Editor's Notes: Mentors

I have been thinking a great deal about mentoring recently: giving, seeking, maybe a bit of mutual give and take.  No matter where you are in life, there is always someone who has been there and done that on some scale, in some sort of semblance.

Throughout my life, I have had mentors, and those from when I was younger still retain the most prominent places in my heart.

The Relief Society president who believed when I was in my early twenties whose love and careful guidance while I served in a position that seemed to large for me prepared me for the next which felt overwhelming.  Hard on the heels of that calling, I was put in a Relief Society presidency.  Another dear, dear sister provided me with the strength and guidance I required in dealing issues way, way over my head and kept me from foundering.  She gave me confidence when I had none, soothed my hurts with wise words, and even lit the path before me far more than she ever realized.

When I remember these ladies, my heart fills with love and appreciation for the examples they set me and the things they taught me which have served me in good stead for the past twenty-five years.

Here I am now in the same place or even advanced of those ladies then and find myself providing mentoring others but at the same time requiring some myself.  Fortunately, like them, I find a great deal of fulfillment in giving back a bit of what others have bestowed upon me.  In writing, especially, I look to those I emulate to light the path ahead of me.  Fortunately, I have a wealth from which to choose.

The 150,000-Word Question

Recently, my good friends over on the iWriteNetwork Facebook group were tallying up how many words they had finished of their current work in progress.  Some proudly proclaimed thirty- or forty-thousand words, halfway to the acceptable number for the average novel, which is 80,000 words.  Woohoo!  They were on their way.

I got to thinking, hmmm.  I wonder how far I am.  Now, (until I transfer it all over to yWriter5) each chapter of mine is a separate WordPerfect file (the one true word processor and victim of the great apostasy), so I painstakingly cut and past all 25 chapters into one big long document and then hit the word count button.  [drum roll please!]  I about fainted when it topped out at 149,000 words.

This is a problem.  This is a really, really big problem because I'm only halfway finished with this first installment of my series.  Did I mention that the plot of My Father's Son is so complex wrangling it into submission is like making a dozen two-year-olds dance a waltz?  (Sidebar:  it includes all the plot that has absolutely nothing to do with P&P and easily transferred over from The Famous Mrs. Darcy.)

I'm Somebody's Liebster Blog

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have 200 followers or less. It helps people to get to know you as a blogger while introducing your blog to new viewers.

I was tagged/nominated for a Liebster Award by the fabulous Hira at over at Views and Reviews.  Thanks, darlin'!  (About the Liebster)

The strain Hira shared with me included 11 of everything, but in the interest of reader lack of interest and the (admittedly interprative) original spirit of the award, I'm going to compromise with five.

Here are the rules:

1. Each person chosen must provide 5 facts about themselves.
2. Answer the 5 questions that the blogger who tagged you has given, then think of 5 questions for the people you tag.
3. Choose 5 people to receive the award and link them in your post.
4. Be sure to tell these people that you've tagged them.
5. Don't tag the person who tagged you.

Five facts about me:

1. I have been married to my husband, Dallas, for 32 years. I have three sons, three DILs, two granddaughters and four grandsons.
2. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. I write too much . . . way too much. (As in, Robert Jordan too much.    War and Peace too much.)
4. The first website I built was back in 2001, before blogs were invented.  It shared my son's missionary letters and pictures.
5. I am a literary omnivore.

iWriteNetwork

This morning while trolling around for something to write about, I wandered on over to iWriteNetwork and listened to Canda Mortensen interview Tamara Hart Heiner about her books Perilous and soon-to-be-released Altercation.  They used BlogTalkRadio, which is a spiffy setup and a great way to draw participants to your blog.

iWriteNetwork is an online community of writers, primarily women; its board members living along the Wasatch Front in Utah.  The membership is still relatively small (under 200), but seems to be growing quickly.

In addition to BlogTalkRadio, it has lots of features to add interest, such as user pages, forums, photos, videos, groups, and live chat.  Members control privacy by making and approving friend requests which limit access to their personal page.  The subjects of discussion groups range from romance/women's fiction to inspirational to personal memoirs.

Besides being a good place to network with other writers, I find the community helpful for bouncing ideas, asking questions, receiving guidance, and making friends.  The chat room provides real-time contact and interchange.   iWriteNetwork also provides lots of information on what is going on in the writing world, including activities, competitions, seminars, and writing conferences.

Membership is free, the atmosphere warm and supportive, but, like any specialized community, you have to learn some unique vernacular.  A Facebook group provides an additional platform for interaction.  For fledgling writers just getting their feet wet, it's a comfy little pond to strike out into. 

—A Chaotic Mind