Personal Writing Projects:
Back before email, texts and social media insinuated themselves into our lives, handwritten correspondence was as much art as information. Even a "quick note" took time, because touching pen to paper called for reflection and care. It said, "You are important to me and I've taken the time to write."
When people pause to share their lives, confidences, celebrations and concerns, it enlivens and enriches their relationships, helps illuminate the past and can soften the passage of time. Light shines bright through well considered, thoughtful writing, even when the subject is less than positive or the news not always good. -bf
When people pause to share their lives, confidences, celebrations and concerns, it enlivens and enriches their relationships, helps illuminate the past and can soften the passage of time. Light shines bright through well considered, thoughtful writing, even when the subject is less than positive or the news not always good. -bf
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PERSONAL PROJECTS:
> personal essays > personal letters > personal memoirs > family histories > book content help > greetings and invitations > speeches & other presentations > personalized children’s stories > project description & rationale > songs, prayers And more! |
May we help with your next personal writing project?> A new project?
- One you've been putting off for a long time? > A letter to a business or public utility? > A speech or other public presentation? - A memoire, essay or other project? > A family history? |
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A Personal Letter Success Story:
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At first, Sue thought she could live with it, but the racket continued, which from time to time was so deep and disturbing it seemed to be coming from her very bones. She wanted it to go away, of course, but it wasn’t going to go away by itself:
It needed her help!
Sue used to work in sales, and as every successful salesperson knows, to make a sale sometimes you've got to keep digging until you reach your objective, which is to convince your prospect of the benefits of your offer. So, she got to work – headed online to search out whatever it was making the infernal racket that had so upended her peace and quiet. The most likely culprit, she learned, was a power transformer, the kind used to step down high voltage from the electric company’s lines to a lower voltage that provides the power to run our appliances, charge our phones and keep the kids’ nightlight glowing.
Sue knew there was one of those transformers at the edge of her property. Its cabinet was green, perhaps to blend in with her suburban neighborhood and not get noticed.
But she noticed it!
In fact, with growing confidence that THIS was the cause of her problem, she walked right up to the transformer and listened closely. A little hum is all she heard, so small a hum that it blended in with neighborhood background.
“This can't be the problem,” she decided, and marched back into her humming, vibrating house and launched herself once again online. Could there be some other source for these life disrupting sounds? The only real suggestion Mr. Google could come up with was: POWER TRANSFORMER! They were known to vibrate and make hum when they got old. And, she read, the vibrations of a dying transformer are pitched so low that they are sometimes felt rather than heard. Plus … these ultra-low sound waves can find their way through the ground and shake the very walls and foundations of nearby homes! And the frequency of this vibration also could produce a hum!
So, Sue called the power company, which sent a very nice man to her home to consider whether their transformer might have been responsible for the discomfort. They checked things out and decided the transformer was fine – it was old, although not unusually so, and they DO last a long time. It wasn’t loud, everyone seemed to agree, out there in the yard humming softly like a happy baby.
“But why do I still hear, and why do I still feel these vibrations?!” Sue asked the experts. “They are ruining my life!”
THE BEAST.
The technicians who came to check out the transformer did their best, she thought, but may never have run into a problem like this. More and more, Sue was convinced that what she had begun calling The Beast was the cause of “her” vibrations, which were so disorienting at times that she had to flee the house (HER OWN HOME) and go somewhere else for a while: walk the dog, get some coffee, hang around the library – whatever it took to relax without that maddening hum in her ears.
During one of her quiet “away” moments, Sue had a brainstorm: she would ask independent electrical experts to come to the house and offer their opinions. They were eager to help, as were the power company techs who had already come to check things out but could not declare with anything close to certainty that it was the step-down transformer disrupting her life so thoroughly.
But Sue had never been the kind of girl to give up – in fact, having a problem to solve was precisely her cup of tea. After a bit more time on the Internet, she became even more convinced that The Beast was at fault and the techs were wrong. So, she decided to write a letter to the power company – staring with the CEO, having known from her sales days that the more senior your contact the better chance you have of making a sale, because when the CEO wants something to happen, it usually gets done.
Her first draft contained a blizzard of information that she’d discovered online. Which made the letter too long. Plus, she had so many things to say that she couldn’t decide what to include and what to leave out.
TO THE RESCUE!
