10 Things you should know about me that will convince you I’m the one for your job

FROM THE DESK OF LUCY LOPEZ

10 Things you should know about me…

leaving no doubt in your mind that I’m the one for your writing job!

I absolutely love writing!

That means that I enter into each writing assignment enthusiastic and excited about exploring something different or differently! That’s right. Even within the same topic, each piece of writing is a uniquely crafted piece. If I did not have this attitude, I really would not be able to sustain myself in this work!

I absolutely love reading!

That means I am always exposing myself to new ideas, new styles, new content and new trends while observing how various stakeholders (e.g. writers, readers, social networks, businesses and institutions) evolve both off and online. It’s a fascinating thing!

I have an observant, curious, analytical, reflective, intuitive, loving, peaceful, joyous and creative mind!

That means that I bring the most critical skills and qualities to each and every piece of writing, deciding as I go along which skill/quality and how much of each to apply to a given piece. I have a good mind and a good heart. Together, they help craft some wonderful pieces of work J

# 4

I am interested in most things!

That means that there aren’t many things that don’t interest me! I find the world a fascinating place and I am enthralled by what I keep discovering about it… and about myselfJ. However, let me give you some background.

I currently have a practice in Personal and Spiritual development where I offer mentoring programs, retreats and workshops. This work draws on my academic/research, professional, spiritual and personal background in Science, teaching, cognitive psychology, public speaking, Christianity, Buddhism, parenting, community activities and writing, of course! I have also lived in four countries and now live in Australia.

As you can tell, my background has exposed me to much. My attitude towards people and things simply enhances my ability to write on a wide variety of subjects using different voices.

I have self-published a little book (Seven Noisy Minutes - a practical 7-day program in meditation). I currently publish a weekly newsletter called The Whispering Tree written from the perspective of a wise, old fig tree. I also send out inspirational messages five days a week to an opt-in email list. This latter is written from the perspective of the ultimate source which I call The Wondersource.

# 5

I can play the devil’s advocate and argue against my personal beliefs!

Shocked? Let me explain. It means that I am able to look at something from a number of vantage points and actually enjoy authentically engaging in different perspectives and ways of thinking. It also means that I avoid getting egotistical about what I write and how I write. This does not mean that I am indifferent. On the contrary, it gives me the freedom to be guided by my client’s needs and preferences. I should add that I am not shy about making suggestions or helping a client clarify things, but I only do this if I sense that the client wants my help.

# 6

I’m a bit of a player….with words that is J

That means I like to make my writing as enjoyable as possible for my reader and for me. With a few exceptions, even the most academic piece of writing can be lifted with changes of pace, references to unexpected sources and episodes of levity.

# 7

Give me any topic and I’ll show you at least ten different things I could write about it!

That means that firstly, I have a ‘can do’ attitude and secondly, I am committed to exploring a topic in as many different ways as is required.

# 8

I meet all deadlines I commit to.

Even though I may cringe at some deadlines, once I commit to them, I make sure I deliver! If I don’t feel I can make a deadline, I let the client know before agreeing to a job so that we can negotiate a realistic timeline or I simply don’t apply for the job. I have learnt to lead a stress-free life and I intend to keep my life that way.

# 9

I ‘get’ what a client wants pretty quickly!

That means that I won’t start writing until I am clear about what I need to do. However, I do have a knack for being able to quickly grasp a client’s requirements. And because I am a keen learner, I am able to quickly acquire new skills and information when I need to.

And finally…(Well, I could go on, but my moral responsibility is to help you get on with your work even though you are currently pleasantly distracted from it J)

# 10

If I can say something simply, I will!

That means that unless I am writing for purely literary indulgence (and I sometimes do), my aim in writing is to INTEREST, ENGAGE, INFORM and SATISFY a reader, in that order.

In summary

You will find me a really pleasant, honest, responsible, creative, attentive and intelligent person to work with. I approach every assignment with the assumption that, just like me, you want quality. Consequently, I aim to give you nothing less than the best that I’m capable of. And that, as you will see from my accompanying samples, is what you’ll get.

I won’t be disappointed if you decline my application/submission/bid because you feel that you cannot afford me. However, I would plead with you (yes, there is a time for grovelingJ) to give me a go and discover how much more satisfying and profitable (in the long run) having someone like me do your writing for you can be!

SAMPLES (EXTRACTS)

All the samples below are my own. I trust you will honor my ownership and refrain from using any of it without my permission.

