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Snow in Arkansas? Everything shuts down! Stomach bug? I shut down! But does the writing ever shut down? Today, we’re expecting an inch of snow. Now, you northerners will laugh, but here in the mid-South, that’s serious stuff and we stay home. Really. That means today, I have to: Go to the grocery store and [...]
Note: This is a rerun of a post I did two years ago. The reality of delayed recognition still means that authors must somehow make it through the early days of a book’s life cycle, without knowing if anyone will like it or not. The winner of the 2013 Newbery has probably just gotten that [...]
Getting the Writing Done Some days are overwhelming with 1000 tasks and ideas competing for attention. How do you focus on what really needs to get done? How to you make sure the “imperative” things (those things that must be done TODAY) don’t take over the “important” things? First, make sure you know what’s important [...]
Yes, I’m going to take a day off. I’m going to: clean house grocery shop meet a friend for coffee pay bills and balance the checkbook take a nap take a walk; maybe take two or three walks maybe take a second nap I’m NOT going to: read a book work on a manuscript talk [...]
Kathi Appelt says, “Write as if your hands are on fire.” Stories need passion to come to life. How do you write with passion when life interferes so much? This year has been full! We’ve had a new grandbaby (he’s a kick!), a wedding (stunningly beautiful), my daughter and new son-in-law moved to a new [...]
Today, I’m just contemplating these wise words: The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork (including writing) is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars. — David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking Before the gates of [...]
Between blogs, email, Facebook, etc. I find myself jumping around too much. I need a way to concentrate on my writing better. So, this week, I’m trying Q10. It is a text editor that fills the screen with no tool bars, no access to other programs unless you save and exit, and a built-in timer.
May, 2010: New grandson. June, 2010: Other daughter’s beach wedding. July, 2010: Hectic teaching schedule, including seven teacher professional development sessions and a novel revision retreat near Boston. Be My Cheerleaders! August: Writing. I am a writer and writers write. September: Writing. I am a writer and writers write. October and November: two novel revision [...]
I have no wisdom for you today, just some questions. I am overwhelmed with social media! EVERY application out there claims to be able to pull your links together into one place, cross-post, etc. So, here are my burning questions. OK, my whining questions. How do you prioritize your time/effort? I do my blog and [...]
Summer time is inevitably full of stops and starts in our writing. There are vacations, the pull of a sunny day, kids’ activities and much more. For me, I’m teaching several professional development classes this summer; local teachers must attend 60 hours of PD/year and often focus on this requirement during the summer. Great work [...]
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