Spring Cleaning for Writers

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Yes, it’s that time of year. Time to clean the debris out of the writing cave and bring in some fresh material. Time to dust off your writing aspirations and get busy making them happen.

Here’s my spring cleaning plan.

  • Organize files (both computer and hard-copy). Dispose of duplicates and out-dated material.
  • Clean equipment. See Computer Hope site for detailed how-to on computer cleaning.
  • Make sure all files on the computer are backed up. See my post on backup methods here.
  • Inventory supplies and equipment. Make a shopping list and a wish list.
  • Look for fresh ideas. Spend some time reading old journals and/or writing projects you put aside long ago. Move the ones that interest you to your active file.
  • Inventory writing books and magazines. Sell or give away those that you have not looked at in more than a year. I know. This is hard.

Don’t even try to do all this at once. You may feel overwhelmed and give up. Give yourself a week or even a month to finish the job. Continue reading →

Book Review: Creativity and Divine Surprise

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Subtitle: Finding the Place of Your Resurrection. Author: Karla M. Kincannon. Published by Upper Room Books, 2005.

Author Kincannon makes the most of her roles as artist and United Methodist minister in this wonderful “tour” of the creative process. Written for artists, the principles apply equally to writers. The chapters are organized to take you from the beginning of the creative process all the way to the end, giving instruction and encouragement all along the way.

Because the Amazon listing does not have the “look inside” feature, I’ll share the table of contents with you. Chapters are: Invitation, Encounter, Preparation, Frustration, Incubation, Illumination, and Elaboration. Organized as a study book, each chapter begins with an inspirational quote and ends with an exercise. If you are a writer instead of an artist, you can do the exercises with a journal, pen, colored markers, and some type of art paper. I confess that I read the book, but I have yet to do the exercises.

At times I felt that Kincannon was talking directly to me. She identified all the things that keep me from being creative. She addresses the feelings of inadequacy and even incompetence that all artists feel now and then. Her discussion of perfectionism hit home for me. She pointed out that perfectionists “need a reaction from others to form their identity.” She said each new inspiration we receive is a gift from God, an invitation to a “new life of creativity in partnership with God.” The creative process is a reflection of life itself—birth, struggle, death, rebirth.

Being an artist/writer is not easy—but you knew that. Get this book and study through it, letting the lessons help you organize your thoughts. Soak up the encouragement that each pages offers. It’s well worth the time and effort.

Check it out on Amazon: Creativity and Divine Surprise: Finding the Place of Your Resurrection

Post script: Check out my Store page where you’ll find my work for sale as well as Donna Goodrich’s A Step in the Write Direction for sale.

I invite you to comment on this or other posts. I welcome your feedback. I also hope that you will forward this post and recommend that your writer friends subscribe to this blog for regular posts of topics of interest to Christian writers.

Your Promo Photo: What Are You Promoting?

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Photos from Morguefile.com

How old is the photo on your Web site or business card? If it’s more than two years old, it’s probably time to get another one. If you’ve changed your hair color or style, that’s another reason to have a new photo taken. If now’s the time, stop and think about what you want you want your photo to say about you.

Do you want to appear cool and professional?

If you’re promoting a book to a major publishing company, you probably need to have a professional photographer do your photos. Be sure that he or she can provide digital versions so that you can use your new pics on your Web site or blog.

But—make sure your photo isn’t so touched-up that people won’t recognize you. At a writers’ conference, I sat with a professional psychologist who wanted to write for the Christian market. She gave me her business card. The design was super, but her photo didn’t even look like her. She had sandy blonde hair and a healthy tan with freckles peeking out from under her makeup. Her photographer had air-brushed out all the “imperfections.” She had no wrinkles to show that she had been around for a while (with the experience to show for it). The freckles, one of her most alluring features, were nowhere to be found. Continue reading →

Marketing Link Roundup

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Do you often run across an article or blog post that makes you wish you had been the one to write it? That’s how I felt when I came across these articles.