Then she remembered Brian Faulkner, husband of a friend who had helped her write a letter to a pharmaceutical company during COVID that she thought had little hope of getting through at a time when these companies were circling the wagons and weren’t keen on engaging with people about possible side effects of their vaccines. So, she called Brian, who sympathized with her plight (and enjoys taking on challenging writing projects). Brian’s version of Sue’s many drafts made it through to the upper echelons of the pharmaceutical company – and they contacted her for a personal conversation! Brian, it turns out, has the reputation of being able to toss out the chaff and keep the wheat – and, in fact, had written speeches for corporate CEOs for many years and so knows how they think.
“You helped me paint the picture – and made it so clear,” Sue said of Brian’s work. She even ran his letter through an AI program, and AI pronounced it “perfect”.
Power company Letter #1, which Sue sent to the CEO and copied to a lot of people inside the company as well as influentials outside the company, just about got the job done. They responded right away but still did not believe that their transformer caused the problem. Their rationale was that since Sue could still hear and feel the hum and vibration even when the power had been cut to the transformer, something else must be causing her suffering. Which seemed like sound, good reasoning!
But there was something they didn’t know – and Brian didn’t know -- until Sue mentioned it: That her illness, a complicated form of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, has a variety of unpleasant symptoms, one of which is sensitivity to loud sounds that linger in the body even after the sound stops! An analogy would be attending a loud concert and experiencing an after-ring for a while, which fades quickly. In her case, the sound (and vibration) seems super loud and lingers longer. Then, when electric power demand increases, the vibrations get worse and Sue’s suffering begins anew. Power Company Letter #2 explained precisely that and politely asked that the power company replace “her” transformer. "Even if I have to pay for it myself!”
Which would be quite a stretch for a single, 70-year-old retired school teacher!
Her request caught their eye and appears to have generated some conversation within the company about this one customer’s dilemma, since Sue had “copied” a number of company execs with her letter:
"Yes, this old lady is still here," Sue wrote. "As a friend once said, I’m like a dog on a bone. Has (the company) come to a decision about replacing my transformer?"
She got her answer within a few days:
Dear Sue,
As previously stated, based on thorough investigation, we did not find any of our equipment serving your residence to be faulty or performing not as intended such that it would cause or contribute to the concerns that you have raised. However, after consideration, we will in good faith replace the transformer …
Sue was, of course, delighted – and had good things to say about the letter Brian had helped craft: "You amaze me with how you make every word count," she wrote. "I can’t put a price tag on what you do -- thanks so much!”
The net result of our collaboration was that the transformer got replaced – a great result made all that sweeter when Sue confirmed that the hum and vibration that had so overwhelmed her life had disappeared. Every story should have a happy ending like that, don’t you think?
So how can Brian help you?
It needed her help!
Sue used to work in sales, and as every successful salesperson knows, to make a sale sometimes you've got to keep digging until you reach your objective, which is to convince your prospect of the benefits of your offer. So, she got to work – headed online to search out whatever it was making the infernal racket that had so upended her peace and quiet. The most likely culprit, she learned, was a power transformer, the kind used to step down high voltage from the electric company’s lines to a lower voltage that provides the power to run our appliances, charge our phones and keep the kids’ nightlight glowing.
Sue knew there was one of those transformers at the edge of her property. Its cabinet was green, perhaps to blend in with her suburban neighborhood and not get noticed.
But she noticed it!
In fact, with growing confidence that THIS was the cause of her problem, she walked right up to the transformer and listened closely. A little hum is all she heard, so small a hum that it blended in with neighborhood background.
“This can't be the problem,” she decided, and marched back into her humming, vibrating house and launched herself once again online. Could there be some other source for these life disrupting sounds? The only real suggestion Mr. Google could come up with was: POWER TRANSFORMER! They were known to vibrate and make hum when they got old. And, she read, the vibrations of a dying transformer are pitched so low that they are sometimes felt rather than heard. Plus … these ultra-low sound waves can find their way through the ground and shake the very walls and foundations of nearby homes! And the frequency of this vibration also could produce a hum!
So, Sue called the power company, which sent a very nice man to her home to consider whether their transformer might have been responsible for the discomfort. They checked things out and decided the transformer was fine – it was old, although not unusually so, and they DO last a long time. It wasn’t loud, everyone seemed to agree, out there in the yard humming softly like a happy baby.
