Open Book | TIPS FOR THE ASPIRING WRITER

Archive for the "Organizing Your Writing Life" Category

Open Book: An Ending for 2011

    Happy Holidays! We are about to witness the passing of another year.  I suspect there will be many changes in 2012. You can feel it in the air.  It starts with the economy, the political unrest on the national level and eventually trickles down into our homes and our daily lives.  Some people hate [...]

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Open Book: Is Blogging Overrated?

After blogging for a couple of years now, I am wondering if blogging is overrated.  Yes, as a writer, you would think that this process is a no brainer and enjoyable.  But in truth, it steals time from my day, from my other writing and reading, and although pleasurable, may or may not be all [...]

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Finding Time to Write

When I was in my 20′s I lived paycheck to paycheck for many months.  Eventually, as the Universe would have it, I would have to learn to be more responsible.  I had to have a major repair on my car and had saved nothing for an emergency.  I did what everyone else would have done.  [...]

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Writing Workshops

Over a decade ago, I attended several writing workshops.  I always walked away disappointed and wondering  whether I could have used my time more wisely by spending it writing. Today, I attended a writing workshop that for the first time brought some clarification to why I have been struggling with my writing  all these years.   [...]

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Eegaads! It’s almost 2010.

As we approach the new year, I see that I have made only baby steps in my writing attempts.  I’m embarrassed that I have not written an entry in this blog since September.  No excuses.  I got swept up in my old habits and let time slip through my fingers. If you are in need of [...]

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Emails: the time leech

Technology, specifically email, has been a blessing and a curse.  Recently, my employer asked the us employees to refrain from hopping onto our email accounts so frequently.  She said that two or three times during the work day should be more than enough.  Although I bristled at the thought of changing my behavior…an occasional “good” [...]

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Are You Satisfied With the Status Quo?

Half- written stories, rejected submissions, and possible story lines found their way to my desk drawer graveyard through not understanding a couple of rules of the road in this craft. The first rule is not to take a sabbatical while working on a project.  It is the kiss of death for many a project.  The obits [...]

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Manuscript Submission Tracking Template

If you are like me, you will send out one inquiry or submission and think you will remember when you did it.  After all, it is only a handful.  How could you forget the details of something you are so passionate about? It is easy.  Forgetting is easy.  So, to avoid having to perform agonizing [...]

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Writing Center

About 20 years ago, I was searching for a writing group.  I attended one after another, endured endless hours of self aggrandizing, poorly conceived material, and sometimes even worse readings.  Then, for awhile I hooked up with wonderful person, who was travelling down the same path.  We met monthly for about two years.  During that [...]

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6 Ways to Protect Your Writing and Other Personal Information

Happy 4rth of July. Yes, sadly I have been MIA from this blog for a few days.  Life gets busy when you least expect it.  However, we must look at these infusions of activity as blessings.  It provides us fuel for our writing, right? Anyway, today I decided to just give you a few computer [...]

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