Need Free Photos?

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Have you noticed that many bloggers are now adding photos to their posts? Would you like to have some photos to jazz up your e-book? I want to keep up with the latest trends, so I’ve looked for free photos for my last few posts.

I googled for “free photos,” but I kept getting sites that offer a lot of royalty-free photos but very few absolutely-free, no-strings-attached photos. I put a query on my writers group asking people where they get their free photos. In the process, I’ve come up with some tips that might save you time when you need free graphics. Continue reading →

Measuring Success: Google Analytics

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How do you know whether anybody is reading your blog? Why spend all the time and energy it takes to produce content if there are no readers? This question came up in an online writers’ group recently. You may be wondering that too, so, in this post, I’ll share the method I’m using now.

When I was using the free WordPress blogs (www.wordpress.com), I had access to limited traffic statistics on the main dashboard. Now that I’m using self-hosted WordPress (www.wordpress.org), I decided to check out Google Analytics. You can use your existing Google login information if you are already a Google user.

I set up my account on February 5, 2010. I can now see traffic trends from that date to the current date, or I can check traffic for a specific month, week, or day. Right now, I don’t have many e-mail subscribers. If I only used that number to measure my following, I might get discouraged in a hurry. However, when I post new material, I announce it on Twitter and Facebook. A few days later, I go to Google Analytics and examine the traffic. Most of the time, I get a bump in visitors during the 24-hour period following the Twitter/Facebook post. Continue reading →

Hone Your Craft with Online Courses

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Have you wanted to attend a Christian writers’ conference but couldn’t afford the tuition and travel? Consider taking online classes. There are a number of options. Usually, the fees are reasonable, and there are no travel expenses to worry about. Your continuing education dollar goes entirely to honing your craft and getting to know other writers as you learn.

The Christian PEN: Freelance editor Kathy Ide organized The Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network as a Google group. She offers online courses for people wanting to become freelance editors. I joined the group about four years ago. The discussions on the group were helpful to me, but the online classes have helped me improve my writing and editing. Especially useful to me as a writer was my first class, “Proofreading and Editing for Clients.”

Contributing members of TCP pay lower course fees than non-members, but all the fees are quite reasonable. Kathy Ide does not teach all of the courses. Instructors must be contributing members and submit a course syllabus to Kathy for approval. She manages the enrollment details for all courses. The complete list of course offerings is here. The 2010 course schedule is here. Continue reading →

Lessons from a Computer Crash

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Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

 

 

Earlier this month, while I was reworking my Web site and setting up this blog, my laptop computer experienced what my support person called a “hard crash.” I asked what that meant, and he said, “All of your data is lost. You must reformat your hard drive.” I followed instructions, but doing this on the phone was taking forever. And, because things weren’t working out like I thought they should, I took my computer to my local computer repair store. I’m back up and running now, but I’ve learned some things that I want to share with you in case you have a similar experience.

Lesson #1: If support tells you that you have to re-format your hard drive, get another opinion first. The local repair guy said that, if I had not wiped the drive clean, it might have been possible to recover my data before reinstalling Windows XP. Just because the person on the phone works for the computer manufacturer doesn’t mean he or she is always right. I wish I had sought a second opinion. Continue reading →

Free “Ask Sally Stuart” Teleseminar

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In my last post, Start the New Year with Sally Stuart, I hope I convinced readers that Christian writers must own a copy of the latest edition of Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Market Guide. Near the end of the post, I provided a link to the “Ask Sally Stuart” teleseminar hosted by Terry Whalin of Intermedia Publishing. Continue reading →

Starting the New Year with Sally Stuart

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Just this week, I received my copy of the 25th anniversary edition of Sally Stuart’s Christian Writer’s Market Guide, compiled and edited by Sally Stuart. What a great way to start the New Year and to jump-start my planning for my writing this year. I haven’t subscribed for the entire 25 years, but, since I received my very first copy, I realized that this is a must-have resource for Christian writers. Continue reading →