This vs. That: Resolutions vs. No Resolutions

Of all the polls I've done, this one surprised me the most. In truth, I thought this would be a 'no contest' event, but boy was I wrong. However, I found it fascinating to hear about all of your opinions on resolutions and goal-setting. Good stuff!

But lets get to the interesting stuff:

Total votes: 17

Resolutions: 8 votes; 47%
No Resolutions: 9 votes; 53%

I really thought that while people might ignore resolutions or #fail at them (it just sounds cool to add the pound sign), most people would be pro-resolutions. So yes, I voted in favor of them.

However, I forgot to consider that most of my readers are writers. I should have realized that semantics would play into this. Unlike most people in the world, we writers make the distinction between goals and resolutions.

Nit-picky bunch, aren't we?

That said, I have a feeling that if I did Goals vs. Resolutions, Goals would win hands down. They seem to be preferred based on all your comments.

Okay. Now on to the next debate:

Apples

vs.

Oranges

Top Writing Blogs

Right now, ecollegefinder is holding a vote for the top writing blogs. You can go vote for your favorite by clicking on the little badge below.

Online Colleges

You have until Feb. 3, and you can actually vote for multiple blogs and on a daily basis.

Some of my favorite writing blogs are listed (Miss Snark's First Victim and Shallee McArthur), while others I love (Literary Rambles and Janice Hardy's blog) are missing. Someone kindly nominated my blog as well, but no pressure to vote for me.

So my questions to you are:

1) What makes a top writing blog? and

2) If you were nominating your favorite/most helpful writing blog, who would you nominate?

Who Do You Tell?

Yesterday, I saw a license plate I could identify with:

KIDS BKS

Of course, for the full effect, you needed to read the custom license plate frame. Above the plate it read: "I love creating," and then below was a web address. I was driving at the time, so I unfortunately don't remember the address.

In short: I love creating kids books.

Aha! I thought. A kindred spirit right in front of me. But then it made me wonder. Is she/he published? Not published? What kinds of kids stories do they write? And with all these questions, I wondered if I would have the moxy to make that MY license plate?

I remember reading a post by Hilary Wagner, author of Nightshade City, shortly after she got a book deal. She confessed that she didn't tell anyone she wrote until after she had an agent. That post really made me think, because I, like her, didn't want to tell anyone about it until I'd had some tangible success.

At that point, I kept a family blog, but not one to chronicle my writing. Only direct family (and critique partners) knew my secret. I felt comfortable with that. It's better this way, I told myself. Less to explain. But what I found was that I was withholding a significant part of myself from people I really cared about. Standoffish is probably the best word to describe how I felt.

For me, that wasn't okay, so I changed some things.

I remember the first time I told a friend that I was writing a book. I steeled myself for the reaction. You know, that credulous look that says, "you really think you can write a book good enough to be published?"

It never came. Instead, she said, "Actually, that doesn't surprise me." She asked all kinds of questions about what I was writing, my writing process, and what my plans were. And I realized that people who care will always be interested. Always believe you can succeed.

Because that's what friends do.

I still don't tell just anyone, but I don't withhold it from my friends either. So back to the original question: would I choose a license plate like this?

The answer is probably not. At least not yet.

What about you? Who do you tell that you write?

This is SO Not My 850th Post

Flipping through my Blogger Dashboard yesterday, I happened on Elana Johnson's post, titled: What Does One Blog About for Post #850? (For the record, we're not related. We checked. Still, I fondly think of her as my amazing little cousin.)

So wow. That's a lot of posts. And that's a question (minus the #850 part) that I (and other bloggers, I'm quite sure) ask all the time. So today I give you my list of what to blog on when you've got nothin'.

1. Share a Personalized License Plate (duh!).
2. Piggyback off someone else's blog post (clever, that).
3. Find a picture and make a post out of it. (Joanne at Whole Latte Life is excellent at this).
4. Share an embarrassing moment from your life.
5. Share a favorite quote.
6. Share an inspirational moment from your life.
7. Do an "Awards" post. You know all those awards floating around, right? Surely you forgot to pass one of them forward. And if you didn't really get one, just pretend. Who's going to know, right? ;)
8. Make up your own award and give it to someone.
9. Spotlight your favorite blogger.
10. Spotlight one of your heros.
11. Let your readers ask you questions that you promise to answer truthfully (a blogging-world favorite).
12. Talk about the people-watching you did at the grocery store (or from your front porch if you're in a pinch).
13. Comment on a bit of news you read/heard.
14. Close your eyes then open them. Now write an essay on the first physical object that you see. You can talk about how it inspires you. (ex: Toothbrush. How inspiring that a toothbrush works day in an day out and wears itself out just to keep you from getting gingivitis).
15. Tell a joke.
16. Comment on a favorite movie (bonus if you relate it to writing).
17. Tell a cute kid story.
18. Tell about that time that you lied to your mom about hitting that baseball through the window, then blamed it on your . . . oh wait. Mom, I totally did not do that. Really.
19. Start a story and ask your readers to each add a sentence.
20. Post a picture of yourself when you were young. Be sure to include a funny story about yourself.
21. Share a song that inspires you.
22. Have a contest/Give something away.
23. Videotape yourself doing something crazy (why, I do believe that's called a vlog!).

