chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Cultivating a Writing Habit

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Tlhomphano Ngwato Kgoetego — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:17:59 -0000

Wow! Great post!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Buy Custom Essay — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:06:17 -0000

I found to be quite useful.
This is really fantastic advice, thank you so much.....

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

becca — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:58:27 -0000

You are fantastic ... really loved this and needed it. Thank you!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Frankie Cooper — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:15:20 -0000

Awesome writing tips...

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

lv — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:38:37 -0000

I agree with DigitalNomad ... it's time to recognize our community!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Gina Magini — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:54:13 -0000

I like your article. Especially the part about writing all day long. I relate to that because many times I am doing one thing, but my mind is picking up on details I can use in my writing, or a plot is fermenting there in the old gray matter. Nonetheless, the planning and thinking processes are a part of the writing. The other point I strongly relate to is reading. I read every day. A lot. Several books a week. Anyone who wants to write well really must read. I fell in love with reading as a child and still remember with fondness trips to the library to check out fairy tale books. When I ran out of regular ones, I started reading foreign fairy tales. Now, those are interesting!
Anyway, thanks for a great piece on writing.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Mika — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 17:09:37 -0000

Good stuff - thanks for sharing!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Meg Turner — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:12:54 -0000

Hi Chris, I found your post via a recent post from Amber Naslund (http://altitudebranding.com... - which inspired me to write: http://megturner.blogspot.c...

Just think, you could have been one of my fifth grade students! I had some very creative kids back then. I love to write, but am still finding my niche. I especially love reading blogs. Can't say I even come close to 700 a day, but I and am amazed by all the good ones out there and am often up to 3 in the morning trying to read them all!

Any tips for finding your niche?

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Avi H — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:31:10 -0000

awesome post. thanks

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Thorne — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:39:22 -0000

So . . . how about your thoughts on working with an editor?

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Redcentaur — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:57:14 -0000

Practice makes perfect - or at least as close to perfection as one person can get. Whether practice equals sitting with a keyboard or a pad and pen, or it equals staring into space thinking about how something could be phrased; it's all the same. How true.... I need some more practice!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Edie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:04:26 -0000

Chris, good points! Writing is a must if we want to learn to write. Just like learning to play a musical instrument or participating in sports. Practice makes perfect. There is a huge difference in writing a blog and writing a book. Congrats on going that next step. I agree with the comments about the Stephen King book - two things impressed me, and that is how much he writes every day, and that he reads every evening rather than watch TV. We only need to look to his productivity and success to know that we need to turn off the TV and develop the discipline necessary to produce more words. I wish you the best on your book and your continued success. I am bookmarking this site.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Srijit — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:27:09 -0000

Dear Chris,

Myself staying at Kolkata,India.Love writing......in fact nurture a dream to make it big in future by ,as others say, earning thru blogging.At present unemployed.please suggest something immediately like some good,easy topics to blog .

Regards...............srijit

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Bindu Muralidharan — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:39:24 -0000

Really interesting piece of information. I never knew that we could look at the art of writing in this sense too. It definitely makes us realise how other writers feel, and indentify with their character. Thnks... please post more such info.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Sascha Illyvich — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:11:30 -0000

Writing in general is formulaic, but yes if you don't even begin by putting text onto a page, you'll never have anything to edit.

Glad to see me mentioned here :) Good luck!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Steve — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:56:37 -0000

Hey Craig,
Like you I saw the film first but was intrigued when I found out it was based on a book that Bauby wrote himself. The book quite literally gets you in his head and is worth finding.
Cheers

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Craig — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:34:38 -0000

@Steve I never read the book but the movie was excellent. Really makes you wonder the things you can do it you really put your mind to it, cause especially in that case, that's all you need.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Steve — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:30:07 -0000

You want inspiration to write then read "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean-Dominique Bauby. I just finished it last night and under any circumstances it was a well written memoir. When you understand that Bauby at 44 had a massive stroke and was completely paralyzed with only the ability to move his left eye. That he wrote with someone reciting letters till he heard the one he wanted and blinked yes for every word one letter at a time is astounding.
The book was written over two months and edited in 2 weeks. That should be a kick in the butt to anyone that thinks they can't do it themselves.
Now go write something people.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Innkeeper — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:52:03 -0000

I write mostly non-fiction & tech articles and poetry. I do a lot of teaching, consulting and editing on a wide variety of writing projects. To me, the most important qualities in good non-fiction writing are: flow, clarity and conciseness. Reading extensively is helpful to writers when it comes to content and developing style and an authentic voice. It also exposes them to a variety of models, so they can become aware of what works and what doesn't.

