Whether you are a professional, doing it alongside a day job, or it’s simply a hobby, you write because you feel a compulsion. It’s a passion, a calling, a process that brings you to life and helps you make sense of the world.
But simply loving something doesn’t make it easy to do…
Whether you’re a full-time writer, a hobby writer, or a writer with another full-time job, you have to admit that being a writer is a pretty good life. On the whole, we’re pretty lucky to do what we love. But…
Let’s face it, we all want to become better writers. Don’t we? I know I do. I strive to become a better writer every day, and in order to improve I’ve discovered the secret is in having awesome resources at your disposal.
What follows are a list of links to resources I’ve found pretty darn useful. Most are remarkable blog posts containing brilliant tips, tricks, and top secret, secrets.
The odds are if you write in public you want people to read your work. Seems like a reasonable assumption. I mean, if we don’t care if anyone’s reading our work, then we should stick to personal journals that we keep hidden under our pillows.
You can hide your work if you want to, and if you hide your work you’ll never let yourself down. But if you’re interested in getting your work noticed don’t fall for the myths presented in this post.
It goes beyond mere writer’s block. It doesn’t care about deadlines, and can stopper your writing voice for months at a time. It’s deep, it’s baffling and it’s not often talked about in writing circles.
It’s writer’s burnout.
And whether you’re published or not, prolific or not, writer’s burnout is coming for you. In fact, I’m sure you’ve already experienced it, and perhaps you’re even battling it right now. Are you ready to beat it?
Seth Godin’s Homepage
It’s certainly no secret to today’s writers that guest blogging provides a great way to build their platform and amplify their “voice.” Top bloggers like Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Darren Rowse, in fact, highly recommend it.
Still, very few writers reap the potential benefits of guest blogging, due to their approach and a lack of awareness of how to “work smarter, not harder.”
With this in mind, today I’ll share a few ways to increase your blogging I.Q. and ultimately your bottom line.
Note: This is a post by, Angie Dixon. Angie is the author of The Leonardo Trait, she helps creative people live out lives they love. Check out Angie’s creativity quiz at www.leonardotrait.com
I used to tell people that I’m the most insecure person I know; I just hide it well. One day my best friend called me on my insecurity. That’s a best friend’s job, of course, and she did it with two powerful sentences.
“I’m insecure also, but I know the one thing I never feel insecure about is my teaching ability. The one thing you should never feel insecure about is your writing.”
Note: This is a post by Andy Mort, he is a UK based musician and writer. He’s the founder of SheepDressedLikeWolves.com, which is aimed at encouraging HSPs and introverts to embrace their creativity and push against the expectations of an often overwhelming world. Download his FREE eBook “The Gentle Rebel Manifesto.”
Pronoia is a concept I recently came across thanks to Beth Buelow who writes about it in her book, Insight: Reflections on the Gifts of Being an Introvert.
It is the opposite of paranoia; described as a suspicion that the universe is conspiring on your behalf rather than against you. In other words it’s a belief that the universe is a friendly place, not one that is harsh and unforgiving.
I’ve been stuck lately. Way stuck. Lost in the Amazon jungle, stuck. And that’s stuck, my friends. If you need to use the word stuck five or six times within your first few sentences, then that’s, well, pretty stuck.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve been without a fresh idea to write about for months. But that’s all changed, because I’ve rediscovered a well kept secret.