Tea with McNair

• hatch!—the book—close to hatching

There is now a Facebook page dedicated to updates and news on my soon-to-be-released book: HATCH! Brainstoming Secrets of a Theme Park Designer. [HERE] There will be frequent updates on production—now in the final layout, cover design, pre-press stages.

Currently there is a brief (only TWO questions) survey posted. Please stop by, click the "LIKE" tab and offer your thoughts. I really want to know what you think. This new Facebook page: Hatch! by McNair Wilson will not be the only place for updates and news about the book, but the primary place and the FIRST palce to chaeck for updates (release date, book events, signings, how to get books, discount availability ...)

Stop by f-f-frequently! That link again is Facebook/pages/Hatch-by-McNair-Wilson

• tapping your inner mouse

"The Mickey audience is not made up of people; it has no racial, national, political, religious or social differences or affiliations; the Mickey audience is made up of parts of people, of that deathless, precious, ageless, absolutely primitive remnant of something in every world-wracked human being which makes us play with children’s toys and laugh without self-consciousness at silly things, and sing in bathtubs, and dream and believe that our babies are uniquely beautiful. You know…the Mickey in us."

~ Walt Disney

[ Photo, right, Walt  prior to Disneyland opening, 1957, with future cast member of the Magic Kingdom.]

• don't doodle and drive

Riding in the passengers seat with a friend recently I asked about the constant "texting while driving" I was witnessing—in the car in which I was riding.

""I do it all the time."

"Till you die doing it."

""I'm watching the road, see." (Holding the smart phone at the 12:00 o'clock position on the steering wheel as we zoomed along—at 45 mph or higher.

The stats I've seen suggest the texting while driving (and other "distracted driving" activities) increase the chances of a highway accidents 400%. With all the goofball drivers, new teens-on-wheels, and folks whose eye site and other senses are diminishing daily ... driving or highways and byways we don't need to add more danger and risk to our lives.

I especially call out to parents of young kids, Do you text-and-drive with your beautiful children in the car?

STOP IT! Today.

If your children were in the back seat playing with matches and squirting each other with light fluid you would ...

You know what you would do. DO THAT in regards to your UNNECESSARY texting behind the wheel practice.

My friend (texting above) is a very bright person. Very. But NONE OF US are bright enough to beat the overwhelming odds stacked against us on "distracted driving."

If you have a friend, spouse, significant other (about whom you care very much) and they are texting behind the wheel. PLEAD with them to stop. Forward this blog post to them—in love. Print it out for every driver in your house hold.

PASTORS: read it from the pulpit and you may save a life or three.

 Tell them all you want them to be safe behind the wheel, not resting beneath an alabaster slab with their name, birth-date and transition date carved on it.

[Steve Bjorkman, my friend since sixth grade, drew the wonderful illustration above. We've been emailing back and forth about our shared, life-long love for doodling. Steve makes a living at it illustrating children's books (three by Jeff Foxworthy) and scores of others as well as greeting cards, magazine illustrations and more. He created the delightful art, above, in response to my plea to him to "don't doodle and drive." Visit his website, HERE... it will make you smile, out loud. That's "Me by Steve" at right that he "doodled" during a performance of one of my one-man plays.]

• a field guide to doodling

 
My new book is done, edited, illustrated, ready for the technical folks to work their pre-press magic. Or so I thought a couple of weeks ago. Then an angry man in one of my all-day “Curiosity Tour” (creativity) seminars got in my face … and my imagination.
    “I was so angry at you this morning when you gave us all blank (unlined) paper and felt pens.” He said “felt pens” like I had dropped steaming garbage in his lap.
    “I wrote down a couple of things you said at the beginning and noticed I was using different colors. What did you do yo me?”
    I just smiled and said, “You did it. You let yourself doodle … again.”

We talked for a moment about how we all used to color, all the time. I told him I ask people to take visual notes—doodle—because it opens up their listening. “We learn 75% of what we know with our eyes. We have five senses, but we learn mostly by seeing. When we doodle we listen better. Really.”
    “Where do I get more of these?” Holding up a fist full of colored pens.   
    “Drug store.” I said. “Or Target, Walmart.”
    “Really?” He thought he was going to need to make his first visit to some secret, down-an-alley-near-the-university artists supply shop with incense burning and Jethro Tull’s flute music swirling through the aisles of paint brushes, canvases and Monet post cards. “Walgreens?” he said.
    “Yup.“
    “I want to get a couple hundred for my staff so they can have lots of colors.” Just a couple of hours ago he was angry about the colored pens I was going to make him use. Now … he was excited

Along with inexpensive felt pens, I encourage folks to get (at the same retailers) a big (8x10 or 9x12) spiral sketchbook to play in. [see photo >] Don't get one too small to have room to play or too large such that you won't take it with you ... everywhere.

When I returned home and began the technical part of prepping my book for publishing, it hit me. I’ve been doling out felt pens to business people and church leaders for years, decades. The it hit me: Why not create a quick and simple chapter for HATCH! on the power and efficacy of visual thinking?
    Now it exists, The Doodle Factor—an entire chapter. Beginning with a few pages on the value of visual thinking, visual learning and then the all new “McNair’s Fearless Field Guide to Doodling.” It contains lots easy-to-follow exercises (terrible word) to assist anyone in improving their printing (hand lettering), doodles (shapes, arrows, simple images), and people (cartoons.)

Just as I demonstrate how to go from single stroke, hand printed alphabets to playful “box lettering,” [see example in sketchbook photo, below, click to enlarge] the same process will take you from stick figures (remember “hangman”) to cartoon figures to enhance your note taking and actually expand your retention level.

“Kids who doodle in school aren’t paying attention.” I can hear the educators and parents thinking aloud. IN FACT, the evidence proves the opposite.This is counterintuitive, I know. I had the same thoughts until I started researching and uncovering some of the studies I talked about in my previous blog post—the doodle factor (below.)

Everyone starts out life scribbling, doodling, coloring, watching, and learning. Some of us keep doodling. Now you can start again. The more you DOodle, the better you get, the more fun you'll have ... the more you will doodle. You do not have to show this to anyone—this is NOT a test!

Here’s a sneak preview from the Field Guide (click to enlarge). Happy doodling.

>> If you are already using "Visual Note Taking" and can scan and email me a sample page, I'd like to show examples in future Tea blog posts. I received a delightful, colorful page of notes from Alison Crow Flanigin (Thanks!) Send me yours, SOON and I may be able to get it into HATCH! ...the book. Please include a brief note granting me permission to reproduce your doodles. (If I use your visual thinking, I will send you a FREE book.)

"The Doodle Factor" and "Field Guide to Doodling" Copyright 2011 C. McNair Wilson