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Pay attention to the good in your life. You may have more than you realize.

It’s easy to pay attention to the painful moments, the hard things, the things that bring you down. They grab our attention, grip us tightly, tear at us. And sometimes, especially if we’ve had a lot of pain, abuse, or trauma in our lives, it can be hard to notice the good things that happen. The little things and the big things that all add up to help us appreciate being alive.

The hug from a friend. The friendly lick from a cat or dog. The smile from a stranger. Someone telling us they appreciate our work. Someone telling us we have a nice smile. Laughing with friends. Good food. Finding that book we want. Reading a good book. Time with friends.

I’m going to try to make an effort to focus more on the good in my life–and I hope you’ll join me.

This can be a hard time of year for many people, so I thought I’d post more positive messages for people again–selfies along with the messages, so people can see the person (and author) behind the message. I think it helps make it more personal and real.

I will try to post photos most days of December for you all. Let me know if you like this idea.

And if you like this post, if it speaks to you, I hope you’ll share it with others. You can see them on all www.CherylRainfield.com/blog

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From the archives...

Lisa Yee: On Revision...

It was standing room only for Lisa Yee's session on revision. Lisa started out by talking about her first version of her novel Millicent Min, Girl Genius which she said was "episodic and weird." In her next version, 11-year-old Millicent was in college, but editor Arhtur Levine suggested Lisa explore a version in which the main character interacts with kids her own age. She continued to revise--and what was constant through each revision was her character.

There was a show of hands to see who loved revision and who hated it. Those who love revision, Lisa said, often love is so much that they can't stop themselves. Those who hate it can't get started.

Lisa, who is currently revising a work-in-progress from first person point of view to third persion, said she she can fall so much in love with her writing that she doesn't want to cut any of it. But when you look at your work, she says, ask yourself, "If I had to cut my story by 20%, what would I cut? She said that generally her first three chapters can be thrown away.

One tip she gave was taking your document and making a copy of it, changing the font, adjusting the margins just slightly, and making it look like something someone else wrote--this can help you look at your story in a different way. She also suggested reading your manuscript out loud as you revise to hear words in a different manner than reading it silently. Also circle what you think is really great in your story and that becomes your standard to adhere to.

For revise-a-holics, she suggests setting deadlines for yourself, or have your writers group set them. This way you can force yourself to write to a deadline and write on a schedule.

Finally, she recommended everyone check out the radio program Bookworm on KCRW featuring an interview with Tobias Wolf (there are two--try the fiction one) in which he talks about his writing process--he just keeps cutting.

Aline’s recent post about evolving definitions of literacy came just after I’d read that in China, writers text message extremely short stories on their cellphones. In the week before that I read two manuscripts on my laptop. Google News has almost replaced my daily newspaper, but I’m too much of a print junkie to quit the New York Times cold turkey.

The world of print is changing fast. A woman came into the store where I spend some of my time and bought three novels. She then took note of several other books that she wanted to download to her digital book collection. She saw me wince and explained that for travel this was a wonderful tool–she could take twenty-five books with her on a long flight. I immediately thought of the tote bag bulging with weight that I carry with me onto a plane so I will be assured of a choice of reading material, and my perspective began to change a tiny bit.

What if, instead of being that paragon of literacy, the devoted bookworm, I’m actually a person with deficient reading skills? What if I learned to enjoy the many different ways of reading–from a book, from a laptop, from a portable digital reading device, from the tiny screen of a cellphone? How much more freely I could roam the world, without the weight of my books and my need for bookstores that will sell me reading material in English.

Perhaps as we examine literacy we need to realize that children who rarely touch a book may be forging new ground for us all. They are literate in ways that many of us have yet to explore–and, in light of the world’s dwindling supplies of wood pulp, that we may be forced to explore sooner than we anticipate.

What about you? Are you a multi-faceted reader, or are you like me–helplessly enthralled by the weight of a book and the sight of print on a page?