Category Archives: productivity
If you’re writing memoir…free course
I’m currently taking the non-fiction course offered by scribewriting.com. With a number of resources and ample instructor expertise, the logical and methodical approach been very helpful in addressing audience and outlining the larger project. [Tomorrow, we will cover more of the actual writing of the book and on Friday, they are offering a Q. and A. session that will last at least an hour.]
These same folks will be teaching a free course on memoir next week.
Follow this link to sign up: https://scribewriting.com/bookschool/
Just thought I would pass along the info for those considering a new non-fiction project.
Curation Corner: Writerly Wisdom
Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing
Thanks to Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings for this excellent page that includes Miller’s ‘daily program’.
My favorites:
- Work on one thing at a time until finished.
- Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
- Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
This 21 Authors Share One Piece of Advice for Writers post by Robert Lee Brewer from Writer’s Digest could easily be a springboard for 21 separate posts. The word cloud above offers a few items from the article. Take a look.
Curation Corner: Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing
Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing
Thanks to Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings for this excellent page that includes Miller’s ‘daily program’.
My favorites:
- Work on one thing at a time until finished.
- Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
- Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
Curation Corner: On sticking to your story, a daily 15 minutes, and chipping away
Don’t ever write anything you don’t like yourself and if you do like it, don’t take anyone else’s advice about changing it. They just don’t know.
RAYMOND CHANDLER
***
Write for fifteen minutes every day. Set a time in advance, set a timer. Try to write at the same time every day. Your subconscious will get used to the idea and will start to work like a reliable water spout.
NAOMI ALDERMAN
***
The terror of the white page never goes away, no matter how much you publish. Do you know how terrified I was this morning, as I woke up and walked into my latest novel? And it doesn’t get any better. Every time I finish a piece of work, I am completely terrified that I’m going to be found out, that I’m a charlatan, that I have nothing left anymore. That I can’t do it anymore. It’s no good; I’ve lost touch. Through all of that, you find another block of stone. You just continue to carve and chip away.
COLUM McCANN
***
Thanks to Jon Winokur–via his Twitter feed– and his Advice to Writers for these first three quotes.
Curation Corner: Bradbury, Goldberg, and Faulkner quotes
From the ‘Do as I share, not as I do’ department:
When you write – explode – fly apart – disintegrate! Then give time enough to think, cut, rework, and rewrite.
RAY BRADBURY
From the ‘Cripes, I hate it when people make me feel responsible for my own life’ department…
Sometimes people say to me, “I want to write, but I have five kids, a full-time job, a wife who beats me, a tremendous debt to my parents,” and so on.
I say to them, “There is no excuse. If you want to write, write. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait. Make the time now, even if it is ten minutes once a week.’
NATALIE GOLDBERG
From the ‘Benefits of setting the bar low’ department:
Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Curation Corner: Showing up…
A recent item from Jon Winokur’s Advice to Writers…
Sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you’re the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in.
—THOMAS HARRIS
***
My take: For me, there is something magical about getting in that first 100 words. They don’t have to be quality words, of course, but just getting me to notice that I ‘showed up’ is a forward step.
I start the day in my notebook quite simply: “Showing up–the date–First 100 words” and I take it from there. The total often stretches to 150+ words. Interesting, though: There are times when I enter the list-making ‘zone’, so even if I don’t reach the century mark, I know those are quality words that are giving my work some added focus.
**Photo by Jesus Hilario H. on Unsplash
An eye-for-details activity
I’m working on a mini-course, so I’ll be posting some of the activities here.
The activities are intended for a range of writers, though seasoned veterans may not be interested. Again, I’ll be using this site to park some of my works.
Keeping daily expectations manageable
- Walked dog. [Imperative in his world. By 7:30 AM, reaches state of ‘Urgent!’.]
- Baked biscuits. [Imperative in my world.] Here’s the recipe.
- Opened package containing aloe vera to complete my sanitizer ingredient list. Confession: Needed to review my Amazon orders to remind myself what was in the box.
- Dodged 94.1% of the daily newspaper to read the comics.
- Rendered my 3.2 readers comatose with above list.
I should be writing. Instead…bread pudding.
Sweet potato bread pudding, to be specific, inspired by an episode of George Hirsch Lifestyle
I had leftover monkey bread/pull apart from a local bakery–the parts lacking anything resembling sweet, syrupy, or nutty [i.e. the dry stuff that should have been drenched, but wasn’t. Okay, so I’m a hard-nose when it comes to unhealthy, but oh-so-good pastries.]
And I figured it would be a great springboard for a bread pudding.
Anyway, I steamed the sweet potatoes and worked in plenty of vanilla, cinnamon, and brown sugar. The resulting mash sat peacefully in the fridge for a couple of days and this morning mixed well with the sweetened custard, then the bread, chopped pecans, and rehydrated cranberries.
I can’t seem to track down the exact recipe, sorry. So, bakers, just mix it all together and keep an eye on it. At 350 degrees, the pudding–about 2.5 inches high– took about 70 minutes–foil-covered for the first 40 minutes, then crisping up the rest of the time.
L. convinced me that the sweet potatoes made this a health food. Worked for me.
Word Inventions 