Okay, okay. I'm going to stop there because I can hear that snoring back there. Yeah, I mean you! So what do you do when you've got nothing?

Switching Things Up



Photo Credit



Last Saturday, my husband and I went bowling with our good friends. We played two games. The first we played normally, and it was fun. We enjoyed it. 



But the second . . . the second one we switched things up. We bowled left-handed (we were all right-handed normally). It was hilarious! Infinitely more fun, even though our scores were a lot lower (okay, two of us might have done a little better than expected), but the gaffes were great. The flying-arc ball. The flip-out-of-the-gutter ball (twice!). The directly-into-the-gutter ball. The slow-rolling strike. 



Anyway, So while I'm sure you're all wildly interested in our bowling night, I really wanted to compare this to writing (surprise, surprise).

As humans, I think we tend to do things the way we've always done them. And that includes writing. Of course, there's nothing WRONG with that. But sometimes changing things up just a little can have a big impact.

I mean, on Saturday, we didn't change the activity. We still went bowling. We didn't even change any of the rules of the game. We simply changed one thing, and that made all the difference.

So if your writing feels a little stale to you . . . or it's just not as fun as it used to be, why not change something up? Here are some ideas:

• Change where you write.
• Change your ink color.
• Switch to writing by hand (or vice versa if needed) 
• If you outline, write without one.
• If you don't outline, try making one.
• Change the setting of your story. 
• Write with a partner.
• Tell the story from a different POV (1st vs. 3rd, or from a minor character's POV).
• Work on a different story altogether.
• Work on that story you're dying to write . . . but are afraid of.
• Try a different form of writing (Picture book, poetry, short story, novel in verse, vignette, flash fiction, SO MANY OPTIONS!)

What small changes have you made that really helped your writing?

IM AWSME

Over the past week, I've seen this license plate twice:

IM AWSME

I laughed when I first saw it. "Some's not lacking for confidence," I thought. But the more I think about it, the more I love it.

Because why shouldn't we all think that of ourselves? Why shouldn't we have the confidence to know that we are awesome? And that means you!

• You are awesome for your individuality (I'm talking polka dots in a sea of white).
• You are awesome for that talent of yours everyone admires.
• You are awesome for that thing you do when you get nervous.

In short, you are awesomesauce on a platter!

And just to be clear, one person's awesomness has nothing to do with another person's awesomeness. We don't have to compare ourselves to anybody. No two people are the same (not even identical twins!). No two people will travel the same path in this life. And that is GOOD! Who would want to do exactly what someone else has done? Where's the adventure in that?

So remember, YOU ARE AWESOME!

When's the last time you reminded yourself how awesome you are?

Not Quite Twitterpated

So I did it. I finally took the plunge and signed up for a Twitter account.

For the past month now, I have been peeking in, scrolling through the tweets and trying to figure out what in the world half of them are saying. Perhaps I should have read "Twitter for Dummies" (that's got to exist, right?) before launching in.

I think I got the @ symbols, but the pound signs? Or are they called hashtags (hash tags; hash-tags; hatch tags; has tags; has-been tags; has-anyone-got-a-clue tags)? Twitter groups perhaps?

Not to mention coming into a thread halfway through a conversation. There's got to be a way to read what someone responded/replied to, right?

And lists . . . groups with shared interest? But then what about the hash tages? Plus I'm not sure I get the purpose just yet. Though I'm sure there is one. There's gotta be.

Alas. So much information. So much I don't know.

This is, of course, where you come in. Shoot me your best piece of Twitter advice. Please? Pretty please with a strawberry (much better than a cherry) and fresh-whipped cream on top? And fine, if you insist I'll throw in the chocolate syrup.

Because I need it (I mean your advice, not the chocolate syrup). I need you! Explain this Twitter-verse to me.

And oh yeah. I'm @MsVerbose if you wondered.