Nancy Christie's Blog, page 38
January 28, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 28: Find Your Courage.
Day 28 — Find Your Courage.Writing can be a scary process that takes courage to pursue.
You are putting your words out there to be judged, and sometimes it can be hard to take the critiques.
It can also be scary if there is something you want to explore—an event from your past, for example—but you aren’t sure if you have the strength to go down into that dark place.
And then there is the fear that surfaces when you try something new. Maybe you’ve had a modest amount of success writing nonfictio...
January 27, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 27: Build Your Confidence.
Day 27 — Build Your Confidence.There are days when you are full of confidence.
Those are the times when all the writing gods are with you, the muses are lined up on either side of your desk, no one is bothering you— in short, the conditions and your own self-belief are perfect for writing.
But then there are the other days: those times when your internal gremlins start whispering: “You’ll never be a writer. Who do you think you are— another Shakespeare? JK Rowling? Stephen King?” Your confidenc...
January 26, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 26: Know Your Value
Day 26 — Know Your Value.Your writing ability has value, both intrinsically and commercially.
Whether you write books or marketing copy, poetry, short stories or essays, your words can be a source of financial compensation as well as a method of building your writing brand.
But this requires you to take off your writing hat and put on your bookkeeper bonnet.
If you are investing time and money in your writing career, make sure that your decisions have a solid financial basis. Writing for corpor...
January 25, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 25: Be Accessible.
Day 25 — Be Accessible.How accessible are you?
I interview a lot of writers, authors and industry professionals on my blog. And nothing makes me crazier than when I search for specific people online and either they don’t have a presence at all or what they have doesn’t offer any mode of contact.
Unless you are emulating Greta Garbo’s “I want to be alone” attitude from the movie Grand Hotel, you need to be accessible. Reachable. Available. Now I’m not advocating posting your home address for all...
January 24, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 24: Increase Your Efficiency.
Day 24 — Increase Your Efficiency.When it comes to successfully managing multiple projects, the keyword is “efficiency.”
This is something I learned from years of simultaneously balancing editorial assignments and client deadlines, along with my own writing work and family responsibilities.
If you’re not efficient and well organized, it won’t take long before you have that sinking feeling that you’ll never be able to meet all the obligations that are looming on the horizon!
The key is to create...
January 23, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 23: Become Social Media Savvy.
Day 23 — Become Social Media Savvy.Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Pinterest. LinkedIn. Those are just some of the social media channels that help build your writing platform.
That means you must learn how to use it to connect with your readers, increase your visibility and support your fellow writers.
In Social Media for Writers: Which Platforms You Need to be on, Based on What You Write, Kristina Adams highlights some of the ways social media can help you establish your brand and your reputatio...
January 22, 2021
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31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 22: Create a Writing Success Team.
Day 22 — Create a Writing Success Team.Sometimes it can feel like you are working in isolation, with no one to share your work with and no one around to understand the joys and challenges of the writing life. That’s when having a writing success team can make all the difference.
A good writing success team has three kinds of people:
The Encouragers—These are the people who keep your spirit up when you ready to throw in the towel after yet another rejection or a client project that went all side...
January 21, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 21: Take It a Step at a Time.
Day 21 — Take It a Step at a Time.You’ve set your 2021 goal. This is going to be the year when you write your book.
Or start your copywriting career. Or become a rock star on social media. Or build your writer platform.
You do your research, reading everything you can on the subject. But the more you research and read, the more overwhelmed you feel.
Or maybe it’s a client project or magazine assignment that you have committed to. But what seemed like a doable task when you took it on suddenly s...
January 20, 2021
31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers—Day 20: Get Over the Guilt.
Day 20 — Get Over the Guilt.Are you suffering from writer’s guilt? You want to write but…
The kids need help with their homework. Or the laundry needs washed. Or supper needs prepared. Or a friend or family member wants to talk.
So, you push your writing aside, telling yourself, I’ll get to it later. The trouble is, “later” never seems to come around. There’s always something else that needs attended to.
And after all, you tell yourself, it’s not like I’m making any money at this. Or that I’ve ...
