I subscribe to Joe Bunting's The Write Practice. He sends me an email everyday on some facet of writing. Today's was particularly relevant to me since he encouraged his readers to: Be brave. Be bold. Claim your title. Say it with me: ˜I am a writer.' That's what I did yesterday while Stewart at the Apple store was helping me set up my new iPhone. When Stewart asked what I did, without hesitation I told him, I am a writer. And he wanted to know immediately what I write. It turns out that I'm still in my poetry practice phase, so I told him I've been getting back on my writing feet by writing two or three poems a day using prompts I get online. However, I also shared that I have a published memoir out, Leaving the Hall Light On, and I'm working on a novel. At that point I gave him my author business card. With that he shared with me that he has a degree in creative writing from a local university. And you guessed it. We were off and running. Within our twenty-thirty minute … [Read more...]
Making my product perfect
In Joe Bunting's "The Write Practice" piece, The Ten Lessons Dr. Seuss Can Teach Writers, dated February 27, 2015, I resonated with these two lessons: 6. Be a Perfectionist: It took Dr. Seuss nine months to finish The Cat in the Hat, a book that only contains 236 unique words. He would often spend as much as a year finishing just one book. And these were not long books! Each sentence, each word is important. Don't rush. Keeping molding your writing until it's just right. (Share that on Twitter?) 7. Cut Your Book Down to Its Essence: Longer is not better. Cut your book down to its essence. #SeussLessons (Share that on Twitter?) As he worked on a book, Dr. Seuss would sometimes discard ninety-five percent of it before he was finished. It was not uncommon for him to throw out 95% of his material until he settled on a theme for his book. *** These points verify how important it is to edit and cut. My goal was to cut 9,000 words from my manuscript, and I'm happy to say I'm just about … [Read more...]
Joe Bunting’s favorite writing quotes
I love Joe Bunting's blog The Write Practice. I read it everyday and I save every post in their own folder with my other saved emails. I also love to collect quotes myself, so Joe's piece on December 19, 2014 absolutely resonated with me. Please note that I attribute the following quotes about writing to Joe's blog The Write Practice. Joe says: "Some of these quotes, I've been collecting for years, others I found only recently, but all of them speak to universal truths about why people become writers and how to become a writer. I hope you enjoy the quotes as much as I enjoyed discovering them. I hope you'll find some value in them as I did." Please click on his blog to read more of his thoughts about writing and what these quotes mean for writers. And finally a quote by Joe Bunting: … [Read more...]
New challenge: a blog post a day
I'm always willing to take the challenge. Joe Bunting over at The Write Practice says it's easy and a good way to get our names and books out there. So here I go. It's the first of the month. Let's see if I can come up with a post everyday - at least everyday this month. Anyone want to join me? I decided to leave my home computer and go over to our local bakery for lunch. I always find my muse here, even with the music blaring. It's fun to people watch, and besides the food is great. Unfortunately I can't eat the bakery anymore since I'm lactose intolerant and gluten free. No matter, the salads are great and very fresh. And speaking of muse, here's the poem I just wrote here: At the Bakery They come here in a steady stream and wait in long lines to order. There's sandwiches listed on the board salads pre made in the cooler below the counter with baskets of fresh baked cookies and sweet rolls over to the left. I've been coming to this place for years. It's where … [Read more...]
Proust’s Thirty-Five Questions to Ask Your Characters
I've been reading the Write Practice for several months and always find the posts informational and provocative. I was particularly taken with today's post about delving into the lives of your novel's characters. I'm in the midst of the first revision of my novel and I'm looking for ways to round them out. Marcel Proust's Thirty-five Questions to Ask Your Characters will definitely help. Here's his list, written in the late nineteenth century. By the way, his answers sold in auction for €102,000 in 2003. 1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? 2. What is your greatest fear? 3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? 4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? 5. Which living person do you most admire? 6. What is your greatest extravagance? 7. What is your current state of mind? 8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? 9. On what occasion do you lie? 10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? 11. Which living person … [Read more...]
I’m inundated with writing information
I get posts from the sites listed below either daily or weekly. They take over my email stream. And if I read each and every one of them every day, I wouldn't have time for anything else including what I'm sitting down to do WRITE! Mind you, this list doesn't include posts from blogs I regularly follow, a daily poem, and other various emails from the Writer's Market, Amazon, Powell's Books, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter the list goes on and on. So what do you think? Which ones should I continue getting? Which ones should I toss? Also, are there any that I'm missing? I'd love to hear from you. Storyfix is about getting real with your writing dream. About writing the kinds of stories that attract a readership through an understanding of craft and harnessing the power of the underlying principles that make it so. If you want to publish your work, if you want a career as a writer, then you've come to the right place. ~ Larry Brooks Copyblogger has been teaching … [Read more...]