Archive for Writing

Oh, Hey, I’ve Been Writing Stuff

May 8, 2013 Featured, Portfolio, Social Media News, Writing
Writing Category

A couple of really exciting things happened recently that resulted in me creating a LOT of content. I started working part time as a community contractor for Ning, helping out with content at their flagship blog, as well as other community outreach. I was also approached by Business in the Heart of Gainesville Magazine to start writing a monthly column on social media. My first article went up in the May issue (which you can view in full online). So all in all, April was a pretty darn great month. Since I slacked on sharing the things I wrote at the time, here they are, all in one convenient place:

Ning – Cultivating Community

How Attribution Helps Build Community – Raising awareness of the importance of sourcing and attribution are pet projects of mine. Partly because of my deeply ingrained sense of justice (if I have to follow the rules, everyone should have to follow the rules). But mostly because of the effect that sourcing and attribution can have on a community – namely, a great one.

Social Media Responds to Tragedy with Tact – The social media response to Monday’s tragic Boston Marathon bombings was, for the most part, one of tact, community, and cautiousness and shows the power that social media and online community can have in times of crisis. While there was the inevitable brand misstep, the majority of conversations happening around social media communities were positive ones.

Do You Tweet Chat? – If you’re on Twitter, you’re probably familiar with hashtags. Hashtags group discussions around an easily searchable keyword. Did you know that you can participate in regular chats with other community managers and influencers on certain hashtags? Even between scheduled chats, these hashtags are great places to find notable articles and conversations.

7 Tips for Developing Your Community Guidelines – It’s the boring part of developing a new community: setting the Dos and Don’ts. While Community Guidelines will be an ever growing part of your community, getting some basics down will not only give users a clear idea of what’s right and wrong, but it can also go a long way toward developing your community culture.

6 Curation Tools for Community Managers – There’s no denying that content is king online, but trying to create all that content on your own? It’s exhausting and, frankly, boring for your readers and community members. Using content curation tools is a great way to find fresh content to share, build on, and even allow your community to join in on the editorial process with. Here are the six tools I find the most useful and powerful.

Business Magazine

4 Questions that Determine Your Social Media Strategy – Facebook, Twitter, Vine, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube, Pinterest… just trying to figure out where to get started in social media can make a business owner or marketing director dizzy. And if you’re not confused by it, then the amount of time necessary to set up and post to social media daily seems daunting. These four questions will help you figure out what’s worth your time.

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13 Words for 2013

January 24, 2013 Featured, Personal, Writing
Writing Category

I’m not one for resolutions, for a variety of reasons (mostly because it’s just setting myself up to fail). Last year, I finished up “The Happiness Project” just before New Year’s and chose to carry that spirit forward with my 2012 Positivity Challenge. Being in a place (both mentally and physically) of so much transition at the moment, I knew I wanted to do something this year, but what… ? The other day, it came to me: 13 Words. Thirteen words to carry with me through the year as mantras, as intentions, as meditations, as guiding principles, as things to ground me. Thirteen Words. A baker’s dozen. One for each month, and an extra for the year. And as soon as I started thinking about it, the words started coming to me in a flood. Here they are, in no particular order:

Create

Create – I’m at my happiest when I’m creating. When I’ve just started a project and I’m full of ideas and they’re flying out of my brain at a million miles an hour. I get my best work done in those initial flourishes of creativity, so I need to give myself to them and let myself go with the ideas. Create is this post, right here, writing these words. It’s also the banners and iPad and iPhone wallpapers I decided to make myself (and share with you) to remind me of these intentions.

Focus

Focus – But sometimes I get overwhelmed… there are too many ideas, I don’t know where to start… I shut down and just don’t do anything. And so all of these ideas I had – all of these things I could have created – they go nowhere. I need to remind myself to focus… to finish things I’ve started and see them through until the very end. Or to revisit the project and say, nope, that’s not going to work, and officially scrap it. To make lists and actually adhere to them. To make plans and actually do them.

Selectivity

Selectivity – Part of my creativity and focus problem has been a lack of selectivity. I say yes to everything, every idea and don’t have the time to do them all. Going forward, I need to be more selective about the projects and people I give my time to… learn when to say no so that I can properly focus on other things.

Aplomb

Aplomb – I’m really terrible at promoting myself, at having the self-confidence enough to think that what I have to say or do is worth the time of others. No more. This year, it’s all about living with aplomb. About celebrating the good things I can do and making sure others know about them, too. About making the opportunities for myself that I want to be there. And it’s just a fantastic word, isn’t it?

Reconnect

Reconnect – Despite my theatre background, I’m pretty definitely an introvert. So often, I don’t reach out, I don’t keep connections, I don’t try to make plans because… well, there’s never a real reason. This year, I’m determined to Reconnect. Reconnect with others, reconnect with things that I’ve left behind that made me happy. So many things on this list really come down to reconnecting, at the heart of them. Reconnecting with what makes me happiest, with what makes me live at my best.

Care

Care – Reminding myself to not only continue to care for the friends and family around me, but for myself. My friend Meghan has been posting daily Self-Care Inspirations and many of them have really been hitting a nerve with me. I need to remember to set aside some self-care time now and then. It’s like the airplane safety talk when they tell you to affix your own oxygen before assisting others: you have to take care of yourself first, if you’re going to take care of those around you.

Strive

Strive – I want to remember what I have a passion for and that I will get there… that I deserve to get there. That I have a reason to get there and I will excel when I’m there.

Articulate

Articulate – I’ve always thought that I present easier in writing than in person. While my writing can still sometimes be disorganized and winding, at least I have a chance to go through, edit, and move my thoughts into a better flow. In speaking, sometimes, I can go off on tangents all over the place. I want to try and articulate my thoughts better verbally; take a second, think things through, edit in my head, and then speak.

Ridiculous

Ridiculous – And sometimes, when I’m done being focused and done articulating, I need to allow myself to get a little ridiculous. Because I like being ridiculous. I like laughing and sharing silly moments with my family. And I need that Ridiculousness in my life.

Breathe

Breathe – Before we moved, I’d finally found a yoga studio that I loved – the teachers were great, it was conveniently located, a friend went with me, the level was perfect. I was going really regularly and I loved it. I loved taking that time to myself, to distress, decompress, let the day slip away. I was so excited at the prospector living in one of the prime yoga areas and even got myself this awesome card than gets me a free class at almost 50 studios… Oh, the options! How many have I tried? 3. I look at the schedules and I say ‘oh, I should go to this one or that one,’ but I don’t go. By reminding myself to Breathe I remind myself to get back to that place that I love.

Resilience

Resilience – Too often, I fall too easily into the pit of self-pity. And it’s kind of ridiculous because when I objectively look at the things I’ve overcome, it’s kind of amazing I’m doing as well as I am. Not knowing my birth parents, an emotionally abusive upbringing, being left homeless by my only “relative,” and the decision to quit college to support myself… I’ve fared pretty darn well. Partly due to luck and finding some amazing people who’ve taken me in as their own family, and partly due to… well, I don’t know exactly what, but something deep inside me that’s kept me going. When I’m down at the bottom of the pit, I have to remember what’s inside me and live up to it.

Lethologica

Lethologica – The word for when you can’t remember the word. A reminder that I won’t succeed at all of these words at all times, and that’s okay. Letting myself be comfortable with my faults, with my failings, with my mistakes.

Be

Be – Sometimes, I feel like I’m trying to be so many things: a writer, a sewer, an excellent cook, a social media maven, an awesome auntie, and sister-in-law, and wife, and daughter, and daughter-in-law, a fitness girl, a yoga girl, a funny girl… I’ve spent a large part of my life adapting to my environments. Being what I needed to be or was expected to be. This year, I just want to be. To be Crystal, full-stop, no qualifiers. And the other dozen words are going to get me there.

(all definitions courtesy dictionary.com)

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This Week on Persephone: Silliness and Bones!

April 20, 2012 Writing
Writing Category

This week’s articles both had some really great discussion going on in the comments, so click through to Persephone Magazine to check it out and make sure to check out the rest of the article by my fellow writers. We’re got a smart bunch of ladies over there.

Positivity Challenge Week 15: Embracing Silliness

One of my fictional Positivity Mentors (that’ll be next week’s topic) is Phoebe from Friends. While her character may have been conceived and initially portrayed as the dumb blonde, the writers clearly saw that Lisa Kudrow could give them so much more than that and created one of the most interesting characters in television history. From her bouncing careers to her street smarts from being homeless, to the search for her birth father, and her carrying surrogate babies for her brother, Phoebe takes every challenge that life throws at her and hits it out of the park with a smile on her face. But the thing I love most about Phoebe? The fact that she unabashedly embraces silliness.

