Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Save Your Inspiration For When You Need It

Like most people, I subscribe to a bunch of email newsletters and publications.  Many of these are writing-related.

And, also like most people, I don't usually have the time to read even a fraction of the emails I receive during that same day (or week, or month).  Usually, I just skim the subject line and sender field and decide if it needs my immediate attention (usually career or publisher-related) or sometime soon attention (friends) or if it can wait.  Indefinitely.

Lots of the writing emails I get are interesting and informative (or I wouldn't subscribe to them).  I get a bunch of different emails from Writer's Digest, literary journals like Kenyon Review, which has great suggestions on what books to put into my To Be Read pile, and blogs like the Quick Brown Fox.

I hate having more than a hundred emails in my Inbox so I am pretty obsessive about deleting old ones. I get happy when I have lots of "trash" to take out.

So what do I do with these emails that I don't have the time to read but eventually want to read?

I bookmark them and save them for when I need a shot of quick writing inspiration.

This usually means saving them in my Favourites tab under the heading of Writing (of course) and coming back to the first one on my list when I sit down to write but find that I can't get any words out.  Reading about writing usually gets my fingers moving and these articles I save usually have side notes about published authors and how they got their start.  What better inspiration is there than that?

So, try doing what I do and saving your writing inspiration for when you need it.  Rather than trolling the internet for a quick boost of motivation (and getting sidetracked by a new online game), go to your saved writing favourites and get into the mood.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Nan-NoWriMo!

A big hello to everyone out there in the blogosphere (this is the first time I have ever used that word and I think I already hate it)!

If you don't hear from me much in November, it's because I'm taking part in the National Novel Writing Month challenge, or NaNoWriMo for short.  Yes, this is my first time.  Be gentle.  And, if you're a user, check out my NaNo profile.

Happy NaNoWri-Month!

(Oh, and I'm calling my writing month Nan-NoWriMo, because I'm that much of a nerd!)