Itty Bitty Advice for Writers

It's Book Expo America time.  Thanks to Mindy Philips Lawrence for this inpsiration in my time of need and for her unbelieveable dedication to editing my Sharing with Writers newsletter and providing Itty Bitty columns (all of them sooo different depending on her mood!) for that same letter!

An Itty-Bitty Column on Writing

You Can’t Back Up
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By Mindy Phillips Lawrence

“Keep moving forward. That is probably the best advice I can give you as you continue toward your writing goals, whatever they may be. Just keep moving forward.” ~  Chuck Sambuchino, Editor of Guide to Literary Agents

Life doesn’t have a beep, beep, beep alarm that allows you to back up and do something over again. You MUST go forward. The good old days weren’t. They are a concept in someone’s mind and different for every person. Going back to the old publishing model and the old way of writing won’t work anymore. Traditional publishing isn’t dead, but it must be shaped into a different mold if it wants to survive.

Think about the airplane. The one that everyone said wouldn’t get off the ground. Have you been looking up lately? They’re overhead every hour of the day. Cars were never supposed to take the place of a horse and buggy. Now self-driving cars may soon be licensed in Colorado. They aren’t supposed to make it either but don’t bet currency on it.

You have to learn NEW. When you start looking backward instead of forward, you miss the present and are clueless to the future. When you write, don’t just write what you used to. Branch out. Go a different direction and see where it takes you. You’ll find some dead ends but keep trying. You’ll discover that you can do much more than you ever dreamed by looking forward instead of backward.

 Links for you to explore:

Writer Lost: Carlos Fuentes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Fuentes

Writer Unboxed
http://writerunboxed.com/

Keep Moving Forward

http://www.inspiredwebworks.com/inspiration-and-dreaming-big/5-winning-strategies-to-keep-moving-forward.html

Working Through the Writing Process
http://www.csun.edu/~hflrc006/coaching_student.html

Forward Thinking

http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/blog/index.php/think-forward-think-big/

Journalism’s Future

http://www.therisetothetop.com/davids-blog/journalisms-future-writing-web-adwords-business-pundits-drea-knufken/

~ Mindy Phillips Lawrence, www.freewebs.com/mplcreative, is the author of the poetry collections One Blue Star and Above and Below. She is co-author of The Complete Writer, an editor and a publicist. She is in the process of putting together an e-book and paperback based on her Itty-Bitty Column for Sharing with Writers. Blogging at:http://mplcreative.blogspot.com/. Her specialty is helping writers with their media releases. She also writes The Itty Bitty column for Sharing with Writers.  Reach her at mplcreative1@aol.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: