As a writer-and eavesdropper...

As a writer—and eavesdropper—I know that genius lives where the language lives. Some witness it, overhearing by chance. I eavesdrop professionally, because such listening makes life a perpetual feast, and because I’m not always smart enough to invent things as powerful as what I hear. Another way to say this: By listening to the glories of conversation around me, I am moved to write, and I am reminded to listen closely to my own most quiet thoughts and dreams. In their inventive talk, my wise neighbors give me permission to take seriously my own internal voice.

--Kim Stafford, The Muses Among Us, 17

Three to live by...

"Write or die. Don't waste the gift God has given you." --David Kopp

"I write for the same reason I breathe--because if I didn't, I would die." --Isaac Asimov

"God created me to write. I will write no matter what." --MadeleineL'Engle

With God's help...

"....With God's help, we can all do great things for the kingdom, that we can ruthlessly pursue excellence and when the voices of disdain grow loud from talented folks and those who wish they were, let's drown them out with the most beautiful, thoughtful words we can muster, displayed on the pages of our own work.

Don't be discouraged and set that manuscript in a drawer. Keep pressing forward always remembering there is no one out there that can write like you, that has lived the life you have lived, or can tell the stories you alone can tell. "

Lisa Samon Blog, July 27th

Center...

Much like a mystic, a writer has to “center.” For me, the biggest challenge is to avoid distraction. When I worked as a magazine editor, I followed the office routine of moving papers around, responding to phone calls, letters, faxes. Writing is the hardest thing I do, so now that I am a freelancer, I find it easy to pick up this busy work instead. It's so much easier than writing. Somehow I have to fence off and preserve that time of undistracted, full concentration.

--Philip Yancey, http://www.faithfulreader.com/authors/au-yancey-philip.asp

Tricia’s Thoughts:

Walking the dog, cleaning the toilet, even watching reruns of Sponge Bob can seem important when there’s writing to accomplish. So do paying bills and catching the “big” sale downtown. Yet, if even Philip Yancy has to fight for that undistracted, full concentration time, then it’s time for each one of us to get out our boxing gloves and fight as equally hard. Ignore the dust bunnies. Writers unite!

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Reshape your bosom.

Okay, today’s column isn’t going to apply to our male writer friends. Sorry, dudes.

Remember those adolescent myths about exercises to increase our cup sizes? They’re not as far-fetched as you’d think. Check out this article from eFitness.com, “I’m Starting to Sag.”

The exercises he mentions, dumbbell incline press and dumbbell incline flys, can also be done while on a bed, using two cans.

For those who don’t know, for the dumbbell press, lie on your back and with a can in each hand, press straight upward toward the ceiling, like you’re raising a barbell above you.

For the dumbbell fly, extend your arms on either side of you and then lift them toward the ceiling and toward each other until they touch.

I’d also add push-ups (straight leg or on your knees), or wall push-ups to those exercises. Both of those work the pectoral muscles and help redefine the bust area. The best part is that those exercises are easy to do during a computer break.

Why bother? What’s the relation to writing? Publicity photos, chickie-babies! Plus the extra muscle actually burns calories while at rest.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

One more...

Tempted to quit early? Make yourself this promise: One more sentence. Say this every single time you want to quit early: One more sentence.

--Monica Wood, The Pocket Muse

Tricia’s Thoughts:

I have an article due tomorrow, but today didn’t seem like the day to get it done. Extra kids in the house, an interview at a local radio station, and grocery shopping. Yet, when I arrived home early in the afternoon the deadline wouldn’t leave my mind.
“Just work on the framework,” I told myself. “Then you’ll at least have the layout for tomorrow.”

When that was finished I was surprised by how much I’d written.
“Okay, just insert the quotes from experts, and you’ll be done.” Hmmm, the article is looking in pretty good shape.
“Now, add the subheadings and sidebar,” I told myself.
Wow, now it is really looking like an article.
“You might as well read through it to see how much editing you’ll need to do tomorrow.”
One read through, two, six, ten.
Before I knew it, I was printing the article up for a final read.
“I might as well read it one final time and send it off.”

Today I wrote an article . . . and submitted it one day early.
That “one more sentence” stuff really works.

A story told by God...

A human life is a story told by God, and in the best of stories told by humans, we come closer to God.
--Hans Christian Anderson

Tricia’s Thoughts:

I can’t add much to this quote, but it’s true. I grower closer to God as I seek Him with every book, and I pray readers get another glimpse of His Story through my mere words.

The Writer...

"That writer does the most for us who brings to our attention thoughts that lay close to our minds waiting to be acknowledged as our own. Such a man acts as a midwife to assist at the birth of ideas that had been gestating long within our souls, but which without his help might not have been born at all."

A.W. Tozer's book, Man the Dwelling Place of God, p. 149

The perfect nonfiction book...

“The perfect nonfiction book for me will embody a great new idea that will change the world and will be written by a wonderful human being who is an irresistibly charismatic speaker and a media magnet whose words are so funny, inspiring, wise and beautifully written that readers who start the book will be unable to do anything else except breathe until they get to the last word, and as soon as they do, they will be compelled to divide the rest their lives between trying to change the world and writing an even better book.”

~Michael Larsen of the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency in San Francisco, quoted in The Writer, March 2005

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Don’t skip meals.

