Conquering Fears. And Perseverance.

That’s Conquering your fears as a writer. As well as your paralyzing need to have your writing perfect. Sound familiar? Keep reading.

And as the agents that come to the James River Writers Conference [in October if you are interested. ;)], Perseverance is often the difference between the published writer and the one not published because they gave up.

To get some great advice that will help your writing. And hit you where your writer sits, check out this great post.

For those that don’t want to take time to click on it, here’s some of what jumped out to me. Or jumped on me. Really. I’m trying to fight it off. It’s sticking Way too close.

While this seems to be talking about writing with a message, it hit me just as with writing....

“......Not your “perfect” writing.

And if you’re preventing yourself from letting people see your writing because you’re stressing over the perfection of it… well, your message never makes it out there to the people you want it to reach.

So give yourself permission to write what you need to write in the way you want to write it. Stop stressing over what people will think of your work. That’s not important. Start getting excited about sharing your message instead – and making sure that the people who need to hear it actually do. ....”

and it goes Really well along with ....

# 5: Blast Perfectionism and Thrive

Linda Formichelli, author of The Renegade Writer, a blog about “living and loving the freelance life,” recommends:

“I teach and mentor writers, and a huge sticking point I always hear from them is that they’re afraid to put their work out there if it’s not perfect. So they wait and wait, and get caught in analysis-paralysis — and of course, they have no success.

I don’t know about you, but nothing I do is perfect. That includes the way I parent my toddler, my cooking skills, and — you got it — my writing. And yet, I’ve been published in more than 130 magazines, from Woman’s Day to Health to Redbook.

Let me assure you: There is no such thing as perfect. Editors (and readers) are all individuals so what one loves, another will hate. You can’t predict it. All you can do is do your best and get your ideas and your queries and your letters of introduction out there. The mediocre idea you send out has an infinitely better chance of being accepted than the one that you never send to an editor because it’s not “perfect.” ......

Which leads into the Perseverance part....

#6: Understand the Importance of Perseverance

Therese Walsh of Writer Unboxed, a blog about “the craft and business of fiction,” recommends:

“I’m not sure who said that the difference between an unpublished and published writer is perseverance, but I believe it. ........

And continues on with a lot of other great and thought provoking, or at least mulling worthy thoughts and advice from other writers.

Come on admit it, we have great advice and inspiration. It’s even that much greater when it’s generously shared.

Since a lot of this has come to sit way too close to me I thought I should share with you. So you can have the same kind of ‘company.’ I’m so generous. ;->

I'm Tired Already...

Just Reading this blog of the Real realities of writing, the writing life. And being a good, and successful writer.

Makes me tired.

Or more tired.

Course Spring allergies might have too much to do with that as well. yay spring.

But in a few blog posts ago here there was semi discussion / blathering about why we read. Or since this is my blog, why I read.

I realized from a comment posted of why a friend reads that the why's and wherefores of my reading has changed over the years. I've read to escape pain, mental, emotional and physical pain. Read to alleviate boredom and waiting. Read just for the enjoyment and joy of it.

And as I've moved into the fringes of the writing world, I've also noticed my reading has changed. I still do read for the enjoyment. But sometimes that is few and far between.

I find myself reading more to study and compare what I am writing to see how my writing stacks up, which also lets me get a study of what my competition is and how well they are doing. Also, what they seem to be doing right with marketing that I need to keep an eye on.

As I am reading for my 'business' I hopefully find the enjoyment of reading can coincide with it. But even if it doesn't, I still learn a lot. And that's never a bad thing.

I was going to do a blog entry, someday soon I am sure, and wonderfully brilliant of course, on why I read.

But as I said I'm tired, and this is a great post that says it well -- on writing. But if look at it as a reader, why I read. Why I probably really read.

And in case you are as tired, or more tired, I'll post the part that sums up why to read, why to write. But do go read the whole post. It is Really good.

"The truth is, the joy of writing isn’t the writing itself. It’s seeing your ideas spread. It’s seeing them touch other people. It’s seeing them take root within the minds of those people, where they continue to grow into something more wonderful than you could have ever imagined. ....."

".....Words aren’t just words, you see. They’re the medium through which writers accomplish change.

Great writers don’t just inform you. They don’t just entertain you. They don’t just persuade you. They change you, leaving you a slightly different person than you were before you read their work. "

Here's to being different.

Stuck? Get Unstuck Help.... Here... Really

So brilliant person, writer, reading this. Are you stuck somewhere?
Okay, so I can't help if you are stuck by the side of the road somewhere. At least not literally. That's what AAA is for.

But if you are stuck on a character, or something in your story. There's Help!! Here! Really! Check it out. You won't be sorry. You might if you don't though. At least at some point. Consider it like AAA for your writing. Except you help yourself. Okay, so maybe that's not like AAA at all. But at least you've empowered yourself to help yourself. And that will come in handy a lot more. Right?

Why Read

So we can read, and learn to write things like this -

from Kathi Appelt's book The Underneath -

.....a man who drank the hard-edged vodka brought in from Russia and the bitter gin from England, who stumbled home, just as hard-edged and bitter as the vodka and gin. ....


Pssst... a hint for those of you out there reading, be sure to keep an eye on the James River Writers site. For news coming on the Conference to be held in October.
That's all I'm sayin' ... Keep watch. ;) here uh, yeah, go ahead and look now!

Writers - What Not To Do.... EVER

Watching a career go down in flaming words right before your eyes.

A train-wreck horrible lesson of what not to do, for Any writer.

In case there's Any writer out there that hasn't seen it -

it's here.

Sad. So sad.

Huh.....

According to recent LiveJournal notice virus infected computers are called zombies.

“It's important to keep in mind that denial of service attacks are made possible, in part, by infected computers (known as zombies). Let's all do our part by regularly checking our computers (and maybe our parents' if they're not so tech-savvy) with virus and malware-scanning programs, keeping our firewalls and anti-malware programs up to date, and practicing safe surfing! “

Huh.....

Who knew.

Now that threat is even more scary than the stiff-legged stalkers of horror movie fame. It’s the stiff-legged computers we depend on so dreadfully.

Now that’s frightful.

So practice safe surfing everyone.

from zombie computers everywhere.