Branching out with my writing
The ordinary writer is bound to be assailed by insecurities as he writes. Is the sentence he has just created a sensible one? Is it expressed as well as it might be? Would it sound better if it were written differently? The ordinary writer is therefore always revising, always chopping and changing, always trying on different ways of expressing himself, and, for all I know, never being entirely satisfied.
–ISAAC ASIMOV
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It’s easy to urge each other to crank out ideas and imagery.There you go! You can now send your work on to the Pulitzer Prize committee.
Suggestion: Schedule a 15-minute visit to Copyblogger.You’re sure to leave with useful, shareable content.
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I recently signed up for daily delivery of Jon Winokur’s Advice to Writers, so I’m essentially curating his own curation. Today’s advice comes from Australian writer [and then some] Clive James.
“The only thing I’ve got better at as the years have gone by is I’ve grown more resigned to the fact that it comes hard. You realize that hesitation and frustration and waiting are part of the process, and you don’t panic. I get a lot better at not panicking. I get up every morning early if it’s a writing day and I will do nothing else but write that day. But the secret is not to panic if it doesn’t come.”
And whoa, what a wealth of resources you will find at advicetowriters.com.
and much more under the ‘Resources’ tab.
Enjoy.
Chime in below with your own favorite writing website.
Austin Kleon encourages us to be attentive and diligent in writing down all our thoughts and sift through them for later exploration.
How about ratcheting up your powers of attentiveness?
Here are a few ideas from Cris Freese in this Writer’s Digest article.
Reminder: Simply restricting one or more of the five senses will heighten the others. [Try closing your eyes while eating. You will most likely hear your chewing more distinctly and I’ve found more flavors are pronounced. But hey, maybe that’s just me. But really, try it.]
Get your writing done first because it’s not easy to crank up the momentum and confidence needed to fill your pages.
After breakfast, I launched into decluttering…even before shaving and cleaning up. Not only did I feel grungy [counterproductive in its own right]
Luckily, choosing to reconnect with a former student and a former teaching colleague, I did get my keyboarding fingers moving and real words [with value, even!] danced across the screen. AND I’ve even resisted the urge to turn on the AFC Championship game. AND I’ve chosen to not answer a text message till today’s words are done. [Thank you, thank you. You can stop rolling your eyes now.]
So, I guess the lesson for today is: Don’t give up hope. You can rise above all kinds of obstacles, even the self-imposed ones, and move forward with your projects.
NOTE: If your word processor offers the ‘Focus’ feature that displays just your text–no distracting menus, programs running in the background–give it a try.
In my previous post outlining resolutions for 2020, I caught myself proudly ‘cheating’.
Of no surprise, I detoured from finishing the post to tracking down this item from the British Broadcasting Corporation.
A few key points:
If this works for you, make 2020, the Year of the Cheat.
Let me know if you have other successful cheats.
Happy New Year
…and if you’re reaching for an extra hit or two of chocolate, we’re not watching [or judging].
Well, that ‘dying young’ ship has sailed. All the more reason, then, to launch [perhaps, ‘lurch’] forward with my life.
With 2020 on the horizon, then, it’s time to ramp up the resolutions under my creative reinvention umbrella.
Resolution #1: Be a pre-crastinator. Click to the 1:47 mark of Adam Grant’s Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers
“I know, I know,” I say to myself, “Keep dreaming.” But what the hey? Why not fool myself…even if it’s one day a week? One fevered creative surge every seven days is still an improvement.
In the interest of pre-crastination, then, I’m going to cheat and get a head start on…
Resolution #2: Read 20 books this year. That may not sound like much, but I’m aiming for ‘attainable‘. I seem to read plenty, but I don’t finish books like I used to. First on the docket: Art Matters by Neil Gaiman.
I will juggle it [it’s a short read] with Someday Is Not a Day in the Week : 10 Hacks to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
In fact, as I’m doing a little editing on this post, I have this TED Talk running in the background. [Maybe I’m onto something with this whole ‘cheating on your resolutions’ thing.]
Resolution #3: Publish four books. I’m soooo close on at least three, but really, folks, I spend more energy finding excuses to not close the deal on my projects than I do crossing the finish line. Unacceptable.
Resolution #4: Publish at least three online courses. As you can tell, this year is all about finishing. One of them is ongoing, but I’ve stalled on it. The other two are just rattling around in my brain.
Resolution #5: One post per week [at the very least] on my blogs. [Not thrilled with those times when crickets creep from the audience/peanut gallery to the production room.] I forget that posting is a way of keeping myself accountable on various projects. Keeping that perspective should help me stay on target.
Key ‘self-talk’ points:
Any suggestions or comments or mere scoffing? Chime in.
Note: Goodreads links are non-affiliate.
Sometimes I just have to get out of the house to get stuff done. So I pack up a few books, tablets, and treats [thank you to our neighbors for the apple galette…my oven’s out of commission and they know I’m a lost soul without it.], pick up some coffee, and head to my favorite location for a ‘mobile office’ [family car] session.
It never fails to deliver some photo-worthy scenery. And with it I’ve built my insta-haven for fresh writing ideas and inspiration.
Other places to keep up your writing pastime?
https://blog.reedsy.com/plot-generator/
Other plot generators on the Internet–
Word Inventions