The Fabulist Flash

Number 12

Ornament Cards (Package of 6)

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. The Writer's Bookshelf
3. Personal Goal Setting - Planning to Live
4. Tip of the Week
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

Welcome to issue Number 12 of The Fabulist Flash.

I spent the past week in Cleveland, Ohio, attending my 20th high school reunion. There were almost 600 people in my graduating class so there were many people at the reunion I'd never met before. It was interesting to discover this collection of interesting people. And, it was pleasant to catch up with old friends and visit with family, too.

One of the highlights of the week was being a tourist in my old home town. In addition to stopping by some of my favorite childhood haunts, I spent time visiting the Civil War Monument, Terminal Tower, and the Old Stone Church on Public Square. I spent an afternoon at The Cleveland Museum of Art and I visited the restored estate of President Garfield, Lawnfield. It's sad that it's taken so many years to get around to visiting these historic sites and attractions.

All of this visiting and sightseeing provided many new characters and settings for my writing. Revisiting the past is excellent inspiration for future work.

The reunion experience pushed me into creating an elevator speech that reviewed the last 20 years of my life in just a few minutes. Not an easy task, but a solid exercise. Reviewing our goals and seeing what we've accomplished creates the foundation for setting new goals and making plans for the future.

This week's feature article focuses on creating long-term goals and planning your future.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes is a freelance writer and photographer. Learn more about Gregory and his work at http://www.Kompes.com
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What inspired your latest article idea? Email Aha@FabulistFlash.com
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2. The Writer's Bookshelf

Time Management for the Creative Person by Lee Silber

A Review by Gregory A. Kompes

Goal setting and time management go hand-in-hand. If you have more free time, you have more time to do creative work.Time Management for the Creative Person by Lee Silber is filled with helpful, time-saving ideas. It's easy to read and all of a sudden I've found myself with too much information.

In the early chapters, Silber says that this book can be attacked from cover to cover or the reader can just jump in and around, finding and using his suggestions as needed. This latter approach might be the best approach.

If you want to work on goal setting, turn to that chapter. Want to work on organizing or cleaning or any of the other dozens of topics, just turn to the chapter. You'll find thousands of suggestions for saving, collecting, and cutting time off and out of your regular tasks.

Many of the suggestions are good, but there are so many. I guess that's the point, there are so many so you can pick and choose those that will help you. From this standpoint, I recommend Silber's text.

But, there was something bothering me as I read. Throughout the book, I kept getting the feeling that the concepts weren't original. It dawned on me that the underlying, self-help, positive-self stuff that Silber has going on are really the techniques from Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way.

So, that's what bothers me about this book. I understand trying to help creative people become more efficient so they have more time to be creative. But, helping the creative person become more time efficient and becoming a creative person are two very different things. While I find many of the time saving tips in this book useful, I think Silber's focus is split and the work suffers as a consequence.

For this title and others of inspiration to writers visit The Writer's Bookshelf.

3. Personal Goal Setting - Planning to Live

Instead of a feature article this week, I'm providing a link to an article on goal setting from Mind Tools. I'm not endorsing their products because I've never used them, but this article, Personal Goal Setting - Planning to Live, provides a detailed example of how to set long-term goals.

Personal Goal Setting - Planning to Live

Goal setting is a formal process for personal planning. By setting goals on a routine basis you decide what you want to achieve, and then move step-by-step towards the achievement of these goals. The process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on to do it. You also know what is merely a distraction.

Read the rest of the article Here.

4. Tip of the Week

Spend an afternoon being a tourist in your hometown. There are lots of potential travel articles, settings, and characters tucked in right where you live.

5. About The Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

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