Showing posts with label The Author Chronicles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Author Chronicles. Show all posts

Thursday, March 20, 2014

No Fear

 Change is hard even when it’s as welcome as spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

Robins may not be bobbing where you live, but they’re on their way.  In anticipation of their arrival, I offer links to three posts that help writers and others shake off the winter doldrums and renew enthusiasm for our work.

From agent Victoria Marini comes the reminder writers don’t need the right gel pen, a room of one’s own, or appreciation from others to write. Her post speaks to anyone who ever mistook a cunning file system and colored Post-it notes for the key to unlocking creativity. Here’s a small part of her message:

“There will be days where you do not feel like a writer, where you do not feel taken seriously. 

Write anyway.”
  
Travel-memoir writer Torre DeRoche overcame a big fear thanks to a little dog.  

Are you wondering what fear has to do with writing? I’m no psychologist, but if we want to write but aren’t, I’ll bet it's fear that holds us back.

At The Author Chronicles, Kerry Gans gets specific about the kind of fear that freezes writers. She distills fear of success and fear of failure to one giant bugaboo: fear of change. 

“As humans, we crave consistency. Change always brings elements of the unknown, and people fear what they don’t know or don’t understand. Change is scary–it requires adaptation, flexibility, and courage. Once we’ve reached a level plateau, climbing to another level requires hard work and taking risks–and I, for one, am not a risk-taker. Change is hard.”
Gans is right when she says change is hard. It does, however, bring rewards, some of which aren’t obvious at first glance. Last week, I moaned about the switch to Daylight Savings time. This week, I’m grateful the sky is bright until almost seven p.m.
Have you ever thought your success hinged on the right organization system? Are signs of spring evident in your neck of the woods?



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Links for Writers, Cake for Everyone


Writing's on my mind, and I read how-to articles and pieces about publishing when my work is finished for the day.  Five articles or blog posts recently caught my attention, so I'm sharing them.  (If you're not a writer, scroll to the end of this post for a cake recipe. You won't be sorry.)

First up is an article from The Virginia Quarterly Review. Kathleen Schmidt offers insights into and predictions for book publishing in 2013. Don't skip over the book buyer/reader statistics from Bowker that were presented at the recent Digital Book World conference.

Digital Book World and Writer's Digest surveyed authors and found one-third of traditionally published authors are interested in self publishing. 

Writer Chuck Wendig delivers 25 hard truths about writing and publishing. Read them all, but pay special attention to the last one: "You can’t control publishing. You can’t control the audience’s reaction to your book. Control what you can control, which means: write the best book that lives inside you."

Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Last Runaway, applies "less is more" to her writing.


Bonus: For a great round-up of articles for and about writers and writing, bookmark The Author Chronicles' Top Picks Thursday. 
http://authorchronicles.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/top-picks-thursday-01-17-2013/

In unrelated news, my France-inspired dinner party last Sunday proved a success. The Barefoot Contessa's (Ina Garten's) recipe for boeuf Bourguignon rocked, and I turned to an old friend dessert that wouldn't be out of place in France. 

Sometimes my absorption with all things French crowds out my absorption with writing. Early this morning, I turned on my bitty laptop and saw a list of articles to read, including: Your Personal France. I clicked tout de suite, only to discover wishful thinking (and poor eyesight) had swapped France for Finance.  A personal finance article at half-past dawn? That would be a non.

Your turn: share your favorite source for writerly information, name your favorite dessert, or both.