I’ll admit this may be dumb. I love the blogging feature where you “schedule” rather than “publish.” It is such a weight off my mind, even though it is hardly different: I won’t really get up earlier than 6am to catch a final error before “going live.”
The comforts we cling to are so often additional steps. We add to our days rather than subtract from them, despite feeling a frightful scarcity of time.
Filed under As Christian Writers, Writer's Life
You know how, as Lutherans, we regularly confess our sins? As I would say to my kids, it’s both a church practice and something we practice just because it doesn’t always come naturally. We confess in part to recognize sin ourselves, turning to the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. (Isn’t it neat to think of the Holy Spirit as both the source of the conviction of sin and conviction of faith? John 16:8; 1 Thessalonians 1:5) Well, it occurred to me that sorrow and thankfulness mingle in both the Church and our vocations.
While we have pastors, the church year, and the liturgy to help us practice thankfulness toward our God because of Jesus, I for one could consider practicing thankfulness more within my vocations! Below I apply that thought to writers.
Filed under As Christian Writers, Writer's Life
Let’s consider etiquette a little more. Yesterday we looked at a link comparing and contrasting “thank you” and “sorry,” to offer a more cheerful, appreciative outlook and interaction. Well, today I’ll link to a book on etiquette I recommend. It helped shape my perspective and understanding in a surprisingly practical way.
Filed under Writer's Life
Another Federalist Radio House piece if you are interested: a Dana Gioia Interview, speaking on the enchantment of poetry and American Literary Culture. I appreciate how he points out that so often we are trained to write in ways that people no longer read resulting in the paradox that so many are “paid to profess poetry,” but so often poets write to other poets rather than the public.
Is writing just for writers? Who do you write for? Or, when you encourage others, what are you encouraging them toward?
Filed under As Christian Writers, Poetry, Writer's Life
I’m excited to announce that LCMS author/musician Fred Baue has his book, The Pilgrim, to the stage of sending galley to “reviewer heavies”. Now is the time to start the buzz! I greatly admire the man and I’ll keep you in the loop as a launch approaches, maybe even throwing a review in here. Meanwhile, why not explore a little publishing slang, since more than one of us may be interested in “flacking the merch”! Continue reading
Filed under Writer's Life
I like Amazon like I like google. In fact, I might be slightly more likely to do a quick search on Amazon. So when there is a book or author I like, I turn to Amazon. (Ok, or to Facebook if I might have a connection.) Anyway, Amazon seems really good to writers, so I thought we could explore Amazon Author Central today.
Filed under Marketing, Resource, Writer's Life, Writing Tools
The articles I’ve read discourage telling an agent you are interested in different types of writing lest it give the impression of being a dabbler rather than a focused writer. At the same time, I’ll certainly admit I hope to write in different genres! Still, I noticed something about myself that both made me laugh and further convinced me I have more genre focus than I might otherwise care to admit. Continue reading
Filed under Writer's Life, Writing Tools
You may not know this, but few things make watching baseball better than Mollie Hemingway. She is a wit I have long admired, and I am so pleased she found a successful career in writing! The Hemingways, Mark and Mollie, recently taught a one-credit journalism course at Hillsdale College after the duo were named Spring 2016 Eugene C. Pulliam Distinguished Fellows in Journalism. Here is an interview they gave, answering how they got involved in journalism among other things:
Filed under Writer's Life
I have always wanted to be prolific. Seriously, I was a weird little girl who was always starting something new: something new to read, something new to think about, or something new to write. Some people aren’t so captivated by . . . I don’t even know what it is . . . productivity? Ambition? A wandering nature? A love of novelty? Some sort of random flow chart? Maybe you haven’t thought about it much, but I happened to come an article that made me think about it. Continue reading
Filed under Writer's Life
My biggest fear about blogging, and really writing in general, is burn out. Churning out text can be daunting enough, but striving for it to be interesting and in some way crafted too? But I’ll tell you my hope (and it is not a hope in myself):
Filed under Theological reflection, Writer Troubles, Writer's Life
