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Not Quite There With 5 Days Remaining
It’s the 25th of November, and I’m still making progress, although it’s not moving as quickly as I would like. The goal for November was to complete 50,000 words (which is, in essence, a small novel). The problem is, this novel (Life with Nan) will more like 80,000+ words, I’m guessing. So, my friends, I have a way to go, but if that’s the case, then I’ll try to find some solace in the fact that I hit the halfway point by going over 40,000 words. Nan and my main character, Calista, still have more to uncover as their relationship of living together as granddaughter and grandmother continue, and as…
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Creative People, Please Listen: Ignore the Noise and Carry On! A Pep Talk.
*** A friend of mine, a fellow author, and I were having an email exchange about the nature of people. As the two of us are both authors, one with a publisher (my friend) and one going it alone on the independent author lane (me), we were discussing the way people sometimes behave when you decide to put something out there–when you decide to be brave and publish your work. Some people are genuinely ecstatic for you–they jump for joy and are over-the-moon (we love you.) Some people support you quietly (we love you, too). Some people pay attention to what you are doing but say nothing (we also love…
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Don’t Put Limitations on Yourself: Inspiration to Achieve the Goals You Set for Yourself
* Writer and director James Cameron (Titantic, Avatar, and the Terminator) says it best at the end of his Ted Talk on Ted.com: Don’t put limitations on yourself; other people will do that for you. I typically show this Ted Talk to my university feature writing students each fall after they read a piece about the iconic director. We discuss the profile article, the writing style, the use of feature techniques, and then we talk about James Cameron—as he is portrayed in the article. You see, when you read an article about someone, it’s from that one person’s perspective. And sometimes, he or she doesn’t get all the details, facts,…