Recap: Bones, Episode 7.09, “The Don’t In The Do”

Scalping, academic publishing, baby blues, and blow-outs? It’s an all over the place episode of Bones, this week, and even Brennan ends up seeming kind of disgusted at the killer.

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Last Week on Persephone: Taking Changes, Bones, and Nick Offerman

April 15, 2012 Writing
Writing Category

Sorry about the late update this week (I’ll explain more in a post tomorrow). This is what I’ve been doing this week at Persephone Magazine.

Positivity Challenge Week 14: Putting Yourself Out There

We’re going to put all our hard work on positivity into action this week with a challenge that might push many of you outside of your comfort zones. This week, I want you to put yourself out there and try something new.

How does this relate to positivity? What’s your thought process when you decide not to try something new? Does it go something like this:

Oh, hey, here’s a cool event that I’d like to go to. But I don’t know anyone who’s going. Well, I could go by myself. But what if I get lost on the way there? And what if everyone there already knows each other? And I won’t have anyone to talk to. And they’ll look at me like I’m that weirdo loner person. And I’ll probably get there early and be even more awkward. You know, it’s just not worth going because it’s not it matters whether I go or not since no one I know is going. And I have lots of Game of Thrones to read, so, it’s just better all around if I just stay home. Yeah, good decision.

The amount of negative self-talk contained in a line of reasoning like that is astounding when you break it down.

Recap: Bones 7.08 “The Bump in the Road”

This week on Bones: An extreme couponer finds herself on the wrong end of a semi-truck (as in, underneath it), Brennan goes back to work, and Cam’s daughter finds a new love interest… in the lab. With bonus Tina Majorino!

A Night with Nick Offerman

When Nick Offerman entered the room in an unbuttoned American flag shirt, carrying a guitar, and did a victory lap around the room, I knew this was going to be an awesome night.
For those not familiar with Nick Offerman, he is best known as the libertarian, woodworking, curmudgeonly director of the Pawnee Parks Department on the NBC show Parks and Recreation. He recently had the opportunity to do a small tour of universities, testing out some stand-up and songs. I was lucky enough to snag a seat for Wednesday nights show at the University of Florida. In case you aren’t in one of the areas he’ll be visiting (there’s no schedule posted, but check your local universities… this gig was only announced about a week in advance), here’s a run down of what an evening with Nick Offerman is like.

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This Week on Persephone: Bodies and Bones

April 5, 2012 Writing
Writing Category

Positivity Challenge Week 13: Body Positivity

In this week’s Positivity Challenge, I tackle Body Positivity, which is one of the hardest things I’ve written about since I started the Positivity Challenge.

You may think that body negativity only affects you when you look in the mirror, but having a negative view of yourself is something that you carry around all the time. Having a negative view of your body or your appearance has a trickle-down effect. If you feel your shape is frumpy, you try to cover it up rather than dressing to flatter your curves. If you hate your hair, you won’t bother styling it or even drying it some mornings. The next time you look in the mirror, the person looking back confirms what you feel about yourself and so propels the negativity in a vicious circle. Even without looking at cases of diagnosed body dysmorphic disorder, some studies have shown that women in particular have a distorted view of their own bodies (which, of course, can then lead to BDD and eating disorders in severe cases). In a 2010 study, researchers found that the brains of the participants warped the size of their hands in their own mind, and researchers stated that the same warped view could be extrapolated to the rest of the body. In other words, body positivity is something we need to actively work for since our brains are naturally working against us.

Read more at Persephone.

Recap: Bones 7.07 “The Prisoner in the Pipes”

On a lighter note, the TV show Bones is back and that means my recaps are, too! And with a great episode, too, in “The Prisoner in the Pipes:”

In baby news, Booth convinces Sweets to use psychology tricks to try and talk Brennan into having a hospital birth. Sweets doesn’t want to take sides, but Booth plays the “but I thought you were a friend” card and Sweets is totally played because he just wants big brother Booth to accept him. When he pulls B&B in to do a “partner assessment” and asks a bunch of leading questions, he totally gives away the goat when he uses a totally hypothetical example of home birth vs. hospital birth. Brennan is rightly pissed and done listening to male opinions on where her daughter is born. She does provide a compromise to Booth, though… she’ll let their daughter be baptized. Every child needs mythology, she claims, which of course Booth takes objection to. Brennan points out how the whole Mary, Joseph, no room at the inn, manger birth was a pretty darn well plotted story.

Read more at Persephone.

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