Nancy Christie's Blog, page 45

Weekend Writing Prompt for 9.5.20

Coming or going?

Read the prompt and view the image at Focus on Fiction and then let it inspire you to write the rest of the story.

Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 8.26.20

Words for writers from Peter De Vries

Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 8.26.20 appeared first on The Writer's Place.

Connecting with Book Clubs in the Virtual World—Guest Post by Clifford Garstang

Many authors have had their book promotion plans totally disrupted by COVID-19—something I touched in my post, Tuesday’s Tips—Learning Curves on the Way to Doing Podcasts and Videos. And if one of their marketing tools involved in-person visits to book clubs, that strategy was put back in the toolbox pretty quickly.

But in this guest post, Clifford Garstang shares some advice for connecting with book clubs in the virtual world—something he had to switch to, given that his newest book, House of t...

Living the Writing Life podcast with Patricia Averbach

On my Living the Writing Life podcast, Patricia Averbach and I talk about the intersection of poetry and prose, and the differences and similarities in the creative process when writing fiction versus poetry.

Listen to it here: Living the Writing Life

Patricia Averbach Missing Persons Resurrecting Rain Painting Bridges

Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 8.19.20

Words for writers from Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 8.19.20 appeared first on The Writer's Place.

Rut-Busting Tip of the Week for 8.16.20: It all depends on effort.

Getting the opportunity to succeed is only the first step toward your goal. The rest of the path forwards depends on your ability to work for it.

More in this week’s rut-busting tip at the Make A Change blog.

The Gifts Of Change

Writing Work and Non-Writing Work—The Reality of the Literary Life

(A longer version of this article originally appeared on my blog, Focus on Fiction.)

When I was young (never mind how young), I used to think that writers sprung fully formed into their profitable and prolific literary careers, like Athena who, according to Greek mythology, sprung from Zeus’s forehead.

Now that I am older (never mind how much older), I know from firsthand experience that the road to writing is a long and winding one, full of stops and starts, detours and roadblock, successes and setbacks.

And since writers, like the rest of the population, like to eat, have a roof over their heads, and pay their bills, the literary life often exists in tandem with a non-literary occupation.

Sometimes the work famous authors did to earn their bread before they started having some success with their words had, on the face of it, little connection with their subsequent published work.

So that made me think about the rest of us, myself included, and the kind of work we did (and possibly still do) before we started writing full-time.

Does the work in some way align with writing: as a teacher, copywriter or editor, for example? Or do we choose to keep our two forms of labor as far apart as possible on the career categories scale, not wanting to overload our creative gray cells?

And if we have switched the type of work we used to do to something that seems more “writer-ly,” do those other jobs in some way still come into play in our literary life?

Nothing is ever wasted, especially if you’re a writer. And while sometimes it’s overheard conversations or witnessed interactions that inspire the creative process, other times it can be from experiences closer to home that serve as triggers: jobs we held, people we met, even emotions that those occupations generated.

So don’t regret your day jobs, past or present. Use them as source material!

"The Clock" excerpt

“Her words pilled over his ankles. The tide was rising and Harold knew from experience it would flow higher yet… he was finding it harder to breathe against the weight of her words, now reaching his chest.” From “The Clock” (Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories) (Unsolicited Press)
Listen to this excerpt and others here:
StoryTime

#StoryTimeWithNancyChristie #StayHomeAndRead

Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 8.12.20

Words for writers from Anne Tyler

Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 8.12.20 appeared first on The Writer's Place.

My Thoughts On… Alexa’s a Spy and Other Things to Be Ticked off About: Humorous Essays on the Hassles of Our Time

Sometimes when life is too scary, upsetting or confusing—or all three at the same time—you just need to check out for a while.

I was at the stage when I started reading Dorothy Rosby’s Alexa’s a Spy and Other Things to Be Ticked off About: Humorous Essays on the Hassles of Our Time.

And at the risk of sounding like a commercial (I can’t remember which one and I know better than to start an internet search after reading her “Racking, Wracking and Cyberslacking” chapter if I want to finish this re...