One way I have found that works with my students is to break the writing process down like so: brainstorm (verbally or on paper), write, and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite; the rewriting or editing being of utmost importance. Reading aloud or having someone else read your writing aloud or proof read it for clarity and coherence can also be helpful.

I am also a musician and I believe ( as Mary Ray does) that this is an advantage when it comes to injecting rhythm, tonality and color into my writing. This is accomplished by combining words and sentences in very specific ways. I play with them on the page and move them around, until I find the most interesting and effective ways of using them. And I certainly agree with Amber Naslund (an admirable writer) when she says writing must flow on the page. With me, sometimes, it gushes and I have to exercise some conscious control to rein it in, especially if it's 3:00 in the morning.

Writing on twitter is much harder for me than writing on my blog, because I don't get that wonderful open, flowing feeling I get from writing larger pieces. Twitter feels all choppy and disjointed to me. I hope I get over that. I've only been doing it a few days. I want to like it more.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

julie kay — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:47:10 -0000

Having written since I could write (!) I chickened out on myself 20 years ago and began writing for advertising agencies and corporations...that paid the bills. Now, I feel like I bastardized my writing talent. How do I get back to the true bone of writing? Everytime I start something, I play marketing guru and ask myself what's the objective, who is the audience...? Stop. I want to write the good stuff again.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Darin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:34:45 -0000

Thanks for a great and practical post. Do you have any tips for organization of all of your writing? My cluttered hard drive, stacks of notebooks, coctail napkins and scraps of paper lead me to believe this is an area I need to give attention.

I'm thrilled to have found your blog. Thanks!

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

MeghanButler — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:26:20 -0000

My mentor used to call it the monkey mind - that mental block that prevents you from forming the words that are at the tip of your mind. It's odd, as a journalism major, I hated writing what others assigned me, but I've found that post-graduation I actually miss it because I no longer have a drive to write at the end of the day because I'm not being forced to write during the day. I felt the writing fatigue, but I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and that pen has never felt so "write" in my hand.

PS My notebook is my security blanket, even when I had nothing to say. Or as my former boss called it "the ramblings of a mad white woman."

cheers

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Iain Broome — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:43:52 -0000

Potentially, there's a double-edged sword element to writing all day. It could lead to writing fatigue, for example, where you simply don't have the energy or inclination once the real ideas arrive.

However, like you, I find that writing all day (as a full-time copywriter) usually helps me to write my fiction or blog posts when I get home. It's a tough balance, but it's quite possible to manage your writing effectively and quite literally, write all day.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

jaybaer — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:47:51 -0000

Chris if you're not Jordan, I'm not Bill Cartwright.

However, it was encouraging that you cited many of the same influences that have shaped my own (not yet as prolific) output.

Made to Stick is priceless. I don't share the universal man-love for Seth, but his thesis-first approach is great. I agree 1000% on the King book. Had the same reaction (although didn't rip the book).

I'd offer a couple of other personal touchstones. I find Bill Bryson to be the absolute best at turning a phrase. He is the master of word selection. I like Cormac McCarthy because he proves you can write a sentence like "The man went to the door." and have it drip with meaning.

Although I find his current politics don't sync with my own, I've always cribbed from Dennis Miller in the reliance on simile and metaphor when I'm really rolling.

Also glad that we share a NCTE trophy. I remember writing that essay like it was yesterday.

Re: Cultivating a Writing Habit

Steve — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:16:58 -0000

I'm new to your blog but I can already tell I'll be back. I like not only what you have to say but how you say it. Me I'm influenced by everything I've ever read, including your blog. (My personal favorite Palahniuk is "Survivor").

I'm glad you mentioned "On Writing". Steve was a big influence on me, not that book particularly but I spent time with him working on a TV show a few years ago. When he found out I write he's the one that told me to "start writing books", I'm in the middle of three now (I've only ever read two of his, sorry Steve). The man is not just a writer but a word junkie. He has big word jumble books he carries with him everywhere. With in the first two minutes of meeting me he had checked out the book I was reading and the music I was playing and later that day we went and bought him the same...I guess he approved.

Great insight and informative, I look forward to reading more that you have to share.