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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Nov 16

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Want more big ideas? Turn off your phone

Want more big ideas? Turn off your phone and let your mind wander. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Happy at Home, has a rule for herself when she’s traveling from one place to another, whether it’s by foot, taxi, or subway. She turns off her phone. No checking e-mail, texting, surfing the web, or talking.

In an interview with author Daniel Pink, Rubin said she used to force herself to check e-mail in an effort to be more efficient.

“Then I thought back on my life as a writer,” she said. “Every time I had a major idea that made me write a book about a subject or led to a year-long obsession, I was walking, on a bus, or on a subway.” Read more

Nov 14

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Improve your power of observation: Write a poem a day

Do you want to be more observant? Try this: Write a poem a day.

I’ve been trying it and it’s taken my observational skills up a notch. Even if you don’t see yourself as a poet, try it anyway. Not only will you enhance your ability to see more of the world around you, you’ll begin to tune into your writing in a new way. You’ll become more conscious of words and their connotations. These skills will carry over into other forms of writing that you do.

Here are several tips that might help:

1. First, don’t freak out. Relax and just tell yourself that you’re going to go with the flow. You don’t have to write completely polished poems here. Just write. Your poem doesn’t even have to be “finished” the day you write it. Shoot for having a “draft.” Read more

Nov 12

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25 tools to keep you in your writing groove

Plenty of things can distract us from our writing mission. Here’s a list of 25 writers’ resources, that should make your writing life a little easier and more productive.

Some of these will be especially helpful if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo.

Here are a few from the list:

SimplyNoise. If a noisy environment threatens to knock you out of your writing groove, you’ll love SimplyNoise, a free white noise generator. A slider button at the top of the web page offers a selection of white, pink, and brown noise. You can also make a donation and download others, including the sounds of ocean waves or a rainstorm. After five minutes of listening to the oscillating sounds of white noise, I was in a deep writing trance. Addictive. Read more

Nov 8

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NaNoWriMo or not, boost your word count

In our month-long celebration of NaNoWriMo, we’re offering tips, tools, and inspiration to help you write your heart out. NaNoWriMo or not, these resources and ideas will make you more prolific and creative well beyond November.

I was intrigued to find this post by author Rachel Aaron about how she went from writing 2,000 words a day to 10,000. Yes, you read that right. Here are brief explanations of her tips, with a link to the details in her blog post. She’s also written a book available for only 99 cents, which you can buy on Amazon, that details the process.

Side 1: Knowledge or Know What You’re Writing Before You Write It
After realizing a scene she’d written was a mess, Aaron discovered that if she scribbled out a short-hand version of what she planned to write on a pad of paper, she could quickly spot any writing pitfalls and more efficiently and quickly finish the scene, upping her word count.

Read more

Nov 6

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Get out of your reader’s way with these tips

Are you getting in your reader’s way? Getting in the way can take many forms. At the Vegas Valley Book Festival Saturday, young adult author Matt de la Peña presented a workshop about this very topic.

Here’s what he had to say:

Don’t bog down your story’s beginning. Be wary of loading it down with too many details, characters and too much backstory. Let the story unfold in a timely way. Read more

Nov 2

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How I Write: More articles about the daily routines of well-known authors

If you’ve entered the NaNoWriMo zone, you may find it useful to draw inspiration from published authors.

These novelists reveal the details of their daily writing routines.

Tim Lott, Emma Donoghue, Esther Freud, Ian Rankin, Lionel Shriver, and Maggie O’Farrell.

The interviews were published as part of a feature The Guardian published called How to Write a Book in 30 Days.

Feel free to share how you write in the comments below.

Nov 1

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Day one of your NaNoWriMo success

Congratulations! If you’re participating in this year’s Nanowrimo, today is day one of your writing success.

To help you along the way, below are two inspirational treats:

Bestselling author and writing mentor Bob Mayer has a great blog that he’ll update during the month with more posts for us Nanos. This post is about what to write. 

For a quick 3-minute break to lift your spirits listen to Nanowrimo A Capella here:

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