“But why do I still hear, and why do I still feel these vibrations?!” Sue asked the experts. “They are ruining my life!”
THE BEAST.
The technicians who came to check out the transformer did their best, she thought, but may never have run into a problem like this. More and more, Sue was convinced that what she had begun calling The Beast was the cause of “her” vibrations, which were so disorienting at times that she had to flee the house (HER OWN HOME) and go somewhere else for a while: walk the dog, get some coffee, hang around the library – whatever it took to relax without that maddening hum in her ears.
During one of her quiet “away” moments, Sue had a brainstorm: she would ask independent electrical experts to come to the house and offer their opinions. They were eager to help, as were the power company techs who had already come to check things out but could not declare with anything close to certainty that it was the step-down transformer disrupting her life so thoroughly.
But Sue had never been the kind of girl to give up – in fact, having a problem to solve was precisely her cup of tea. After a bit more time on the Internet, she became even more convinced that The Beast was at fault and the techs were wrong. So, she decided to write a letter to the power company – staring with the CEO, having known from her sales days that the more senior your contact the better chance you have of making a sale, because when the CEO wants something to happen, it usually gets done.
Her first draft contained a blizzard of information that she’d discovered online. Which made the letter too long. Plus, she had so many things to say that she couldn’t decide what to include and what to leave out.
TO THE RESCUE!
Then she remembered Brian Faulkner, husband of a friend who had helped her write a letter to a pharmaceutical company during COVID that she thought had little hope of getting through at a time when these companies were circling the wagons and weren’t keen on engaging with people about possible side effects of their vaccines. So, she called Brian, who sympathized with her plight (and enjoys taking on challenging writing projects). Brian’s version of Sue’s many drafts made it through to the upper echelons of the pharmaceutical company – and they contacted her for a personal conversation! Brian, it turns out, has the reputation of being able to toss out the chaff and keep the wheat – and, in fact, had written speeches for corporate CEOs for many years and so knows how they think.
“You helped me paint the picture – and made it so clear,” Sue said of Brian’s work. She even ran his letter through an AI program, and AI pronounced it “perfect”.
Power company Letter #1, which Sue sent to the CEO and copied to a lot of people inside the company as well as influentials outside the company, just about got the job done. They responded right away but still did not believe that their transformer caused the problem. Their rationale was that since Sue could still hear and feel the hum and vibration even when the power had been cut to the transformer, something else must be causing her suffering. Which seemed like sound, good reasoning!
But there was something they didn’t know – and Brian didn’t know -- until Sue mentioned it: That her illness, a complicated form of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, has a variety of unpleasant symptoms, one of which is sensitivity to loud sounds that linger in the body even after the sound stops! An analogy would be attending a loud concert and experiencing an after-ring for a while, which fades quickly. In her case, the sound (and vibration) seems super loud and lingers longer. Then, when electric power demand increases, the vibrations get worse and Sue’s suffering begins anew. Power Company Letter #2 explained precisely that and politely asked that the power company replace “her” transformer. "Even if I have to pay for it myself!”
Which would be quite a stretch for a single, 70-year-old retired school teacher!
Her request caught their eye and appears to have generated some conversation within the company about this one customer’s dilemma, since Sue had “copied” a number of company execs with her letter:
"Yes, this old lady is still here," Sue wrote. "As a friend once said, I’m like a dog on a bone. Has (the company) come to a decision about replacing my transformer?"
She got her answer within a few days:
Dear Sue,
As previously stated, based on thorough investigation, we did not find any of our equipment serving your residence to be faulty or performing not as intended such that it would cause or contribute to the concerns that you have raised. However, after consideration, we will in good faith replace the transformer …
Sue was, of course, delighted – and had good things to say about the letter Brian had helped craft: "You amaze me with how you make every word count," she wrote. "I can’t put a price tag on what you do -- thanks so much!”
The net result of our collaboration was that the transformer got replaced – a great result made all that sweeter when Sue confirmed that the hum and vibration that had so overwhelmed her life had disappeared. Every story should have a happy ending like that, don’t you think?
So how can Brian help you?
To contact Brian Faulkner about potential writing and/or narration projects:
336-251-2203
[email protected]
336-251-2203
[email protected]