1. 250-word General/Opinion Piece – Offline Silence about Online Noise

2. Academic/Research – The importance of mental imagery in healing

3. Satirical – Pardon me…but I thought that was a stick in the ground!

4. Fictional/Short story – Selling Andrew Anderinju

5. Interview, informal – Cameron de la Briz flaunts Flamenco

6. Persuasive/Marketing/Copyrighting – Your Best Life Insurance deals

1. 250-word General/Opinion piece

Offline Silence about Online Noise

There is a sinister silence in mainstream television and radio about a certain phenomenon. Yet, it is a phenomenon that has captivated an audience who, conservatively number over 6.5 billion and whose current rate of growth is a whopping 244%. What am I talking about? Why, the internet, of course!

Financial deals of staggering proportions take place over the internet frequently and ‘virtual real estate’ is bought and sold with the entrepreneurial nous of the best. Yet, the offline media appears uninterested.

Take for instance, Microsoft’s recent purchase of Jellyfish, a self-described “Robin-hood like search engine” which shares its revenues with purchasers who use their site engine. It’s a typical example of an online buzz that’s generated no offline noise.

And it’s not just online business that mainstream media is silent about. It’s equally tight-lipped about online mediated and discussed interests such as education, health and politics, to mention a few. It is almost as if they were two mutually exclusive worlds. So much so that if you weren’t an internet user, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the so-called ‘real’ world was the only world we inhabit!

Au contraire, my friend! There is an ever-expanding world-wide web out there whose activities are far from virtual and whose news is not dominated by war, crime, political scams and celebrity tittle-tattle. And I think that the television and radio moguls are keeping mum about it just in case you decide to tune out and log on instead to the activities and information of your choice!

2. Academic/Research

The Importance of Mental Imagery in Healing

Mental imagery is important because it can hold information that can be retrieved and manipulated in a number of ways for a range of functions from problem solving to making creative discoveries (Finke, 2088). If, for the moment, healing is regarded as a particular case of problem solving, as well as a process in which new discoveries are made about ourselves and our relationship with our world, then it is likely that mental imagery could have a significant role to play in the healing process. In fact, it has been demonstrated that mental imagery can be successfully used to improve mental and physical health (Donaldson, 2000; Holden-Lund, 1988; Rees, 1995). Some examples of these follow:

A psychoneuroimmunological study by Donaldson showed that visualization, or mental imagery, produced a beneficial immune system response specifically on depressed white blood cell (WBC) count in 20 medical patients. The subjects, 10 females and 10 males included medical patients diagnosed with cancer, AIDS, viral infections, and other medical problems associated with depressed WBC count. Significant increases in WBC count for all patients over a 90-day period, after a predicted initial decrease in WBC count, were reported with no significant age or sex correlations.

In another study, Rees reported that patients receiving four weeks of relaxation and guided imagery scored significantly lower on trait anxiety, state anxiety and depression, while scoring significantly higher on measurements of self-esteem.

Yet another study by Holden-Lund sought to determine the effects of an audiotape series employing Relaxation with Guided Imagery (RGI) on the psychophysiologic stress response and wound healing in surgical patients.

Twenty-four patients undergoing cholecystectomy were randomly assigned to either RGI or control (quiet period) conditions and measured against three indexes of recovery: state anxiety, urinary cortisol levels, and wound inflammatory responses. An analysis of variance for repeated measures revealed that the RGI group demonstrated significantly less state anxiety, lower cortisol levels one day following surgery, and less surgical wound erythema than the control group. Thus, the RGI tapes demonstrated stress-relieving outcomes closely associated with healing.

(Sources appropriately referenced using APA conventions in original piece)

3. Satirical

Pardon me….but….

I thought that was just a stick in the ground!!!

Art critics! Don’t you just love them? I mean, they are in a class of their own surely. Who else is able to read so much into a drawing that looks like nothing more than a stick in the ground…to the plebeian eye of course? …….

…………..

I imagine that if the critic were to put forward his critique to a completely honest artist, the conversation might go something like this:

Freudick: The phallic presence that the long thin object speaks to…that is quite clearly the outpouring of a consummate sense of fear and disempowerment that you experienced as a three year old when you felt the very core of your masculinity being ravaged by the war cries of the feminist movement in your mother’s kitchen…

Salvadore: he he he, you have thraaaable speakingg the eeengliss thoo??

Alright, I realize I may be exaggerating a little here, only a teensy bit though. But be honest, don’t you sometimes wish you could look at an art piece and enjoy it without feeling obliged to read its full interpretation as per someone other than the artist herself? Or that you did not feel overwhelmingly ignorant when you discovered that the field of wheat you thought you were looking at was really a visual representation of the repressed longings of a fertile though childless female? Can’t we be free to enjoy art for art’s sake????

