I want to remember these tidbits of advice as much as I want to share them. I’m putting these links here so that I can find them on down the road. This also happens to fulfill the assignment for Writing 101’s Day 19 assignment*. (Yay! I fulfilled an assignment!) I may even make a separate page with this stuff that I can add more links and keep it all convenient.
10 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block by Vincent Mars from his Boy with a Hat blog:
I especially like number 3, Reject Perfection.
We can strive for perfection — always trying to make our writing and ourselves better. That’s good. But the quest for perfection can lead to paralysis too. We can be so afraid of making mistakes that, instead, we make no moves at all. Nothing. In all likelihood, most of us will never reach actual perfection. That’s fine. Sometimes it’s better to just DO. Write. Let it happen with all it’s beautiful flaws. We are supposed to be flawed. Aren’t we? I’d rather have 1000 words period, than to have felt like it none of it is good enough and end up with zero. I can find “flaws” in some of my very favorite books and blogs. I still love them! (In the for-what-it’s-worth department, I don’t really like overly perfect teeth, so take that.)
Actual Writing Advice: Online Presence, Blogging by Melina Moore on her Enchanted Spark blog:
That entire post resonated with me.
I often feel pangs of inadequacy when I see some new blogger with 5000+ followers. I’ve been blogging for over five years now, and I don’t have that. But I remind myself that I didn’t start my blog in order to gain followers. I started it to give me a place to write. I love my followers and commenters (heck even just a quick Like is appreciated), but ultimately the writing is why I’m here. I love visiting other blogs too. In fact, I’d like to read more of them. Most days I’m lucky if I can manage a quick fly-by of other blogs. Hopefully, I’ll get some free time at some point and focus on the process. (Is what I say to myself more often than I’d like.)
Sometimes I also spend more time blogging than writing my stories. I do the reverse too. So I want to be more conscious of where I spend my word counts. I love blogging and writing stories, but I don’t want to wake up with way too much blogging and no finished stories.
*If I actually managed stay on top of Writing 101 like I thought I was going to do, then I might actually have had a guest blogger here. I know some good ones I could ask. It could be fun. Did I manage that? Nope.
I’ve been letting stuff like laundry, leaky aquariums, helping my mom move, and a sizable list of other stuff fill my time instead of hitting those alphabet keys in any kind of efficient way. It’s really good that a lot of that other stuff got done — very important even — but I’m still hungry to get more words down (not on paper). It’s kind of like doing my nails — been meaning to do them for over a month and still have pathetic, naked nails. I did manage to shave my legs and shower. That’s something! My nails are not just bare but in need of a trim now too. They click on the keys as I type. I feel like a stray dog that escaped from a groomer before the job was done.
According to Writing 101, Day 19, directions I can do the next best thing to having a guest blogger. That is, I can publish a roundup of great reads and share some blog posts that resonated with me. That is what this is. I’m excited about it too because I’m afraid I might forget where I read a few things and I want to keep these links handy.
aLightningbug 