it was Selma in this thread who said: “We’re healing the world”.

Yes, you are! The world will be a better place with all these little threads of support, appreciation, and creation…

And I see Scrum enthusiasts get together and share their wisdom with organizations. We all need a community to grow as writers. Whatever we write about…

What a variety I find here on Illumination especially, and on Medium in general.

Here are some of the stories that stood out for me this time.

Remember, I asked last time, to create stories of hope because we need them in the world? This one has touched me deeply…

Thanks, Amy Marley.

Kevin Buddaeus gave us a recent poem. Capital H. Thanks, Kevin!

Hope can have many faces.

It can be desperate with some light at the end of the tunnel. It can be practical. Cleaning your clutter and your mind in the process.

Give us your stories of hope, folks. The world is waiting for them!

And then I really laughed out loud! You definitely nailed it, Charles Roast! I remember the sometimes elitist Dutch and German haiku enthusiasts I met in my life and roar with laughter.

This is A HAIKU LESSON with capitals! Does anyone out here want to write haiku? Check out this post and try it!

And by the way: Haiku really makes you appreciate the present moment. Use all your senses. Taste it, smell it, touch it! Enjoy!

As you can see from the stories above, it takes one little snippet to touch another and make the world a little brighter. It’s like the butterfly that flaps its wings and creates a hurricane on the other side of the world.

I teach about systemic thinking. About systemic solutions to the world’s most complex problems. And in this way of thinking, nothing is linear. We think it is. We think we go from A to B. Straight on!

But we aren’t. Everything goes in circles. And they’re not nice round ones. They make detours, giving you feedback. Telling you if you’re on the right path or if it’s time to change direction.

It’s chaos alright. And out of all chaos comes a new order. That’s what we’re experiencing now in the world. We’re in transition.

And the best thing you can do about it: be a little butterfly. Flap your positive wings, write your stories of hope, and create a hurricane somewhere else in the world.

And if you don’t believe that’s true, it’s also completely okay Matthew Gliatto!

Last time, I told you about commenting on Medium. This what Toni Koraza wrote about it. I especially like the fact that he says:

“Read the story A to Z (don’t skim and go straight for the comment. You might embarrass yourself if the author has already addressed your concern in the article.) and write a thoughtful response.”

That’s what it comes down to. Taste the story. Add value. And awaken curiosity in the people who read your comment. Thanks, Toni!

If you are curious about a good comment: read this one from Amy Marley. It’s a rant. It has value. It builds upon the subject at hand and is kind of a story in itself. It made me think…

It doesn’t have to be this long always. But when you feel inspired, why not? We’re writers. Our words are not scarce…

I know, I know, there’s the ‘kill you darlings’ part. Well, all I can say is: be a real writer and use all the tools we have. Words, style, sentences, insights, emotions, etc. etc. Make it short, make it long, just be sure to inspire!

Then something else is on my writer’s mind. It’s about titles. I read this story by Kevin Heads. It’s an awesome piece from a storytelling point of view. Emotional, raw. I didn’t expect that at all when I clicked on it. I thought it would be more like a ‘How to build your own 3D printer’-story.

The title and the image did that, I’m sure.

And although I liked the piece perhaps even better because it was such a surprise, I don’t know what’s wise from a writer’s perspective.

Do people click anyway? Or do we need to give more revealing titles to our stories? Curious what you think…

By the way, I use this editor to check my titles sometimes. Do you use anything?

Some people ask me: how can I ever contribute enough to your cross-pollination outcry? There isn’t enough time to read all the stories I bookmarked the day before!

Well, don’t worry. It’s always about the quality of your attention, not quantity. I envision a community where the whole group will split up in smaller interest nodes anyway, the bigger it becomes.

And then I’ll just keep motivating you to stick your head out into the other groups once a week or so. Be surprised at the inspiration it gives to get out-of-your-box…

When our community is big enough and we all just read what we feel like that day, there will be enough reads and claps going round for all of us.

Nature doesn’t know any scarcity. We can unleash the abundance of nature. We can take what we need and share. That’s how life’s meant to be.

“The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

And then there’s my book. What a project! And to be honest, I have no clue if it’ll ever be finished. I just write a story every time and weave it into the thread. The book emerges by itself. Here’s what will be in it so far.

Tip for the writers among my readers, this is what you can do as well. Identify the thread through some of your stories. It might be a new story now and a book later on. Read mine and be inspired…

I published this one in Age of Awareness and gave attention to it in my social media networks (Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Medium). I hope it’ll inspire action. AoA has been one of my first publications.

Thanks, Stephen Muskett, M.S.Ed for being my editor.

And if you want to read great stories by an anthropologist who shares personal stories and gives alternatives to the ‘cowboy economy’, try Thomas Guy Lovett. He certainly deserves appreciation for his work! Thanks, Thomas!

Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words.

And if you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn or Facebook or somewhere reading haiku and laughing out loud…