July 30, 2010

Over the weekend, I hope you’ll have time to check out some very helpful and thought-provoking blogs I read this week.

Kick back, relax, and enjoy these gems!

Gems of Wisdom

**Agent Wendy Lawton wrote a series called “Career Killers.” Full of wise advice! One post is on speed writing. Other “career killers” included impatience, playing “around the edges,” sloppiness, and skipping the apprenticeship. If you avoid these mistakes in your career, you’ll be miles ahead of the average writer.

**Are you trying to combine babies with bylines? Try “Writing Between Diapers: Tips for Writer Moms” for some practical tips.

**Is your writing journey out of whack because you have unrealistic expections? See literary agent Rachelle Gardner’s post “Managing Expections.”

**Critique groups are great, but you–the writer–must be your own best–and toughest–editor. See Victoria Strauss on “The Importance of Self-Editing.”

**We’re told to set goals and be specific about what success means to us. Do you have trouble with that? You might find clarity with motivational speaker Craig Harper’s “Goals and Anti-Goals.”

**And finish with Joe Konrath’s pithy statements in “A Writer’s Serenity Prayer.” You may want to print them out and tape them to your computer!

Share a Gem!

What have you read lately–online or off–that you felt was particularly insightful or helpful or thought-provoking? I’d love to have you share a link of your own!

5 Comments »

1. 

   These were all good, Kristi, but I have to say Joe Konrath said it all for me:
   The worst day spent writing is better than the best day doing anything else. Writers write. Drama queens complain.

   Comment by Sherryl — August 1, 2010 @ 2:47 am

2. 

   Sherryl, I agree with that! I need to be a drama queen a lot less–and a writer a lot more!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — August 1, 2010 @ 6:18 pm

3. 

   I have to APOLOGIZE to those of you who left links to articles and YouTube videos on creativity. I accepted the posts, but instead they’ve totally disappeared. If any of you see this and can remember what links you posted, I’d like to have them again and THIS TIME I won’t lose them! 8-(

   Comment by Kristi Holl — August 1, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

4. 

   Great talk on creativity by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

   Youtube video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhnq5yY7

   Transcript: http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/diplay/0,532,23-1-947-37,00.html

   Quote: “Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty…”

   Comment by Jessica — August 2, 2010 @ 4:58 pm

5. 

   Jessica, thank you so much for reposting! I have no idea what happened there. I look forward to listening to this!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — August 3, 2010 @ 2:09 pm

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