Like the Little Engine that Could

Just like the little engine in the story book I tell myself… I think I can, I think I can.  I added 12 more pages to my book draft today.  If I can just find the motivation and eliminate the distractions.  It was so much easier to type before the computer age when we had typewriters.  There was no internet looming in the background taunting me to look at it and all the flashing colors of pictures and text.  Sure I used to type with the t.v. or radio on in the background but that was way less distracting then the computer.  Of course t.v. isn’t the same either as it was back then, I don’t have cable anything just local TV, 5 channels, but I do have Netflix and that is a huge distraction in itself.  SO many shows to choose from, so much to distract me from writing.  I have to find the willpower to focus and write.  I can do, of course, I am just letting the technology gadgets distract me because it’s an easy excuse.  I suppose if I just leave it all off and dig in my heels and write I can get it done.  Sometimes the t.v. or radio help though as they spark a memory that is part of of one of my journal entries and it starts a whole new story topic.  So you see, there is an excuse around every corner.  I f I just tell myself, I think I can, I think I can I will be able to finish and find the satisfaction of completion.  I’ll see what tomorrow brings, maybe I can chug on past the distractions and really get going 🙂

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Writer Unboxed » How to Create Your Perfect Pen Name

FInding Focus

I stopped writing for awhile.  It’s not because I don’t have content, believe me my mother has given me plenty of content to write about 42 years worth of writing to be specific. No, I stopped writing to find my focus for my writing.  I can write my memories all I want but I don’t have a focus or purpose for them them I am writing for mo one including myself.  I had a friend and co-worker read over what I had so far and she gave me a few comments that got me going again.  I see my focus and where I  need to be so I that my writing is not just writing.    I always like to get an outside perspective as it helps me see things I may not normally see when I am so invested in my work,  For this book I have too invested and I have not been able to see the bigger picture and where I want my writing to go.  Friends can be a great resource to help a person put things into perspective.  I am back on track again and I hope to get some good writing done this weekend.  I still have plenty more to write about so I had better get going …

The Sea Change of Self-Publishing – Agents Wooing Authors!!!

Persistence

Whittier Strong

Yesterday a relative pointed out to me some troubles with yesterday’s post. She said, first off, that I painted my mom to be more naïve than she was. After all, she said, her first husband–before my father–had slept around and run off on her. Second, I had the facts of the divorce decree simply wrong. Our father could take us out of the county but not out of the state, that this is a standard clause in custody arrangements. I maintained that I was right because I remembered. My relative pointed out that she, unlike me, had actually read my parents’ divorce decree.

To the first point: One of the things I don’t like about blogging is the demand for conciseness. Though I could in theory write a 5,000-word blog post, I don’t have the time to write it, and no-one wants to take that long to read a…

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Authors who Blog: 6 ways to take your blogging to a deeper level

Creative Writing with the Crimson League

Yesterday, I wrote about some strategies I use to go deeper in my fiction. But is fiction all we authors have to worry about? We’re also supposed to blog, aren’t we? Everyone says, “If you want to be an author, you should be a blogger too.”

So, how do we go deeper writing nonfiction? Say, a blog post? Or when we want to repurpose our blog posts?

TIPS I USE

As you know, my blog has some memoir posts (my favorite is about the way my mom affected me as a writer), and a few snippets from my fiction, but it’s mainly a forum in which I connect with fellow writers by writing about writing.

How and why I write.

Explorations of style and grammar.

The things that keep me writing when the going gets tough.

Explorations of the nuts and bolts of writing: the benefits and drawbacks of…

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http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-write-novel-in-three-years-or.html

How I’m Handling A Writer’s Slump: When Writing–Fiction, Nonfiction, Blogging–Becomes Hard.

I’m glad I am not the only one that feels this way. . .

Creative Writing with the Crimson League

I have a writer’s confession to make: I’m in a slump. Stuck in writer’s quicksand. I’m an author who can’t write.

Yep. I talk about “writing every day” as a writer’s goal, and the joys of being a writer, and I dish out hard-earned knowledge from ten years of writing, while I have no drive to write lately.

That happens to all of us from time to time, I think, but I’ve never had a period of time before where writing–all writing–was so tough.

• I’m really struggling to find the energy and dedication to edit Writing for You: A Writer’s Guide to the Craft of Fiction. And that worries me, because I am honestly thrilled about the project and stoked for the upcoming release (July 31).
• I haven’t worked on fiction in a month. Seriously. A month. I have a first draft of a NaNoWriMo novel that I have…

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6 Reasons Google Beats Facebook for Author Platform Building

6 Reasons Google Beats Facebook for Author Platform Building.

Hacking the Print Cover? Or Just Adapting It…

Interesting, something I haven’t thought about for e-books.

(Don't) Judge a Book by Its Cover

As promised, here’s the beautiful cover designsby Cardon Webb for Oliver Sacks’ neurology series.

Just look at that! I love how each individual book can function on its own, but can come together in a unified collection. Never having read books on neurology before (I’m an A&H grad, yay Shakespeare!), I was first introduced to Webb’s work through Craig Mod’s article, “Hack the Cover” and he had some pretty interesting ideas.

Mod says it best so I’ll just quote: “This is the kind of design solution that plays nice in digital space (even better than on your bookshelf – after all, where do you have space to place six books face-out?) and could invite collection”. Couldn’t have said it better myself! That’s the beauty of digital technology: there’s always space. You can never run out! Covers now have the opportunity to be displayed without taking up that…

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