Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series (as Riley Adams) and the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin and writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She also has a blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. There she posts on the writing craft, finding inspiration in everyday life, and fitting writing into a busy schedule.

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 45,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

I’m taking a summer blog break for a couple of weeks. No regular blog posts from me until July 29th, when I’ll return with an especially long Twitterific. Then I’ll be back with posts on writing book endorsements, fixing a short manuscript, and using CafePress for book merchandise. Have a great couple of weeks!

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Overcoming Perfectionism

Motivation and the Writing Life

Man in a button-down blue shirt holds paintbrushes in both hands (hands that are covered with various colors of paints).

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that I’m not a perfectionist.  There are too many typos for that to be the case.

There was a time, however, when I was a perfectionist.  I wasn’t nearly as productive as I am now, and I was extremely averse to hearing editorial suggestions from editors or even well-meaning beta readers.  The problem was that I wanted to fix my story’s problems myself … and even catch the errors myself.

I’m Type A now, but I’m not a perfectionist.  Usually I’ll do a task, any task, and figure it’s good enough.  It’s just that I’m very compulsive about doing the tasks. Laundry is done every day (the folding isn’t pretty), writing is done every day (sometimes it’s not pretty, either). But I’m extremely productive because I don’t feel the need to deliver something perfect to my editor.

As I mentioned, I wasn’t always this way. As a student, I was actually more like two different students rolled into one.  I was the English student who did very well, but felt pressure to be doing well, too (mostly internal pressure).  To me, hearing ‘do your best’ meant that a completed English assignment needed to be pretty extraordinary.  That’s what having even a modicum of talent does to you.

In math class, I was a horrendous student.  Despite tutors and hours and hours spent studying, I couldn’t grasp or apply concepts that I learned. Hearing ‘do your best’ in that class was actually very comforting.  It meant that it was understood that I might do (very) poorly on the test, but at least I had given it my all…which is all anyone can expect.

As a reformed perfectionist, this is my simple message for today: take ‘do the best you can’ the comforting, encouraging way when you’re writing.  Take ‘do the best you can’ the pushy, driven way when you’re revising your finished story, (if you take it at all).

For further reading on overcoming perfectionism:

17 Signs Perfectionism is Killing Your Writing Dreams by Mandy Wallace

5 Tricks to Sneak Past Perfectionism by Michelle Russell

Perfectionism is Murdering Your Muse by Veronica Sicoe

Do you struggle with perfectionism?  What’s helped you?

Overcoming Perfectionism: Click To Tweet

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How Many Words Should My Book Be?

Writing Tips

Man sitting at a table loaded with books.

by Caleb Kaiser, @ReedsyHQ

Word count is one of those things you don’t think about when you start writing the first page of your novel. It’s only after your book is completed, when you’re shopping around for agents or thinking of self-publishing, that you think, “Is my book the right length for selling?”

At Reedsy, we’ve connected thousands of authors with editors, proofreaders, designers, and marketers, and as a result, have access to a lot of data on books—particularly, book length.

Below we’ve broken down our insights on how long different genres of books should be.Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 45,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

Continue reading

Easy, Free Tool for Tracking Habits

Motivation and the Writing Life, Tools for Writers

Man's hands holding a cell phone.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve always kept a journal…well, since first grade, anyway.  I look back on those childhood diaries and wonder who that person was.  My adult journaling has been a lot more erratic than my childhood and teen journaling and the days usually fly by without my taking the time to make notes on them.

I’ve used online journals before, but the sites ended up going under (I did retrieve my entries before they did).

I’d heard about the free app Daylio (for Apple and Android) a while back, but because it was mostly billed as a mood tracker, I didn’t really take a closer look at it.  My moods are fairly even (and since I’ve been using Daylio, Daylio has backed this up).   But I think this could be incredibly useful to anyone who is trying to track moods because you can report all the activities you participated in on the excellent/good/bad day and see patterns. Maybe you have an especially good day when you fit in exercise and writing, or you have an especially bad day when you didn’t get enough sleep, etc.Continue reading

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