Blog – Page 61 of 451

Keeping Motivated

July 7, 2017June 22, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I lurk in a lot of Facebook groups and while there are always writers who are pumped up about writing and promoting (yes, really, there are those writers!) I notice that there are just as many who seem frustrated or discouraged: either with their writing progress or with their lack of sales.

Sometimes they’ll be at least making steady sales and then will get completely undone by a terrible review.

Sometimes they say that they don’t really have family support for writing or feel as though they have to make a ton of sales to justify their writing.

Sometimes their life has turned upside down with medical issues for themselves or for people close to them. Or it’s turned upside down for other reasons.

In these circumstances, it’s really tough to keep going. There’s a lot to be discouraged about and sometimes it’s hard to be creative or motivated when faced with a lot of discouragement.Continue reading

Art in the Everyday

July 3, 2017June 28, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I was looking for a movie to watch and stumbled across “Paterson” on Amazon Prime Video (free to Prime customers).

The description of the movie reads:
Every day, Paterson adheres to a simple routine: he drives his daily route, he writes poetry into a notebook; he stops in a bar and drinks exactly one beer; he goes home to his wife, Laura. By contrast, Laura’s world is ever changing. New dreams come to her almost daily. The film quietly observes the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.

It was, I think, the quietest movie I’ve ever watched. Because of its R rating, I kept expecting some sort of horribly violent or upsetting incident to take the film in another direction. But there was nothing violent or especially upsetting (except, well, maybe for writers. I won’t give any spoilers here). I discovered later that the R rating was because of language, although I didn’t even remember or notice bad language–a sign that it must have been slipped in very naturally.

Although I’m not a poet (at least not a good one), I loved the way that poetry was woven into the everyday (repetitive, routine, and rather boring lives) of the main characters. I’m a subscriber to Poet.Org’s Poem-A-Day newsletter, which sends me a poem to read each day (frequently accompanied by the poet’s thoughts on the poem and a bit of bio). As critic Kate Taylor wrote for The Globe and Mail: “Everyone, it appears, is capable of art.” And: “…The sameness of it all only serves to underline that the creative act belongs to all of us every day.”Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

July 2, 2017July 1, 2017Twitterific

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 40,000 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.

Creativity and Inspiration / First Novels

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Back Up Your Work

June 30, 2017June 28, 2017Business of Writing, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Every so often, I run a variation of the same post. It’s a public service announcement to back up your work.

I have heard so many horror stories from writers about lost work that I truly believe their stories account for the white hairs I have cropping up.

The most harrowing tale is from long ago. Hemingway lost months of work because his wife, who was bringing the stories (and, sadly, also the carbon copies) to him in Switzerland. She left the overnight bag unattended to get water before the train pulled out. When she returned, the bag, and his work, were gone. More about this episode here on the Hemingway Project site (including a recorded interview with his wife, Hadley, on the subject).Continue reading

Help Handling Requests

June 26, 2017June 26, 2017Business of Writing, Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I was reading through my Feedly RSS feeds (I work and curate links about a month behind in the feed reader) and I came across a post by writer Steven Pressfield. It was one of those articles where I scheduled a share, but then saved the post to read more closely again later. It was called “Clueless Asks” and as soon as I read the title, I knew what it was going to be about. Because I get a lot of these asks, myself. In the post, Steven Pressfield explains that time ‘is the single most valuable commodity you own.’

Funnily enough, I was on another blog and they mentioned a post from industry expert Jane Friedman (and I’m laughing as I write ‘industry expert’ because that’s something she addressed in her post, as well). She wrote in response to “Clueless Asks” a post titled “If You’re Successful, People Ask for Help. But Who Deserves It?” She writes: “Today, even before I open my email, my blood pressure spikes thinking of all the requests, problems, and complaints I’m likely to find.” It’s a great post and mentions how she’s compromised in some instances to respect her time while still responding to requests.

These are different from opportunities. I’m good at saying no to speaking at far-flung events where I will have to spend money for gasoline or a plane ticket and a hotel without getting compensation. These other requests are, as Jane Friedman and Steven Pressfield put it, ‘asks.’ And they’re from people I don’t know.

I’m adding on to their excellent posts because I know writers (and several of them are regulars here) who are in the same boat. They want to help people who ask them for help. They’re overwhelmed with emails and requests. What can they do?

Just a quick note that this article is not directed at my readers or online friends who reach out. I never mind emailing and reaching out to either of those groups because they know me…either through my books/characters, my blog, etc. This is more how I handle asks from people I’ve never heard of who reach out.