Encouraging Words

This is Encouragement Month. Restart Month. Keep Going Month.

Don’t Give Up Month.

So I’m going to share with you some of the things that I find encouragement in.

I just got an email from one of the ladies in my Romance Writers of Australia group saying she was thinking about giving up writing. Permanently. She decided to enter one more contest first. She won the contest. The editor who judged her manuscript told her to send the full as soon as possible because she was very interested.

How can you read a story like that and not feel heartened?!  :)

A somewhat smaller degree of encouragement for me is great articles on writing. Articles that make me feel inspired or show me a new way of doing something or give me a new tool. Here are several I really like:

Author Virna DePaul has some “cheat sheets” for writers on her web site. There are a couple free ones here, and if you sign up for her newsletter, you can get access to all the rest. The free one on Ways to Bulletproof Your Manuscript is an excellent tool for the editing phase. She goes into a lot of depth and detail, so there’s always something I think “Oh, right, I forgot to do that or check that” when I re-read the cheat sheet.

If you enjoy how cool your brain is and how the two sides do different things, you might like this article. Laine Cunningham’s great “Lefty Tighty, Righty Loosey” talks about creativity and how it relates to writing. There may not be anything “new” to you here, but when I read it I feel inspired. I remember that there is a time for everything, for creating and for revising the creation. You make a baby, and then you dress it up. (Right? That’s how it works, right? My friends and their new babies seem to be a constant stream of new outfits. Hmm, maybe that’s not a good way to work on your manuscript! LOL!)

Perhaps you write in more than one age group – the various children’s age groups, YA, adult. Kate Forsyth has written for every age group. As she says, “You can read me from birth to death!” You might find some words of wisdom in her article “Writing Books For All Ages.” Kate’s got some good things to keep in mind when you change age groups as you’re writing.

You so often hear that emotion is the most important part of writing. I find that thinking about times I did or said or experienced something that brought out a strong emotion, this helps me get more and stronger emotion on the page. If you like exercises that help you think about emotions in your own life, try this article from Writer’s Digest.

I hope some of these give you encouragement, an ah-ha moment, or in any way help you keep writing this month. That’s our goal!

As for me, I have four days to come up with the beginning of a story with an alien being where intergalactic travel is assumed. The sci-fi assignment for my Popular Fiction class. I want to do something like Doctor Who. But what? If you have any ideas for me to brainstorm on, let me know! Meanwhile, I’m going to sit here on the couch and stare at the ceiling and try to think of something.  :)