Saturday Edition – What We’re Writing and Reading

Welcome to this Saturday Edition of What We’re Writing and Reading.

We’re taking a little detour on the weekends now to share some of what we’re up to with our writing (when we’re not here) and what we’re into with our reading (around the web). We’ll also pull back the curtain a little to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what went into a piece.

We hope you enjoy this little diversion and encourage you to share your own posts and picks in the comments.

Happy writing! Happy reading!

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Jamie Wallace: Good morning! Wow. I can’t believe another week has “zipappeared,” as we say in my family. How is it possible that we’re already nearing the end of July?!? I’m already feeling the tingly anticipation of the back-to-school season ( ahhh … new pens & notebooks), but I’m also trying to keep summer from slipping through my fingers as they fly across my keyboard, striving to keep up with client deadlines.

Still, despite the chaos and continued run of oppressive heat & humidity, I managed to get a few blog posts up and read a few blogs as well. I’m also reading another novel (hooray!), but will hold off on sharing it until I’ve turned the last page.

For now – here are my bloggy links. Enjoy & have a wonderful, writerly weekend! 🙂

What I’m Writing:

On the business side of my business blog, I published a post titled Should my small business blog? 10 alternatives to traditional blogging. This is a question I get asked quite frequently by friends and clients alike. As a writer geek, I didn’t immediately understand why anyone would be opposed to blogging, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that I’m weird that way. Most people do not love the idea of cranking out blog posts and some people are downright terrified at the prospect.

Though, as fellow writers, you may be intrigued by the idea of a traditional, text-driven blog, you may have concerns about how much of your “real” writing time it will consume. That’s a very valid concern. In addition to tracking my billable hours, I also track the hours I spend doing “business building” activities like blogging. It usually adds up to a few hours per week – hours I could spend writing on my own projects if I chose. It can be a tough battle.

So this post provides some alternatives to the usual blog. It’s not the definitive list, but I hope that it might get the wheels turning and give you some things to explore.

I also posted an “off-topic Friday” post over at my Suddenly Marketing blog. Originally published as a column in my local paper, this piece – No such thing as an endless summer – is a bit of a lament, but also (I hope) an inspired call to slow the hell down. As I mentioned above, the season is whipping past faster than a hummingbird  – *flash* and it’s gone, leaving just a vague impression of its jeweled presence.

As a writer, I find the speed with which the days pass me by particularly distressing. Writers try to capture time with words. When we write, we stop time – for just a moment. Our words, like amber, trap a scene or a conversation and preserve it for eternity. When my days begin to run into each other, my vision becomes so blurred that I cannot even pick out a moment to hold in my writer’s mind.

I hope that there is still time in this summer to stop the spinning and just sit back and contemplate.

What I’m Reading:

Here are my favorite writing-related blog posts of the week:

• The Blink Factor: Time Mgmt Can Build or Break Your Business by @TechTherapist via @SmallBizTrends – This totally applies to writers of any kind. It’s one of the most common time management mistakes made. I’m guilty as charged.
• 10 (Healthy) Ways to Lose Weight (& Feel your Best) by @waylonlewis via @elephantjournal – I loved these sensible and non-hype-y tips. My writing life doesn’t leave me tons of time to spend on cooking or exercising, so I really appreciated these bite-sized (pun intended) tips.
• What an astonishing thing a book is! An inspiring video clip of Carl Sagan on the wonder and magic of books.
• The Absolute, Non-negotiable Truth About Writing & Selling Your Fiction by @storyfix – I found this strangely heartening. We’re all in this together – writers, agents, publishers.
• ‘Harry Potter’ Quotes: 10 Comforting Words Of Wisdom From Albus Dumbledore via @HuffingtonPost – This isn’t strictly related to writing except that it’s from one of the most successful book series in the history of writing.
• Unusual writing advice from a person who shouldn’t give writing advice by @MarsDorian via @MarkWSchaefer – This post is intended mostly for a business blogging audience, but a lot of what Mars has to say is very relevant to any kind of writing.
• Words we need in English by @ClareDodd via @mstibbe – For the word geek in each of you – a listing of gorgeously descriptive foreign words that have no English equivalents (but, should).
• Online Habits: Is Less Really More? by @GiniDietrich – An encouraging post from one of the most lauded social media mavens on the surprising results of doing less on social media. (Phew!)
• No time to moodle by Live to Write – Write to Live reader, @andreadbadgley – Andrea commented on my recent post When a book unlocks your writer’s heart, and I so enjoyed her comment that I visited her site and found this lovely little gem of a post that I could totally relate to.

And my favorite quote of the week (from one of my favorite authors):

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.

– Kurt Vonnegut