However, if you prefer someone who’s a bit more locked in…
Take a look at this post from daily writing tips.com
Or…be your own writing coach.
Tag: writer’s advice
Writers Horoscope December 31: A familiar question wells up…
Maybe you took Austin Kleon’s 30-Day Challenge. And you nailed it.
And then that question: What’s next?
Consider this thought from Ian Svenonius, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group:
You will never know exactly what you must do, it will never be enough… no matter what change you achieve, you will most likely see no dividend from it. And even after you have achieved greatness, the [tiny number of people] who even noticed will ask, ‘What next?’” **
And so the question: What next?
This is not to dismiss what you might have accomplished in the last month…or year…or decade. Or to evoke dissatisfaction.
Instead, use the question as a prod to pursue new projects, skills, friends.
Or maybe I’m just nudging myself in that direction.
Either way, have an adventurous–and fulfilling–2018.
**got Svenonius quote from a blog post by Austin Kleon
Note: The link for Svenonius’s book is an affiliate link. It doesn’t raise the price on the book, but it will bring me a very small amount of money.
Writers Horoscope December 8: Today, you can’t make up your mind.
Who can blame you?
Some folks post content about setting goals, about finishing, establishing habits.
And those same shmucks then post suggestions to break habits, to mix things up. And they glorify those times when they procrastinate on their writing.
Who are these people and why are they allowed to publish this drivel? It has to stop!
Maybe tomorrow.
In the meantime, just to add to the confusion, take a look at what Susie Orman Schnall says in Writer’s Digest about balancing work and life. Pay particular attention to tip #4.
Writers Horoscope December 7: Don’t let your groove become a rut.
Your sacred habits?
Behold the thrill of breaking one.**
Change things up.
Write a letter to the editor.
Write a letter to an editor.
Set the timer for twenty minutes. Race against the clock and generate as many words as you can. [If you need to cheat, list a few topics at the top of the document/sheet of paper, and then set the timer.]
Of course, none of these ideas will send you hurtling through the snow like Truffle here.
Maybe that comes next.
My camera will be ready.
** Those goals you set days ago? They’re not going anywhere. Neither is your discipline.
Writers Horoscope December 6: Today, you aim for a detour.
Every day, you head straight to work.
Why don’t you head straight to play instead?
Maybe–armed with your journal and a favorite writing book–a side trip to a quiet coffee shop?
Not a bad way to start the day–as a writer, not as a colleague working on the Herlihy account.
Writers Horoscope December 5: Excuses, excuses…
Hey, we all need them.
How about…
“I’d be writing but…
- “That chocolate chip skillet cookie just had to be made. And eaten.” [My wife did the baking; I helped her with the eating.]
- “Geeeez, that Hallmark movie’s Nielsen Ratings need me.”
- “Right now, I’m getting more concrete results from cleaning the garage than rewriting that last chapter.”
- “I just have to call my friend back east, even though she hasn’t acknowledged my existence in the last eighteen and a half months.”
Okay, there you go. But you can only use them once. And then it’s back to work.
Tell me your favorites you’ve used [overused?] through the years.
Writers Horoscope December 4: Today, you redefine ‘practice’.
With help from Seth Godin.
One kind of practice fits the traditional definition. We repeat processes until we improve. Shooting baskets, playing ‘Greensleeves’, making the perfect sunnyside-up egg.
Says Godin:
“The other kind of practice is more valuable but far more rare.”
“This is the practice of failure. Of trying on one point of view after another until you find one that works. Of creating original work that doesn’t succeed until it does. Of writing, oration and higher-level math in search of an elusive outcome, even a truth, one that might not even be there…We become original through practice.”
Here’s hoping you’re making time for both types of practice.
Writers Horoscope December 3: You experience déjà vu.
I’m going with three projects to finish in December.
1. An online mini-course on ‘writing to learn’.
3. Leaning toward the mundane, simply put: Car in the garage by January, 2018. [Granted, it’s not even close to ‘hoarder’s condition’, but really, it’s been 16 years since a car has actually fit in the garage at this house.]
I’ll once again be using Austin Kleon’s 30-Day Challenge–Every day I will: form to keep me focused.
And this time, I’m slapping it on the wall beside my ‘Habit-Stacking’ chart.
**
The Habit Stacking link is an affiliate link. It doesn’t raise the price on the $3.99 book and it might make me a quarter, if that much.
Writers Horoscope December 2: You start your resolutions early.
You’ve been encouraged before to see projects through.
Here.
And here.
One month left in 2017. What can you put in the plus column?
More guidance from Jon Acuff , author of Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.
I’ll even join you.
My challenge: Finish three projects by December 31. They don’t have to be big ones. They don’t have to be ones you’ve already started. I’ll let you know my three soon-to-be-finished projects. [Overconfidence…it’s so unbecoming.]
I would love to hear even one of yours comment section!
Let’s gain momentum from each other.
Writers Horoscope December 1: Your mind is a jumble.
Even when you have momentum and direction and focus, it’s easy to drift into a quagmire of your writing life’s ins and outs and ups and downs. [Four prepositions ought to be enough.]
The challenge is to rebound and play to your strengths.
