Writing advice
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Owning our mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes at work. Some professional errors, however, are more public than others. If you’re a journalist or published author, for instance, the mistakes you make on the job are public and remain in print forever. There were times when I made errors that were, luckily, caught by editors before they made it to print. But sometimes they weren’t caught — and I was humbled when my readers pointed them out. As sociologist Brene Brown notes, if you’re going to put yourself out there, expect to get your ass kicked. But if you don’t want your ass kicked in public, you’re better suited to working in a career where…
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The wheels of inspiration
“If you can’t do what you long to do, go do something else. You might think it’s procrastination, but it isn’t; it’s motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert After years of writing on deadline, I’ve learned not to panic when inspiration packs up and leaves my home office. As author Elizabeth Gilbert suggests, motion fuels creativity and productivity. When you’re blocked or unmotivated, try doing something else. It doesn’t have to be “productive” or look important. Ride your bike, organize a junk drawer, work in your garden, read magazines at the library. (Sorry, scrolling social media doesn’t count.) When…
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Funny Friday: True stories
“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” ~Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
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Funny Friday: How to write a book
“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” ~ Steven Wright I’m starting to work on a new essay collection this fall, so today’s quote hit home while it made me laugh. Too often, procrastination throws me off schedule. If I don’t set a real deadline, I’ll find dozens of other things to distract myself. How about you? What motivates you to start and complete a project? ~CL
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Living your dreams or fears?
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” ~Les Brown I met a student who said she wanted to publish a novel but couldn’t find the space in her life to begin it. For starters, she didn’t think she could write without a home office. She wasn’t comfortable typing on the dining room table. Or the kitchen table. Or anywhere else in the house, really. But it wasn’t the interior design of her home that blocked the woman’s dreams of writing. It was fear. Fear is a manipulative trickster. It makes excuses for procrastination; it tells us we’re not good enough; it convinces…
