One Writer’s Top 10

Looking back over the past 100 weeks of my blogs, I discovered a pattern. Even though we set the topics as a group, I can still manage to swing my focus over to:

Getting serious about writing.

Finding time to write / Writer moms.

Giving Pep talks.

Yeah, it is all about me and my hang-ups! So here are some of my favorite blogs, grouped according to my writing struggles. Hope some of you can relate and be encouraged.

Getting Serious About Writing.

1. NaNoWriMo Meets Flylady. The blog that started it all. The philosophy behind Routines for Writers is establishing writing routines to make writing an automatic part of your life. What Flylady did for cleaning, we wanted to do for writing.

2. A Writer’s Business Plan. This blog talks about when I started getting serious about writing—not as a hobby but as a career. If you don’t have a business plan or goals, this blog will help get you started.

3. Making Writing a Priority. Time to walk the talk. All the dreaming in the world won’t get your book written. You’ve got to make it happen. It takes Passion and Discipline.

Finding Time to Write/Writer Moms

4. A Writer’s Shiny Sink or 10 Ways to Write Every Day. I think of this blog as my sleeper blog. When it first came out, it received normal hits/responses. But then, someone sent a tweet and it got retweeted and passed around for a few days. I’m guessing this is a small taste of what it is like to have your novel debut. If you were one of the RT’ers, thanks—it was fun!

5. Summer Survival Guide for Writer Moms. I like this blog because it is a stealth-way to include two other favorites that are linked inside it (25 Ways to Write While Distracted and 30 Ways to Keep Kids Busy so You Can Write.) Also, it’s the blog where I share my discovery of the “Interrupt Cards” which has completely changed how I write with kids in the house. These cards alone are worth the effort of 100 weeks of blogging!

6. Focus, Focus, Focus. What happens when I have unlimited time to write? Uh oh, better find my focus and fast.

Pep Talks

7. One Big Mountain. Oh, boy is it ever! This blog compares the writer’s journey to hiking up a mountain.

8. Takes Longer Than You Think. Enough said?

9. Author Crush Month: Lois Lowry. Author Crush month in Feb is one of my favorite features that makes our blog unique. While it is somewhat scary and intimidating to approach an author I admire to ask for a piece of his or her time and expertise, I have found the month to be a great encouragement to me and a big hit with our readers. All of our guest blogs are just excellent, but this one in particular found me right where I am in my writing life. Lois starts out writing about her first writing table, tucked in a little corner of her husband’s den and ends with:

And I have a comfortable chair, now. It swivels and tilts and twirls. So different from the stiff ladderback that I placed in front of the little table in the corner once!  But it wasn’t the chair, or the corner, that mattered then, or that matters now, really. It’s the feeling of the space, and the sanctity of what can happen here.

10. Avoiding Discouragement—A Melodrama. Totally different from my other blogs. I had fun with this one, making up characters named Optimist, Discouragement, and Edi (for Edification). Can Optimist survive the writer’s life?

Thank you readers for returning every week to be a part of our blog. We are thrilled you are here. It’s been fun to get to know some of you through the comments and visiting your blogs and websites. We’ll spread some more reader love in Sept when we have our second anniversary.