1 | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Here’s my Libra horoscope for the day (not that I’m a huge believer in such but there are the occasional moments when I wonder…)

“You don’t seek knowledge just so you’ll be smarter than the next guy. You learn because it’s fun and often quite profitable for you to do so. Your education will reflect your lightness of heart.”

Honestly, grasshopper, that made me feel a little tingly when I read it this morning. I mean, it could’ve been the first cup of caffeine jolting through my system, but I’m going to go with the cosmic coincidence. Because today, I was planning to discuss my Rule of Three of critique.

You see, I’m working on some revisions right now with a manuscript. Which sounds very civilized and simple. Perhaps I should have written it like this: I’m working on some %^&^%$%^^revisions RIGHT NOW with a %^&^%manuscript.

Ahem. I received some excellent critique from a writer friend and now, I have some serious fixin’ to do, starting with the opening and ending with, well, the ending. That’s A LOT of revision, grasshopper. And oh, how I have resisted it. But the Rule of Three came into play, and so now I must get ‘er done.

So I should probably explain the Rule of Three when it comes to critique. If I get the same critique, three times, from three different writers, I undig my heels and make the changes. Sometimes, I only need one critique to make a change, especially if it’s one of those problems that another writer points out and I slap my head and say, “(whack) How did I miss that?” But if it’s a part of the story that I really, really love, I mean the kind of words that make me pat myself on the back and say, “(Pat, pat) You really are brilliant, aren’t you?” I do NOT want to mess with ’em.

The Rule of Three kicks me in the metaphorical butt and says, “Why ask for help if you’re not going to learn from it?” So, dear grasshopper, don’t just nod your head and say, “(Smile) Thanks” when you keep getting the same critique. Take it from someone who’s resisted with every fiber of her being until finally, squashed and wore out, she fixes it.

Because ultimately, I want to be a profitable writer as well as a good one. That fun part of learning, and lightness of heart? Maybe that comes eventually. I’ll let you know.

You’ve heard of a dream board, right? A bulletin board or wall or whatever space you choose to slap up words and/or images representational of your dream. And you’ve heard of Oprah, right? She had a talk show for many years where she…okay, I’m not sure what all went on during those shows. I’ve never actually watched an Oprah show. But that’s a story for another day.

Today we’re discussing dream boards and Oprah and oh! Julie Hedlund, too (where I read this post about the dream board).

Honestly, I’m not much of a dream board person. I have bulletin boards with extremely important notes on them. Like “Twitter Password” (where I forgot to write the Twitter password). Or “What are you trying to say, Cathy???” (You’d be surprised how often I lose track of what I’m trying to say–or maybe not.) And I even have a picture or two pinned up as well. There are the Junior Halls and a Pearls Before Swine comic strip (SO hilarious! The strip, I mean, although the Junior Halls are pretty hilarious, too.) But not really what you’d classify as a dream board.

So this whole dream board idea was new to me. But I’m a sucker for making lovely things on the Internets, so I clicked over to the Oprah website and WOW. That Oprah’s everywhere! I mean, that website’s a veritable smorgasbord of self-help. However, in order to avoid getting sucked into the Oprah vortex, you might want to just skip straight to the dream board building.

I designed my very first dream board, and I exported it to my computer so I could add it here (Look! It’s over there, on the right, in the sidebar, too!) and talk about it. But um, I think I’ve gone on quite enough for now. So we’ll look at the stuff on my dream board another day.

In the meantime, you can build your own dream board! And yes, you’ll have to sign up for Oprah.com, but it’s free. You’ll just need a username and a password. (I’ve sorta lost my password already. But it’s probably on my bulletin board, right?)