Motivation and the Writing Life

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

February 1, 2019January 31, 2019Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

One cool thing about blogging for over ten years is that a lot of the posts form a sort of unexpected diary. I was glancing over some older posts and came across this one from 2010. My son and daughter would have been 13 and 9 when I wrote it. I spoke of our bike ride on a nearby greenway and how we were biking so erratically (my daughter was still on a little kid bike) that a jogger kept passing us over and over again. He was going slow and steady and despite our occasional bursts of speed, kept overtaking us.

I made the observation that this was how my writing life worked. I didn’t go fast enough to get burned out but I didn’t go slow enough to get overwhelmed with the length of the project.Continue reading

Tips for Making the Writing Life Less-Stressful

December 14, 2018November 29, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Although I love what I do and can’t really imagine myself doing anything else, it’s not as if the writing life isn’t stressful. It’s not all The Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

There are always things that need our attention that compete with writing–kids, our parents, household repairs, jobs, etc. Then there’s managing daily life: meals, appointments, events. On top of it all, we need to take care of ourselves (probably the last thing on most of our lists, but one of the most important): exercise, sleep, healthy eating.

Invariably in interviews I’m asked how I manage everything and keep a sense of balance. I know exactly how I manage everything…I’m the queen of organization. I organize things (even other people in my family) within an inch of their lives. The balance? Well, some days are more balanced than others.

Here are some of my tips for keeping sane as a writer: Continue reading

Adapting Writing Routines

November 9, 2018October 5, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

It’s kind of interesting when you’ve been blogging as long as I have. Recently, I looked back over some of the posts from 2009 and 2010. My writing routine was very different back then and definitely something that was a work in progress. My guest post on Kaye Barley’s Meanderings and Muses blog explains how best to entertain children and get writing done (hint: bring their friends along).

In fact, many of my posts involved writing on the go. I learned to be very flexible with when and where I wrote…the whole point was to meet my goals however I could manage it.

It was, honestly, a crazy time. I was under contract for a couple of different series to Penguin and working on a 3rd for myself. My day, however, was very structured around my children’s activities and school days. I fit my writing around my children and it worked out really well.Continue reading

Reading as a Writer: Shifting from Private to Public

October 26, 2018September 16, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

For a long time, I avoided Goodreads altogether. It’s the kind of place that makes me uncomfortable as a writer and so I figured I shouldn’t be on the site at all.

But I’ve found that I can completely avoid my own books on Goodreads as long as I don’t deliberately look them up. And Goodreads has a lot to offer for readers.

I decided at first that I didn’t particularly want to share what I wrote as my author profile on the site. That’s mostly because I didn’t want to say if I didn’t enjoy a book…as Elizabeth S. Craig, Writer. And I didn’t necessarily want to share what I liked, either and have it be a public endorsement. Mainly what I wanted was a place to track my books, authors I enjoyed, and my reading life and find recommendations. So I set up an anonymous account there.

As time went on, I began to feel a little more comfortable about sharing what I was reading. And I’m not sure why: I’m a horrid reviewer (better at book blurbs). It started with my inclusion of what I was reading in my reader newsletter that goes out when I have a release. I found that when I wrote a few short sentences about several recently-read books, I had a very positive reader response. Readers were actually emailing me back about what they were reading, too.Continue reading

Entertainment as Inspiration: Books

October 22, 2018September 2, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve made a point to more than double the amount of reading this year than the year before. As with my consumption of film, music, and TV, I’ve tried to expand into new genres as a reader, hoping to better-inform my writing.

This has been made easier, once again, by keeping up with a TBR list (to be read) and by tracking what I’m reading.

Finding books to read:

I get a good number of suggestions from friends (both online and in person). But I’ve also found these things useful:

Goodreads. It’s not nearly as scary as a reader as it is for a writer. Here I track what I read, make private notes on the stories, and rate them to remind myself how I enjoyed them. I also follow reviewers whose tastes overlap with my own. Or sometimes I end up in a sort of rabbit hole of recommendations there.

Book challenges. This has been a useful way to branch into other genres. This year I’ve used Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge and I’ve taken some of the suggestions in this post of from Katie McLain.

Newsletters. I have found good recommendations for (mostly) nonfiction from Austin Kleon‘s newsletter and the Farnum Street newsletter.

Website: I’ve discovered lots of good books through Largehearted Boy’s year-end compilation of best books lists.

Tracking Reading

I’m doing my tracking through Goodreads (not my author profile there). This way I can make private notes on various books, remind myself how I liked it, and find out from Goodreads when authors I enjoy have new or upcoming releases.

How do you find what you read? Do you keep track of it?

Finding Books to Read and Tracking Our Reading: Click To Tweet

Photo on VisualHunt.com