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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Mar 2

My 4-step plan for taking care of myself while writing

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

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If your life was a book…

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.

Feb 27

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How to use writing contests to reach your goals

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

Feb 24

Want to meet your writing goal? Don’t tell anyone about it

It may seem counter intuitive, but telling your friends your goal, such as, “I want to write a book,” is less likely to make you meet that goal.

Check out this three-minute Ted Talk to see why.

Feb 23

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Why I write

For years, I wrote poetry, legal briefs, and Christmas letters, but never prose (except that one short story in college that was so bad I vowed never to write prose again). But circumstances and people change. I remember exactly what propelled me into writing stories.

In 2003, I had a serious flare-up of an existing thyroid condition. I spent six months in bed and another six months regaining my strength. Often, before drifting off to sleep, I prayed I would wake in the morning. During this time, my life changed in many ways—I became more appreciative of family and friends, of sunlight, of the ability to walk, of grass and birds, of anything that made me laugh.

I also realized I was not 100% happy. I’d been ignoring my creative side for too long. I’d made a lot of progress in my life—overcoming childhood trauma and a failed first marriage. I’d been an excellent mother and provider for my son—home schooling, meeting all his needs–including piano lessons and helping him fulfill his gift of touching people’s souls with music, but somewhere in the process I had neglected my own soul’s needs. For me, writing was like breathing. And I’d been holding my breath too long. Read more

Feb 21

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Go deeper in your writing by changing your vision (literally!)

I’m always looking for ways to stimulate my creativity or go deeper in my writing. In a previous post, I wrote about using timed writes as a way to do this. I’ve also written about the effects of writing to music or a specific beat.

Today, I toyed with another way to go deeper–changing my vision. Literally. Normally, I wear glasses for distance and reading (yes, I admit to bifocals–without lines, of course). When I write on my laptop, I wear my glasses so I can see the screen. But when I write by hand, I find that I often take them off. I like how my vision becomes slightly blurry…as if I’m writing by Braille (well, not really but my vision is so bad, I may as well be). Read more

Feb 17

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Three types of writing groups, part 3

I’ve belonged to several writing groups over the years–some focused on critiquing and some focused on writing. But there’s another type of writing group:

The Packet-Focused Writing Group:  I graduated from a low residency MFA program a few years ago where we sent packets of annotations and creative work to our advisors every three weeks. Though the schedule was often grueling, sometimes I miss having to send those packets off and getting feedback on my work.

My blog partner and I recently decided to send each other writing packets–to motivate us, keep us moving in the direction of our goals, and to make us accountable to somebody other than the face in the mirror. You could try this with another writer you respect or even with a group of writers.

Our rules: We’re highly flexible, but our general plan is to email a packet to each other by Sunday night of each week. The packets can contain anything we want feedback on–a poem, a group of poems, a chapter, an outline, story ideas, a query letter, a resume, etc. We also send a short cover letter (email) with any questions we have or what we want the other to focus on. Read more

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