March 2010

I asked some writers to tell me about the quirks, eccentricities and habits that make up a writer's life. Here are some great answers.

... when the blank page excites you

from Bethany Kanui

... you rewrite, rather than edit.

...you proofread (and usually edit) every email and text you send!

from Brian Leugs

 

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It's been a while since I rounded up and recommended some good writing blogs, but I have come across quite a few this week, so here they are...{drumroll please}

Wrightwell.  Kathy Lawson's informative blog about writing covers many areas that modern freelance writers are working in, from web copy to sales letters and every kind of business writing in between.  You can also Follow her on Twitter @wrightwell

Top "must-read" post?  How to Manage your Writing Workload


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The Creativity BookI recently found some older books that I had and was pleasantly surprised to see Eric Maisel’s “The Creativity Book” among the titles in my boxes. The book is aimed at those wishing to get inspired for creative projects and contains a year’s worth of inspirational and creative activities, some of which are definitely better than others. Most of the activities are geared more towards writers than visual artists.

I can’t claim that this book fares well against Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”, but there are some nuggets of wisdom in the pages that make “The Creativity Book” worth taking a look at.

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I am just back from a very eventful trip to London.  I saw all the sights, I experienced plenty of what the lively, bustling city has to offer, and came away with sheafs of hotel notepaper jotted with ideas for articles.  The trouble now, is deciding how to tackle each topic.  I often come across this problem after a particularly interesting interview, or when research for a specific topic reveals layers of fascinating information all begging to be written about.  So how exactly do you find the best angles within a mass of ideas?


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I'm not sure what happened today.  This morning, I was a vibrant, successful freelancer with a long client list and plenty of glowing possibilities.  As the day wore on I was thrilled to see my to do list diminishing.  This writing lark seemed a cinch! Suddenly, at about 4pm, I had to tackle a particularly thorny project and was overwhelmed by a feeling of insecurity.  Why had I promised this client xyz?  Could I really deliver? Was my work up to scratch?  I found myself floundering and staring at the blank screen in a perfect imitation of a rabbit caught in the headlights.



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Spiral NotebookVia way of the Stranger.

As a fan of Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones” and Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”, which both encourage writers and would-be writers and artists to sit down at least once a day to write about three pages of longhand free-form writing, I am excited about the new 750 Words project.


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Is your blog unloved?"Dead" blogs are one of my pet peeves.  Especially when the now unloved blog had enough good content to still pop into the search results for niche keywords.  I click on a promising link, only to find the post is from 2004... and is one of the most recent entries!  Broken links, dusty designs and out of date contact details just add to frustration when I am researching a particular topic.  I often wish there was a rule that any blog that didn't post at least once a month would be labelled as "out of date" within Google.



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