Tag Archives: Writing

Curation Corner: Writers, don’t panic!

girl hugging bear gratisography-401H

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.

 

Blackout horoscope: Are the mystics dialed in to your writing future?

Let me know if you’re interested in the simple process to create your own blackout poems. These fun exercises are inspired by Austin Kleon.

 

Original astrological content from https://www.jacquelinebigar.com/

Curation Corner: Don’t Delete!

I appreciated Mary Gaitskill’s wisdom in this item I gleaned from advicetowriters.com

Here’s an excerpt from the excerpt:

“When you’re writing on the computer, you don’t cross it out, you just delete it. But now, if I’m not sure, I don’t delete it. Instead of making the revision, I just put it in a bracket and write my second idea, and I can look back and see which I think was better, because sometimes the first thing is actually better.“

Writing Warmups for January 4

writing in a notebook
If you need a little warmup today, toy with a few of these ideas.

  1. “You look like your unders are creeping up on you.”
    “Naaah, he always looks like that when he’s outnumbered by dorks.”

  2. “Harvey! Here’s a show for you!–How Doers Get More Done.”
    “Funny, Margo. Very funny.”

  3. “I made over $10,000 and now I can buy my own car!”

  4. I was now officially out of the loop.

  5. “Get free delivery on your hardware equipment!” the TV blared at us.
    “Oh, great, and once it arrives, we’ll need help simply opening the boxes.”

  6. Just when we thought the world was safe from…

  7. “Even I know that!” I said and strolled away, hoping against hope that I could find out what I was supposed to know…

  8. There was very little reason to enter that room. But against my better judgement…

  9. “Yes, I guess you could say I am your latest ‘convert’.”

  10. I was afraid to close my eyes. We all were, actually.

 

Plot generators—interesting and fun tools for writers

https://blog.reedsy.com/plot-generator/

Other plot generators on the Internet–

Guys weekend!! My latest eCard

cavemen attending to daily chores

Passing this along from my other blog, retirerenew.com…

After completing a five-day ‘showing up’ challenge, I’m focusing these next four days just on my Incomplete Book of Retirement Wisdom**.

More on the challenge later…

**The book doubles as a collection of eCards.

Suggestions:

— Save/download the image above and send it to a retired/soon-to-retire friend.

— Better yet…

  1. call it up in an image editing program [even a presentation program like PowerPoint will work]

  2. slap an even better caption on top of mine or add a personal comment

  3. export it as a JPG or PNG, and email/text message it to that friend.

Writers: Looking to suck some valuable time from your already busy day? Launch an all-out investigation into whether or not you should add an apostrophe between the ‘y’ and the ‘s’ in ‘guys weekend’. I skipped that annoying grammatical gnat–I figured ‘guys’ answers the question ‘what kind of weekend?’, which makes it an adjective, not a possessive. I’ve also been sticking to the  ‘better done than perfect’ guideline. Now I can sleep peacefully…until the dog digs his shoulder into my solar plexus. [A writer’s day isn’t complete until he shoehorns ‘solar plexus’ somewhere into his digital blather.]

I should be writing. Instead, a new app.

thisissand screenshot

Above is a screenshot from the thisissand app, billed as an app that merges art, creativity, and relaxation. Hey, if the creators can justify my procrastination for me, I’m all for it.

Plus, the price was right.

If you’re in the mood to kill 40+ seconds, here is a short demo.

 

I should be writing. Instead, poring over the newspaper…

switched rake

Yes, I owe it to the local citizenry that I stay informed on the vital issues of the day.

Fellow writers, be on the lookout for similar social chaos. You never know what lurks around the corner…of your local Ace Hardware.