writer’s advice – Word Inventions

Curation Corner: Jane Friedman always delivers value

I was reading Jane Friedman’s weekly Electric Speed and thought to myself, “Self, why haven’t you shared this on your blog?”

And Self said, “Because you’re sometimes a clueless shlub, that’s why.”

Well, the conversation went on and on with back-and-forth accusations of too much time spent baking scones and watching Leave It to Beaver to escape the realities of 2021 and my wife calling a therapist–any therapist available on a Sunday morning–and, well, you get the point. There’s so much useless drivel out there, you surely don’t need any more of it seeping into your already frenzied state…which, by the way, is exactly what I’m doing right now, so you should probably add a pernicious [when’s the last time I used that word?] comment below…

Based on the above ‘departure’, Jane Friedman–publisher of Writer’s Digest, by the way–would probably beg me to never, ever again mention her name on this blog. But hey! ‘The price of fame’, right? And really, if she didn’t share good content, she wouldn’t have been included here, right?**

Good content like:

— Doodle Ipsum (Customize your own doodles and post/share/admire/submit to The Louvre/make NFT’s out of them [I guess.]

— Forvo (“All the words in the world. Pronounced.”)

— Fellow writers’ at-the-desk stretches [reader contributions]

Hope these help. Go sign up for Jane F’s newsletter. No affiliate $$ motive here, no nothing. Just hope you find some value.

**So it’s her fault!

Curation Corner: Wealth of Writer’s Digest Freebies

As I cruised the Writer’s Digest website for other resources, I came across this page of free downloads. [Signing up for their newsletter is requested, however.]

Some of the topics:

— Cheat Sheets for NaNoWriMo

— Plot Development: Charts and Tips for Outlining and Plotting a Novel 1

— 4 Amateur Mistakes Every Writer Should Avoid

Hope these help.

Curation Corner: Considering NANOWRIMO?

Further affirming a recent post‘s message…

Writer’s Digest offers this PDF of 30 writing prompts and six essays of advice and inspiration to help veterans and newbies get the most out of the annual challenge.

Hope it helps.

Curation Corner: Write something.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Seth_Godin_in_2009.jpg

Write.

Improve.

Post.

Repeat process.

Do this enough and you can overcome your fear of writing, which is a most accurate explanation for ‘writer’s block’.

Thank you, Seth Godin. Here is his ‘Top 100’.

Tough writer talk from Margaret Atwood

Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.”

I don’t think I’d mess with her. ;->

And geeeez, talk about someone who is not just an accomplished writer, but an accomplished person…

Meanwhile, I love what Grammarly says about her wording:

Can you adopt this perspective for 1/24th of your day?

An Austin Kleon writing strategy: Keep dumb thoughts.

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.]

My kind of writing coach…

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.

Here’s an interesting look at this approach.

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?

boy-on inner tube in ocean

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.