A New Alphabet

I just discovered that SARK has a new blog, or as she calls it, her online journal. In a post last month I wrote about her new book, Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper. She’s just full of new things.

Like her books and e-letters, SARK’s journal brings scented pens to mind. Sometimes I lean toward my monitor and sniff to be sure, disappointed that I can’t actually verify the scent of a succulent strawberry, grape, blueberry, orange, and raspberry salad with a tangy lemon-mint dressing. My disappointment at the lack was forgotten when I played the audio file she posted. I won't repeat her whole story. The part that inspired me was her intention to start a new tradition of using only positive, affirmative words to clarify oral spelling. For example, A is for Awesome rather than Apple.

Just like that Sarabelle tossed me an idea: using this Affirmation Alphabet to spell names. This may not be a piece of writing you’ll want to share with the world at large. You may feel embarrassed to publicly display a poster such as this one.

But, why not make yourself one for your own private viewing? Or heck, make one, show it, and tell people a friend did it for you if you blush. If you need to warm up, use someone else’s name to start.

This exercise has at least three benefits. First, it’s a terrific self-affirmation. Write it and believe it. Show some positive attitude! This may not be life story writing, but it is life writing. Think of it as writing about your future ideal self. The self you are becoming.

The other benefit is that I guarantee nearly everyone will be reaching for a dictionary and expanding your descriptive vocabulary. Not all the words on that poster came easily to my mind. Ravishing took some digging, and I’m not entirely satisfied with it. I made this poster for a sweet three-year-old. But I might be bold enough to use it for my own poster.

The third benefit is that you’ll have a lot of fun. I haven’t played around with my doodle pens for ages. It’s about time. It’s fun. I think I’ll find a new place to keep them that’s easier to reach.

SARK is such a good influence. I’m not going to start writing everything by hand with a different color for each sentence and flourishes and squiggles everywhere, That wouldn’t be me. That would be imitation SARK. But I can find my own way. I might do my poster in a graphics program. I can get wildly creative there, far more easily than on paper. Or ... I’ll let my imagination run wild.

Thanks SARK!

Write now: your own name poster. And you don’t need to limit your selections to one word per letter. Live it up. Use five. Just make sure they are affirmative. Make a poster for a friend, or a grandchild. Make lots of posters and give them away to their namesakes. You can do for them what they may never dare do for themselves. You may find that you’ve developed a whole alphabet of affirmative words and you can help change the world as SARK is hoping.

8 comments :

Trisha said...

U R Awesome. :D

Claire said...

hi sharon, i've no idea how you found my blog, but i'm glad you did :o) thank you for your insightful comment!
i'm a great SARK fan - i've actually won one of her new books - i'm the 'claire sauer' listed on her blog entry :o) i can't wait for it to arrive!!!
i'd love to list you on my favourite blogs, if you don't mind. i read your lifestory book a while ago and never knew you had a blog :o)
blessings from england

Anonymous said...

M agnificent

A ble

R esourceful

I nventive

L oving

Y ummy

N urturing

Sharon Lippincott said...

Trisha, thank you. Your blog rocks too. I did not know about the SARK boards, and will run right over!

Claire, how amazing is it that people can connect this way across oceans? And my book has made it to England? Yowzah! What incredible news.

Marilyn, that's the greatest thing, that you posted your name! Thank you, thank you! And what a lovely idea to share your life in book titles in your blog header. And thanks for posting the link to the Blood Red Pencil.

Anonymous said...

Sharon,
Thank you for the words of encouragement. I've been rewriting a story that changes every time I mess with it. I'll take it to my writing group this week and maybe put it on my blog Friday.
The problem is, I think I'm losing some of the freshness in the original draft, but I know that it flows better now.

The header graphic on my blog is a collection of favorite books. It will probably change from time to time and maybe I'll figure out how to take a better picture. Steal the idea if you want!

Sharon Lippincott said...

Hey everyone, click over to Marilyn's blog and take a look at her posters. They are gorgeous!

Her second one is firm evidence that Sarabelle didn't invent anything, she just recycled some idea that's been floating around the cosmos for who knows how long? Obviously this is an idea whose time has come, and it will surely appear lots of places, quite independently. Maybe this is a slightly different twist — using affirmation words as SARK recommends.

Unknown said...

http://www.jamieleecurtisbooks.com/- the website of Jamie Lee Curtis' successful run of books geared TO children, not AT them includes her latest, "Big Words for Little People." Curtis stated recently on a tv promo appearance, her latest volume was created when in a previous book, her editors cautioned her to not use a particular word (which escapes me at this moment), "because we don't think pre-schoolers would understand what it means."

That was the impetus for a new book where she purposely selected words within their comprehension level and stepped it up a bit to incorporate new words along with an easily understandable usage to encourage the reader to be eager to master new words.

That concept and the S.A.R.K concept of tying letters to words of encouragement and inspiration is the energy that we need to have available to our kids to lure them away from mindless passive activities

Sharon Lippincott said...

Oh the Jamie Lee Curtis book looks like so much fun I may need to order my own copy as well as one for the tiny grandkids who are growing into huge vocabularies.