Twitter Advice

Survival Pack or How to Keep Writing No Matter What

May 22, 2017 By Julia Munroe Martin

What if life never got in the way of writing? What if I told you there was a way to guarantee you’d always be able to write? (Even if you have “writer’s block.” Even when you don’t feel like it. Even on those days you can’t get out of your own way.)

Clearly I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you WRITING IS A CHOICE. (So is everything else you do.) To make that choice, you may have to make other tough choices. It’s all about making writing a priority. And to do that, you need to be prepared.

What is a survival pack?

One morning I was texting my friend Dede Nesbitt (also an Admin Assistant here at WU) about my writing productivity woes. I was distracted by everything. Everything. Everything. It was one of those days I didn’t feel like writing. I was “stuck” on a difficult scene I wasn’t sure how to resolve. I’d been dragging around the house and hadn’t gotten around to exercising or showering. She was having a similar day (although to be fair, her problems seemed much more pressing: her two young kids and dog were energetically running around the house because it was a teacher in-service day. She was equally frustrated, though, that writing was often taking a back seat to… well, lots of things.).

Anyway. You get the point.

We texted back and forth about what to do about it. During the course of the conversation we came up with the idea. We needed something, some way to protect our writing, to make our writing top priority, to make sure we were able to write everyday. In short, we needed a way to survive. Survive as writers. To rescue our writing. And that’s when we came up with the—wait for it—survival pack.

You Are Not Alone

I know what you’re thinking. Come on. A survival pack? What does that even mean?

Think of it.

You’re stuck on a particular character or scene and you avoid your work in progress. Or your kids are sick. Or you’re not feeling well, but you’re not so sick that your life is on hold. Or you don’t feel like you have time to write—just that hour between dropping your car off at the mechanic and making dinner. Or you really don’t have time to write: you work full-time and after you put your kids to bed when you usually write, you just want to sit down with a glass of wine.

Maybe it’s even worse… maybe you’re so far out of the writing life, so off your writing game you can’t imagine finding a way back to your work in progress.

Or even to writing—at all.

Here’s a Case Study (hint: this is me): I have a manuscript in the middle of revision, but I was not making great progress because I have an overly-active and reactive rescue dog who needs (or thinks she needs) to go out every five minutes. I was flying by the seat of my pants for meals, going to the grocery store every day. I wasn’t exercising regularly, and every morning I meandered to my writing, visiting several social media sites before I even started writing (Instagram is my drug of choice so that also entailed going out and getting the best photo possible for the most likes possible). After I sat down to work, if I got stuck on a scene, I’d go back on Instagram (gotta check those likes, right?) OR I’d do something even more embarrassing to admit: I’d play Two Dots on my phone. [Read more…]

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When The Spark is Gone: 4 Ways to Bring Back the Joy of Writing

September 1, 2016 By Anna Elliott

If you’re a writer— professional, part-time, aspiring, or something in between— then chances are you got into the job because, not surprisingly, you love to write. My husband and I were just this week talking about doing the job that you’d do even if you were never payed for it— and definitely writing is that for me. I write seven days a week, year-round, simply because even on the hard days I couldn’t love it more.

But we all have experienced those hard days: times when we feel like we’ve lost the spark of delight in what we’re working on. It might be a scene, a chapter, or an entire book that suddenly feels flat or empty or just lifeless on the page. So here are my top four strategies for bringing back the joy and getting back on track when it feels like your spark is gone.

1. Don’t despair. Things may actually not be as bad as you think they are. Just this week, my writing partner and I were remarking that it’s practically impossible to write a book without at some point being convinced that it’s utter crud. But those are dark, desperate moments. Don’t trust them! Put the work aside for an hour or a day— take a walk, watch a movie, do something to relax— and then approach your story with new eyes. In my experience the chances are extremely good that you’ll find the book isn’t nearly as much a mess as you thought. In need of edits, sure, but anything can be editing and fixed. Just remember: you can’t edit a blank page.
[Read more…]

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Ask Annie: How Long Does a Tweet Live?

January 9, 2016 By Annie Neugebauer

How long does a tweet live before it gets buried in the scroll line? Someone told me less than 60 seconds. Is that accurate? –Paula Cappa, @PaulaCappa1

I like this question because I see more implied here than is stated. On the lines, I read: “How long does a tweet live?” Between the lines, I read: “Does anyone actually see my tweets?” I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m projecting, Paula, but for the sake of this column I’m going to answer that projection as much as I’ll answer your literal question.

So, how long does a tweet live? Technically, all tweets last indefinitely, because anyone could do a search or otherwise come across any old tweet at any time. They can still read it, which means they can still “like” it (used to be “favorite”) or retweet it even if it’s five years old. To find the permanent link to an old tweet, click on the time stamp beside it, circled in red here:

This will open the tweet on its own page, like so:

Once the tweet is opened in its own page, you can copy the permalink URL from your browser bar. For the tweet screenshot above, the permalink is: https://twitter.com/AnnieNeugebauer/status/675078988612661248

(This is useful if you want to imbed a tweet in a blog post or link to it on other sites; there are also options for “copy link to tweet” and “embed tweet” under the “more” dropdown, which looks like an ellipsis under your tweet.) The permalink will last until you delete the tweet. Or perhaps until Twitter deletes it, someday, in some sort of anarchist housecleaning fit. Who knows?

But “forever” is a frustrating answer, isn’t it? How long will the tweet show in the actual timeline, or scroll line as you call it, Paula?

Why not open your timeline and see? Go ahead, open another tab to Twitter and take a look at the top tweet. Depending on what kind of device you’re on, you might have to click the “show new tweets” bar or tweets might automatically refresh. For me just now, at the time of writing this, it only took 35 seconds for the top tweet to disappear below new ones. At that rate, 60 seconds sounds generous.

Nobody panic. [Read more…]

Pressure, Perception, and Probability: The Holy Trinity That Stymies the New Writer

October 5, 2015 By Grace Wynter

Today’s guest is Grace Wynter, a blogger and writer of romance and women’s fiction. Grace spends much of her non-writing time tinkering with WordPress websites and working on completing her professional editing certificate with the University of Chicago. When she’s not alternating between the Marvel and DC universes, she resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

I probably could have had my first novel done and dusted by now if I hadn’t allowed these three P’s to nag at me for the past few years. If my words can save a few writers a few tears, and years, then my agony wasn’t in vain.

Connect with Grace on her blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Pressure, Perception, and Probability: The Holy Trinity That Stymies the New Writer

Hi, my name is Grace, and I write new adult romance.

If you think that sounds like a confession or an introduction at a start of a meeting where anonymity is king, then you already know where I’m headed. In an industry that often snickers at romance, and where new adult that’s not Divergent or The Hunger Games is looked down on with derision, admitting that you write in the genre can sometimes open up the proverbial can of literary whoop-ass.

If you’re a seasoned writer you’ve probably run out of damns to give about what other writers think of you. But if you’re working on your first book and find yourself struggling with the expectations of what kind of writer you’re supposed to be, then join me at this meeting, and let’s commiserate about three of the things that, if we’re not careful, can end our writing careers before they even start.

Pressure

I remember the first time I was inspired to write fiction. I was reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the umpteenth time and thought how wonderful it would be to write a modern version set in the south. Not long into that endeavor I realized that I, my dear writers, am no Jane Austen. [Read more…]

6. Complaining about your WIP.

7. Comparing yourself to other writers.