The influence of art critics has been so penetrating that I sometimes catch myself trying to impute meaning into an artwork that I am about to purchase for my home, just so I will have something more to say about it to visitors than a gleeful ‘I like it’. And I am finding it increasingly hard to view a work without attempting a mini pseudo analysis myself, sometimes disguised as a question such as: I wonder why he’s got the dog’s tail resting on the (man’s) foot?

Now don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy hearing or reading an interpretation of a visual. I guess I prefer that the interpretation be limited to the work at hand, rather than purport to unravel and psychoanalyze the artist’s entire life, and that of his family and his pets and his country folk and his government ad infinitum and ad nauseum. If I wanted that, I would go look for an autobiography, or an authorized biography.

Ok, I’ve said my piece. Now I shall go away and sit quietly in a corner and with any luck, someone might invite me to critique Whistler’s Mother and who knows, I might do it just as eloquently as Mr Bean. Ta ta for now!

4. Fiction/Short Story

Selling Andrew Anderinju

………

Dinner, Holland Park, Brisbane

“When was the last time you were wrong about anything?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been wrong about many things many times. I can’t remember”.

“You can’t remember because you think you’ve never been wrong about anything! Ever!”

“That’s not true. I just told you that I have been wrong many times. I just can’t remember right now any one particular instance”.

Even as she mouthed those words, Anna realized how very lame she was sounding to her son. Her ten year old boy had challenged her with the brilliance of a simple question, one that she could not satisfactorily answer. She was feeling cornered. It was looking like a win-less situation for both of them. How could she redeem herself and allow him to redeem himself? How would they find room for both their egos?

…………

Queen St Mall, Brisbane

Joseph Anderinju rolled out his legs onto the cobbled pavement. Briefly, he rested his didgeridoo beside him. He was sitting on a straw mat about a meter square. In front of him sat a hat of many tales, collecting coins and, on the odd occasion, a green or blue note. His dark body was clothed in white paint and a loin cloth, his face dressed in the same white paint and a beard. Sweat glistened on his skin as he rested between performances, one of which she had just watched.

What possessed him to do something like this, she wondered? What would possess anyone to do something like this? To sell culture in such a raw, unsophisticated manner? No PR, no profit margin, no agent, and worst of all, no shame. Wasn’t his culture worth more than to be made available to such an undiscerning audience? Didn’t it deserve to be packaged for an exclusive market? She was tempted to ask him. Instead, she meandered towards a café on the sidewalk, ordered a flat white and sat at a table where she could continue watching him unnoticed.

He intrigued her. With his wandering eyes that never made contact with anyone and the gentle stream of deceptively simple humor with which he explained his art, he pushed and pulled her in a number of directions.

Sipping her coffee in the emotional brew that she was in, she noticed a young boy drop a coin in the hat of many tales. The sight of the boy brought the previous night’s unresolved argument with her son to mind.

“The ego goes on parade in so many different clothes and on so many different catwalks”, she found herself thinking. Lately, she had realized that for years, her ego’s favorite catwalks had been the ones called ‘honesty’ and ‘justice’. On them, its performance had been quite dazzling, often disarming even the most resistant spectator. Who could resist the virtuous ring of honesty and justice, even if they did find it hard to practice themselves?

5. Interview, informal

Cameron de la Briz flaunts Flamenco

Now, sitting in his Buddha garden, Cameron starts to talk about his life as a musician.

“It’s not an easy thing to do these days, to live by what you love most”.

Cameron rolls himself a cigarette and lights up. The first of about three in our one and a quarter hour conversation.

“Dancers must be able to listen carefully to the music, its form, its specific cadence”.

I am almost shocked at what I’m interpreting as Cameron’s belief that dancers may not be musically sensitive. This is indeed a new thought for me.

“I would have thought dancers would be extremely musically sensitive” I say, trying to make it sound like a question.

“You would think so.” Clearly Cameron does not.

I realize I have something to learn here but somehow I feel this may not be the time. I allow the conversation to continue its course.

“People listen with their eyes rather than their ears”.

Once again, I am taken by surprise. It’s not an unfamiliar thought but somehow, in this context, offered as it is just now, it sounds refreshingly new and true.

“Some music legend, it could’ve been Paul Simon, I’m not really sure, said that by the 70’s all the good riffs had run out”. Cameron is much amused by what he sees as the truth in this comment.

“In flamenco, although you must stay in form, keeping its essence, you can still do interesting and new things with it. Music is language and you use the language to say something that’s you.

6. Persuasive/Marketing/Copyrighting

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The contents of this document are the property of Lucy Lopez. Please contact her if you wish to use any part of it.