Write Away by Elizabeth George

I like to brush up on the craft of writing, so, when I run across a book by someone proven in the field, I pick it up.  Browsing in the library, I found Write Away by Elizabeth George. It was published by Harper Collins in 2004 and is filled with great ideas, advice, and techniques.

The one thing she said that really hit home had to do with self discipline-my problem. It's always easy for me to find something else to do other than showing up in my office each day.

"You will be published if you possess three qualities-talent, passion, and discipline."

She continues:

 "You will probably be published if you possess two of the three qualities in either combination-either talent and discipline, or passion and discipline.

"You will likely be published if you possess neither talent nor passion but still have discipline."

And finally, 

"But if all you possess is talent or passion, if all you possess is talent and passion you will not be published."

"And if by some miracle you are published, it will probably never happen again."

This picture was taken of one of the wildfires caused by the drought last summer. I posted it because since January I've been burning up the old keyboard.

Last year I wasn't at all like that. The drought, the heat, the economy, and the wildfires were depressing the creative juices. I was experiencing a mental drought. I found myself plodding along and not approaching my work with the excitement I used to get out of writing.

This winter we have been blessed with rain, drizzle, mist, and fog; enough to be taken off Stage 2 drought restrictions. At the same time I feel like I've been released from my own personal drought restrictions.

I'm loving writing again!

The Path to Being Published is Definitely Changing

Thanks to a newsletter from SinC I heard about Dennis Abrams'  interesting article: Are Social Media Sites the New Slush Pile? (found here at Publishing Perspectives) This article tells about the success in getting a contract by one author who used Inkpop, created by HarperCollins in 2009.

It would be interesting to know how successful some of the other authors were after submitting and getting feedback on Inkpop. I wonder if they found homes for their work elsewhere, and if this just the beginning of other publishing house sites like this looking for talent.

Congratulations to Ann Best!

Ann won a copy of my book from Kimberly over at Meetings with My Muse.

Thank you, Kimberly, for your generous support!

Revising the little stuff takes so much time. I spent about five hours at the computer today going line by line through six chapters checking spelling, word usage, and tweaking things just so. My mind is exhausted and I have seventeen chapters to go. A non-writer friend called and I took a much needed break. She asked me what revision I was doing now because I had already done the plot points and meatier changes. I compared it to a teacher grading a paper.

"So then you'll be done and can submit it?"

"Not yet," I told her. "When I think it's perfect, I'll print it up a second time and read it out loud. That way I can find words I left out, sentences that need to be written better, and just anything at all that needs changing."

"That's too hard, I think you should just leave it up to one of those editors. Wait until you hear..."

Works for me. I wonder why I just don't do that?