Mar 9
One of the things I love about writing this blog is how much I learn in the process.
Today, I’m highlighting several excellent posts from other bloggers who inspired me. Enjoy!
In this post, Joe Bunting writes about How to use motif to enhance your writing.
Chuck Sambuchino shares Five tips for writing a novel/memoir synopsis.
Tiffany Lawson Inman writes about character emotion in Too quick to tears: Emotional timing is everything.
In Carly’s post “Boost your writing ambitions with a personal writing mantra,” she writes about the benefits of developing your own writing mantra. At the beginning of this year, when I set my writing goals for 2012, I decided to give this a try.
My main goal was to build up my publishing credits by submitting my work to literary journals and contests. I have plenty of work ready to submit but over the last few years, my life got ultra busy, and I just wasn’t taking that extra step to get my work out there. So I decided on the phrase, “Progress on Purpose,” because it reminded me that any progress I make is because I am consciously and purposely making it happen.
It was a nice idea but I found that I could never remember the mantra! Maybe my brain stuttered over the alliteration or maybe they were just words that I wouldn’t normally use (being the laid-back-country-girl that I am). Just this week, during one of author Bob Mayer’s online courses, I discovered a new writing mantra that I can easily remember and that has more meaning for me: “The more I do something, the easier it becomes.”
I have a confession to make. I’m a journal-a-holic. It’s serious. It’s bad. I should be ashamed. I don’t always write longhand–often I use my laptop–but when I do write in a notebook or journal I want it to be special.
I’ve always liked bright, shiny things. They make me feel happy. So, naturally, I want a sparkly writing journal. And, because I have several journals going at once for various projects, I use my label machine to make a label for the front cover. (It satisfies my O.C.D).
Below are a few of my favorite journals:
The Spirit of Flight Journal. I have two of these — one for poetry and one for my fantasy book. I like the picture on the outside cover. It reminds me of the protagonist of my next book. Read more
One of my writing teachers once gave me and the rest of the students in our class an assignment to “play.” She went so far as to assign toys to us.
Somehow, she knew that playing would help us stretch our creative muscles. She instructed me to play with Play-Doh, the squishy colored clay you probably had as a kid.
I remembered this recently while reading the book, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want
Writing is a solitary job. We hide ourselves away in our own little world and sit for hours a day, sometimes forgetting to eat, drink, or even get up and stretch. Over time, these little neglects add up and suddenly I find myself having a hard time standing straight after a long writing session. Or, I feel lightheaded or mentally foggy because I haven’t eaten enough.
I don’t like to eat first thing in the morning–I’m more of a “where’s my coffee?” kind of girl. In fact, even thinking of eating something as soon as I get out of bed makes me nauseous. I like to wait a bit. But then I get busy–the phone rings or there’s some emergency in our business–and, before I know it, it’s 1 or 2pm and I still haven’t eaten. It’s no wonder why I’m so hungry at night and then eat too much. I KNOW this wrecks my metabolism and causes even more stress to my stressed-out thyroid so I’ve been working on some strategies to help myself remember to eat and move.
As artists, and especially writers, it’s important to take care of our minds and bodies, to stay mentally and physically alert. The conditions of our body and mind can directly impact the quality of our art.
Here are a few tips I find helpful: Read more
Feb 29
If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go?
This is the question Amy Purdy asks at the beginning of her 9-minute Ted talk. At the age of 19, Amy lost both legs below the knees and had to remake her life. Purdy says that obstacles are where our imaginations and story begin. Being creative isn’t just about our writing or our art…see how Amy turned her tragedy into a blessing and gift by using her creativity.
I’ve been on a contest kick lately. In my post about using a calendar to keep track of upcoming contests, I mentioned that part of my overall writing plan for 2012 is to submit to more contests and send my work out to be published in literary journals and magazines.
What I’m discovering as I do this is that the mini-deadlines are giving me just what I need to reach my larger goals. For example, I’ve been wanting to compile my first poetry manuscript for the last couple of years, but I just “never got around to it.” So, when my writing partner, Carly, emailed me a contest that she thought I might want to enter, I chose that contest deadline as the deadline to finally compile my manuscript. And I did it. And through that process, I learned so much and became motivated to think about what themes I want to explore in my next book of poetry. Read more
onewildword 