The Writing Life
Last week, I mentioned some changes were going to be made at Write Right. They were implemented over the weekend and are attested to by the new header and updated “Work with Me” page and drop-down menu. Both things have been done in response to some self-reflection and a desire for 2013 to be different from and bigger than 2012.
[Read more…] about Changes at Write Right: A Good Pen is Hard to Find
The new year tends to be the time when people make resolutions and changes. I’ve never been one for making resolutions – I view them as empty promises – so the changes I’ll be implementing at Write Right actually have their start in November. I’ve delayed announcing the changes because of the holidays and some final details.
Write Right has gotten lost in the library. To find her way, she will have to meet eleven, possibly twelve, characters from literature. She knows some of the characters she will meet, including some found in the works of C.S. Lewis and Shakespeare, but she could meet a few more. Which literary characters do you think she should meet? Share them in a comment.
I’ve surely used too many words with the “sure” sound. I know; bad joke. It helps to make a Write Right post easier to bear, though, doesn’t it?
I believe writers have to read. I don’t have scientific data to prove the “why” of the claim; I only know that my writing improves the more I immerse myself in the writing of others. Such writing may be easy to read, and some of it may be difficult. Almost all of it makes me uncomfortable in some way. It challenges me to think through a subject, to explore how ideas in the work interact with my own, or to study how the writing itself works. As I do so, my own work grows. It initially takes on characteristics of what I’m reading, then my writing absorbs what I’ve learned and experienced. The form becomes something that is mine, something that is distinctively “Erin.”
A number of my friends and acquaintances use Chris Brogan’s “three words” concept. I’ve yet to use it, mostly because I feel an odd resistance to being tied to a certain set of words. That being said, I see the value in the limitation. It brings a focus to what one plans and hopes to do. It causes a person to pause and to think about what three words capture his or her aims. Declaring them publicly results in an accountability to those words and the goals attached to them. Because of that, I’ve decided to give the “three words” a try.