How to write a eulogy you can live with
I just got back from two solid weeks of mass grieving. Seriously, we’re talking a week-long wake, a full-on funeral, and two memorials in two continents. And because it got to be such a protracted and elaborate affair, I ended up listening to a heap of eulogies and remembrance speeches. And there were good ones and bad ones.
I also ended up writing two of them – one for each memorial in each continent.
So here’s my cheat guide on how to write and deliver a eulogy
When too much writing is not enough
I chanced upon Sarah Dessen’s blog today, and completely resonated with her post about social media burn out. Which is ironic, considering that I just started this blog. But not so ironic when you realise I have about 5 blogs, 2 Twitter accounts, a LinkedIn profile, Facebook, and a host of others I’d started and then left behind because they became so 2005.
And a day job. A bloody difficult day job.
Read Outspoken Media’s blog today about how blogging in particular is supposed to have leveled the publishing playing – when in actuality,
it just highlighted a large segment of the population that shouldn’t have been publishing in the first place. Because they couldn’t write. Or because they had nothing interesting to say.
Sadly, there are some days where I cannot write. And there are more days when I have absolutely nothing interesting to say that hasn’t already been covered by someone else more eloquent, and with infinitely more time. I don’t know who these online content generators are, but the ones who blog once a day? Who tweet every hour? Are either completely wired on coffee, or perhaps do social media-related things for a living. Because most times, I’m not even in the head space to blog about something. Let alone in front of a computer or handheld gadget with internet access sans corporate firewall.
So no, I haven’t figured it all out yet, Sarah. There’s a part of me that suspects I’m trying too hard to fit in with what society is now saying about thought leadership. As though thought leadership comes up with brilliance every three hours and tweets/blogs/posts/FBs with alarming alacrity and presence of mind. For now, I’m going to focus on why I want to blog about writing in the first place – and that’s mostly to feel like I’m going through this journey with other people who understand.
Even if Google hasn’t indexed this site yet. has only just started to index my site. In >72 hours! w00t!
Getting into the writing zone
As with any work – even something as fun as writing – getting into the groove can take time and discipline.I’m just going to cover a couple of ways I try and get into my zone.
1. The work space is everything
Like Homer Simpson and the butt-groove on his couch, having a workspace I can leave “messy” helps me sink into the zone whenever I get behind the laptop. Disturb the space, change the environment, and it’ll take that much longer to adjust to that familiar posture of tap-tapping away.
2. Get the procrastination out of the system
Half the reason I started this blog was to give me an outlet to write about something related to the project, so I could slip into writer’s mode and channel my energy into the actual book by the time I was done with the post. It enabled me to procrastinate healthily, if you will.
3. Give yourself 10 minutes
Also attended one of those I-am-woman-hear-me-roar seminars for corporate women, and learnt that it takes 10 minutes of sticking to a particular task to overcome inertia. 10 minutes. That’s it. Once you’ve started on a job for 10 minutes, you’re well on your way to completing it because it gets easier and the mind has begun to focus. And 10 minutes sounds like a reasonable bargain with the brain – especially for jobs that are quite icky.
So that’s my 2-cents’ worth. Now I have to move on to point 3 for one of my subplots, so I’d better get a move on because I’m buzzed…
