Support and the Writer

I’m fighting this week. 

I’m fighting my lousy cold. I’m fighting my families lousy colds. I’m fighting tiredness. I’m fighting weather depression. I’m fighting the laundry. I’m fighting nerves.

And lo here comes Thursday to remind me that the end of the week is fast approaching. But Thursday can be a good stock take day because it allows me to gather up all the notes to myself for my blog post and put them in some sort of coherent order (I hope)

So what has been kicking around my brain cells this week.

Support. 

The typical writer, stuck at home staring at the computer, feeling very alone and wondering if the page they have just written is any good...sometimes feels despair. It all feels too hard to keep going. They check their email ten times an hour, spend waaay to much time on facebook, follow every twitter lead, even dust... to try to get back that happy flying feeling when they know that they are writing good stuff.

Authors need a little support.

Susan Uhlig has written a great post on Christine Fonseca’s blog about critique groups.

A good critique group can be worth more than gold to your own writing. It can be a cheer leading team, a commiseration club and a timely whip cracker. In this post Susan lists questions to consider when you go looking for a critique group or begin to set one up. She has helpful advice and points to consider for example, whether online or off line critique groups are good for you.

The internet can be a marvellous resource for the writer (and also a time suck) There are great sites out there where weekly roundups of what’s topical in the writing world keep you updated and feeling relevant... (as opposed to  know nothing and dull, stuck in your cold writers garret.)

This week the team at Adventures in Children’s Publishing have put together a huge list of relevant articles all available on the blogosphere under the helpful sub headings of Inspiration, Craft of Writing, Self Editing, Critiquing, Rejection, To Market and Congratulations. This is like a mini encyclopaedia of information and they do this every week! Dip in and be inspired!

Last year I talked about Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans idea, which generated heaps of interest. This week Eli James explores the 1000 Fans model and whether it really works for writers. We know it works for bands and bloggers. But a blog post and an MP3 music track can be created in much less time than a novel...So how can writers really make use of this model? There are some great ideas to think about here. (Maybe we have been thinking about it all wrong....)

James Scott Bell, of The Kill Zone authors collective of mystery and thriller writers, has written a great article on writing with heart. You must be in love with your writing to give it your best shot. It is very timely if you are looking for that burst of inspiration to get back into the grind with a happy smile on your dial....

The Kill Zone Authors have got a great site, a model to copy if you are thinking about author collectives. They even have a book available of short stories, on Scribed and Smashwords, (e-publishing and p.o.d.) Now that’s being in control of their brand!

I dropped into Alison Steven’s blog this week and read her timely post on paying it forward.

If you have been lamenting the fact that you have no money and no time to travel to a writer’s conference...There is a solution. A group of Young Adult Writers have taken this in hand and a running an online conference for Children’s Writers. I could embed the funny video the team have put together to publicise it (some of whom I have referred to previously in this blog) but in the spirit of paying it forward, jump over to Alison’s Blog and take a look.

And if you really need inspiration take a look at The Brainstormer Prompt Wheel...just clic the random button.

Over on Craicerplus (my amplify page) There are articles on...

The basics of the elevator pitch.

Five incredibly useful gmail features.

A roadmap for the future: 6 suggestions for today’s publishers that many can’t follow. (lots of comment on facebook)

How to build a tribe of followers.

13 Ways to add depth to your genre novel.

Boys and Girls and the Bechdel test...very interesting... do you pass the test?

enjoy,

maureen