Favorite Posts of the Week
Standing Desk. By Francois Dumont (1751-1831) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Favorite Posts of the Week:
1. The Secret to Creative Success: Ignore Everybody (Melody Godfred): In this post Melody writes about the advice given by one her creative heroes, Hugh MacLeod, a cartoonist and author.
2. How to Write a Novel (Nathan Bransford): Nathan Bransford’s site is a never-ending resource for all things writing. This post about how to write a novel was reassuring and informative.
3. 9 Reasons to Visit Your Real-Life Setting (Kat Latham): Kat recently took a trip to Bosnia to conduct research for her WIP. In the post listed above, as well as 4 Tips to Make the Most of Your Research Trip and Can You Describe a Place You’ve Never Been to?, Kat shares her experience with travelling to her WIP’s setting, and advice for those considering a similar adventure.
4. Writers and Confidence (Alana Saltz): I came across Alana’s blog after she commented on one of my posts, and I very glad I did! Alana is a writer, editor and teacher living in LA. This post from Alana provides a nice pep talk for new and emerging writers. And thanks to Alana, I’m now officially going to start calling myself a writer.
5. Just How Dangerous is Sitting All Day (Mashable): As writers, we spend a lot of time with our bottoms in chairs (or on sofas, or on beds, or benches – wherever your chosen writing spot is). I came across this article from Mashable this week, and decided it might be time to invest in a standing desk. If you’re as terrified as I was by that inforgraphic, here are some tips from someone who started using a standing desk: Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk.
If you have a favorite post of the week to share, please do! I’m always looking for new reading material.
Thanks for dropping by, and happy writing!
Image source: By Francois Dumont (1751-1831) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Bodhirose.wordpress.com
I feel her blog has three outstanding short works—2 poems and one brief story that are beautifully written for women. They are one right after the other. Mother Board and Make Believe(Poems) and a scary Ouija Board-Short story will be enjoyed by all…but a must for women. Please check it out—they are my favorite.
Jaye
Thanks for sharing that, Jaye! I’ll definitely check it out.
Thank you so much for the favorite, I’m flattered! I’m happy to have stumbled upon your blog as well. I’ll definitely be following your new posts as they come.
The story of the standing desk reminds me of an anecdote about Virginia Woolf: she bought herself a standing desk and stood for hours a day working at it, just to keep her sister Vanessa company while she stood at her easel, painting. And also to prove that if Vanessa could do it, so could she :)
I have never heard that story! I had read that Philip Roth used a standing desk , but not Virginia. I’m even more motivated to build one now :) Thank you for sharing that!
The value of visiting locations is an interesting one. For the UK version of our best-seller Sugar & Spice I visited ever single location across the country to bring authenticity.
But it really depends on the type of novel you are writing. I don’t suppose CS Lewis made too close an inspection of the back of his wardrobe…
Nathan’s experiences as a newly published writer have been intriguing, Carrie, that’s for sure, but I question the value of some of his observations. At the end of the day Nathan is a first-time novelist and has written a book for 8-12 year olds that hasn’t actually been bought by anybody yet.
Agents aren’t necessarily writers and writers aren’t necessarily agents.
I love Nathan’s blogs and his inside knowledge of the industry, but worry so many people who follow his blog will assume he has some magic insight into the writing process too.
Maybe he has. Who knows, his book may be the next Harry Potter sensation.
On the other hand…
What perhaps is most interesting to come from all this is that Nathan finished and signed the contracts for the book two years ago.
Two years!
Think how many e-books he might have sold in that time if he had gone down the self-publishing route…
You raise an interesting point (and one that is much debated in the publishing world these days from my reading): Why go for a traditional publisher when you can publish an e-book much faster? As a publishing industry student, and a writer, I think both traditional publishing and self-pub can both be great options, depending on ones’ situation. Nathan actually wrote a post recently about why he chose to go with a traditional publisher (http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/05/why-i-chose-traditional-publisher.html). The point that stuck out for me was that his first book (JACOB WONDERBAR) is written for children, and the e-book market hasn’t quite reached that demo yet, so he thought he’d have better luck having his book printed.
It seems like self-pub has most certainly worked out for you! I look forward to making that decision for myself one day in the not so distant future. Thank you for another thought provoking comment, Mark!
What a great round up. Very interesting posts. Thanks for doing all of the leg work!
I’m glad you enjoyed them, Jacquelin!
Thanks so much for liking my posts this week! I’m so flattered because I love your posts!
@KatrinaLatham
Now I’m flattered! Thanks for stopping by Kat!
Thanks for including me on this fantastic list Carrie! I loved (was terrified) by the Mashable piece!
Yes! I have had a standing desk pretty much since the week I read that post. I can’t imagine life without one now. I only use it for my day job though, not for writing just yet – baby steps :)