On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, award-winning author Julie Carrick Dalton shared several examples of creative cross-pollination. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

I’ve always admired writers who abide by the butt-in-chair ethos. You know who I’m talking about, the writers who get up every day at 5 am, or who dedicate themselves to a regular writing practice that sustains them.

But this article is for the rest of us, all of us other writers who can’t always adhere to a regular writing discipline, because we crave creativity in other places – in the kitchen, art studio, dance floor, or garden.

Consider this your creative hall pass: step away from the laptop, embrace your other passions, and know that every pursuit—whether it’s painting, dancing, or growing herbs—can supercharge your writing and nourish your spirit.

I spend a lot of time in my garden where I grow dozens of herbs, flowers, and fruits that I harvest, dehydrate, and blend into teas. Some of my best writing ideas arrive when I’m elbow-deep in chamomile, or when I’m blending up the perfect balance of mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and bee balm to settle a loved one’s upset stomach.

I often indulge my tea-blending hobby when I’m having a tough time writing. I used to think of it as a distraction, a form of procrastination—but I’ve decided to reframe it as creative cross-pollination. Sometimes, the boldest move for our writing is a strategic retreat—leaning into a new kind of making, so ideas can sprout in unexpected places.

Read the rest of the post here.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In her latest book, Dear Writer, New York Times bestselling author Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements. Here’s an uplifting excerpt:

During the four years when I was sending out my second book manuscript, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, I did revise it. With each rejection, I made adjustments: added poems, pulled poems out, changed the order, even changed the title more than once. And I did continue to send that manuscript to the same contests every year.

At times it felt like the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But in publishing, even if you send the same poem or chapbook or book manuscript out again and again to the very same places, it’s actually not the same. The readers and screeners are often different. The editors and final judges are often rotating. The selection of other manuscripts yours is up against changes, too. All of this to say: There are so many variables that go into why a poem or book gets taken, and why others don’t, beyond the quality of the work.

Keep trying, reassessing, and trusting your gut. When it’s time to let go, move on. Push forward with confidence. Know that we need more from you.

And what else do we need? More literary journals and magazines, not fewer. More publishers, not fewer. A wider community, not a narrower one.

Source: Dear Writer by Maggie Smith, p. 212

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

British author Lucy Mitchell has a delightful blogging voice that brings a smile and a thought-provoking pause to my day. I have bookmarked several of her posts for future reference. Here’s one of my favorites:

Book ideas are strange things. Some turn into books, some disappear during the drafting stages and some act as a catalyst for something else in your life. I believe book ideas come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. The job for you, the writer or author, is to work out which one you are dealing with.

I can put all the book ideas I have had over the years into the following camps.

Book ideas that come into your life for a season.

This camp is full of the ideas I have had for books over the years which have not gone anywhere. Let me tell you this is a busy place. They all flew into my writer brain at high speed and left pretty much after I’d tried to get to know them. My writer relationship with them was frantic and passionate. However, they were simply creative flings.

Book ideas that come into your life for a lifetime.

This is a tough camp to get into. These are the ideas that became actual books. They are a hardy bunch who managed to stay with me through the months and years of painful drafting. There were times I wanted to delete them and run away but these ideas were persistent and never gave up.

Book Ideas that come into your life for a reason.

Now, this is my favourite camp. This is where things get interesting. As this is a busy camp, I have split it out into 3 sub groups.

The book idea that acts as the catalyst for a life change.

This is the book idea which comes into your life to spark some sort of life change. The act of writing the idea triggers something deep inside of you. These ideas are like inner keys to parts of you which have been locked up for years or have never been opened. In this camp we have book ideas which come into your life to help you become a writer and follow a new creative path. Book ideas which come into your life to signify a relationship or friendship wasn’t working. Book ideas which come into your life to show you that maybe your life is heading in the wrong direction. I have experienced a lot of these.

The book idea that teaches you something about writing.

Some ideas for books come to teach us something about our writing. A lot of the time these ideas don’t bring success. Failure is a great teacher. There are always lessons to be learned in failure and it’s because of these ideas. We now know who to blame. Ha ha! They were sent to teach us that our plot sagged, our characterisation could have been improved, there were no laugh out loud moments and our attempt sucked.

The book idea that morphs into a brilliant book idea.

These ideas are the unsung heroes. They come into our writing lives, lead us down one path and then transform before our eyes. Suddenly you realise they are showing you something else. Something bigger and better.

If you are struggling with a book idea at the moment figure out the reason why it has come into your writing life.

You can follow Lucy’s blog here.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, author Rachel Toalson shared the professional benefits of finishing what we start. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

Finishing our projects cultivates our professional skills and contributes to our mastery of the writing discipline. It’s an important part of putting in the work and gaining the expertise we need as writers. It gives us so many (so many!) opportunities to learn from our mistakes and make small shifts in the way we create and write.

That means the next time we sit down to write a book, we’ll do it better—because we have one, two, three, twenty-five under our belt.

We add to our overall body of work when we finish our projects. Who doesn’t desire a large body of work? A number of finished projects, in whatever stage they’re “finished” (even first drafts; we’ll count those), provides proof of our competence and dedication—we saw this many projects through to the end. How remarkable.

I have folders and folders of finished first drafts on my computer—all proving I’m working consistently at my craft and dedicated to building a volume of work. All reminding me, when I lose faith in myself, that I can do this, and I will again.

That’s the heart of it—we can do this, and we will again.

With all these benefits to finishing the projects we start, why do we still find ourselves struggling to write “The End”?

Source: Writer Unboxed

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In her latest book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, New York Times bestselling author Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements. Here’s an uplifting excerpt:

Taking care of yourself is taking care of your creativity. Taking care of yourself as a whole human being is taking care of the writer in you.

But if you still have that “you should be writing every day” voice in your ear, do it! Write every day if you can. If you’re someone who benefits from ritual—same time, same place, same beverage, same music—then lean into that! But if you can’t work in such a regular way, for whatever reason—whether you’re feeling depleted or uninspired, or life’s rhythms and demands aren’t conducive to it right now—I’m inviting you to try this instead: Commit to doing at least one thing in service of your writing every day.

This one thing can be a small thing. You might scrawl some notes in a notebook or revise an existing piece. You might chip away at a book proposal. You might research journals or presses, query an agent, or submit work. You might request books at your local library for a project or do some background reading. Yes, reading counts. Thinking counts. And since I find that I do some of my best thinking in the shower, yes, showering counts too.

Or you might give yourself space—to think, to dream, to take a long noticing walk, to make connections, to pay attention.

Source: Dear Writer by Maggie Smith, pp. 7-8

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, author D. L. White shared advice for new writers. Here’s an excerpt from that post:

Read. An author who doesn’t read is like a chef who never eats food. An artist who never goes to a gallery. Where do you discover new technique and new inspiration and let other people’s success motivate you? Where do you find community with readers and other authors? Read! In your genre for study (and of course enjoyment), outside of your genre for breadth of knowledge and to be able to say you read widely. I call all of that dessert. I like dessert.

Make sure you get some dessert!

I am also not a ‘write every day’ person, but determine at what cadence you’ll write and take that seriously. Plan it out, don’t make excuses, show up for yourself. Three-month break, one month of prep, thirty days of writing like a wild person, then edit? That’s how it’s gonna have to be. Learn what works for you, and lean into that, and don’t try to write like X author because you are not that author with their brain and personality and strengths. Learn yours and use them to your advantage.

Read the rest of the post here.