When you skip a meal, your body goes into “famine” mode and will immediately store as fat the next thing you put in your mouth. That’s going straight to your hips, baby!

Also, when you get super-hungry, you’re more likely to make a run to Micky D’s, or some other poor but super-quick food choice.

So eat at least something small for breakfast, or any other meal you’re tempted to skip. Load up on healthy snacks you can stash in your desk, in the fridge. Bring energy bars with you wherever you go, or stick some in the car glove compartment.

Apples, bananas, and oranges can remain at room temperature for about 5 days, so stick a few in your desk drawer, then bring the leftovers home at the end of the workweek to put in the fridge. Prepack baggies of carrots, celery, cucumber, or bell peppers—those vegetables will be fine if left at room temperature for a few hours.

Brainstorm for snacks you’ll enjoy eating that you can take with you or store in places you frequent.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

Not to ignore...

“I don’t think the job of literature is preaching. It’s something else, but it is literature’s job not to ignore the fundamental questions everybody lives with.”

~Doris Betts, quoted in Of Fiction and Faith, by W. Dale Brown, p. 18

I do the best I can...

“I don’t know if I’d want to put any adjective to myself as a writer. I’m a writer like anybody else. I do the best I can. Somebody said the other day that I was a religious writer in the sense that I was trying to make religious points. I’m really not. I’m like any other novelist. I’m trying to listen to what goes on in the lives of my characters and the interesting things that happen to people; and, because I am a religious person, I always listen for the religious things that go on. But I can’t think of any adjective that I would want to be known by.”

~Frederick Buechner, Of Faith and Fiction by W. Dale Brown, p. 32

I'm inspired...

This quote was sent in by my writing friend Marie DisBrow. Thanks, Marie!

“I only write when I'm inspired, and I make sure I'm inspired every morning at 9 a.m.”

~ Peter DeVries

Stacks of clean white paper...

"I still get a little thrill when I see stacks of clean white paper. To me each page represents a fresh start."

--Oprah Winfrey

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Exercise first-thing.

Your metabolism is at an all-time low while sleeping, but morning exercise kick-starts it. A heightened metabolism burns more calories throughout the day—yup, while you’re sitting there at your computer!

So if you exercise first thing in the morning, your heightened metabolism could actually be burning fat while you write that next scene.

It can also give you more energy while you’re working or running errands, so it’s a win-win situation.

If you're an early-bird, exercise first thing. If you’re not . . . exercise as early in the day as you can (I’m definitely NOT an early-bird, so I understand the pain of getting up). Sometimes I take an early lunch to exercise around 10:30 or 11.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

An ant or two...

For writers, that green shore is a pretty place, a sweet place to hang out. We know its gentle flora and fauna, its bobwhite and dragonflies, its buttercups and soft grass. It is a safe place. The worst that can happen there is an ant or two in the potato salad.

Those who rest on the shore may write some lovely poems, some clever tales, some suitable-for-the-grandchildren recollections. However, it is only by jumping into the deep that we may (sometimes) create fresh, surprising, or profound writing. We may pass seaweed strangely blossoming underwater on our way down; we may encounter an ill-tempered anaconda powerful enough to crush a deer; we may discover odd creations such as the dogong with its front limbs like arms and, at the other end, not legs but a tail. We will find strange beauty, danger, and bizarre connections.

In the depths we may find squid making ink clouds around themselves or white eyeless fish, for some memories want to hide and some images want to be blind.

It is only by jumping into the murky and the unknown that we stand a chance of discovering our truths.
--Meg files. P. 27

He is careful...

This quote was sent to me by my writer-friend Cynthia Ruchti. Thanks Cynthia!

“The writer studies literature, not the world. He lives in the world; he cannot miss it. If he has ever bought a hamburger, or taken a commercial airplane flight, he spares his readers a report of his experience. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, because that is what he will know.”

—Anne Dillard

Be...

“Never be entirely idle: but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavouring something for the public good.”

--Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)
German monk & writer from Imitatio Christi

Fight our way out...

“When we read, we stat at the beginning and continue until we reach the end. When we write, we start in the middle and fight our way out.”

--Vickie Karp

Health and the Writer by Camy Tang

Whether you’re a writer who also works a full-time job or are a busy stay-at-home-mom, it’s hard to stay healthy. I researched and figured out a bunch of tips and tricks to help me stay in shape without carving out of my precious writing time. I also found some tips to help me have just general better health. Pick and choose which of these will work for you.

Weight-train.

A pound of muscle, even when just resting, burns 30-50 calories during the course of a day.

You heard me right, all you writers sitting in your chairs, staring at the computer screen! You could be burning extra calories just by sitting there!

If you don't belong to a gym, there are many simple muscle-building exercises that don't require expensive or extensive equipment, especially exercises using a dumbbell or a yoga ball. Websites like eFitness.com offer free newsletters with articles on weight-training exercises.

Camy Tang is a novelist also fighting the battle of the bulge. Find out more about her and her books at http://www.camytang.com/, or enjoy the read on her blog at http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/.

Private obsessions...

Private obsessions, small and large, are the door to originality and the key to unlocking it. Forget about what seems like good material or what experiences should have affected you or what your friends say you should write about. Instead, begin with the images and memories that won’t leave you alone. Logic or reason isn’t a factor, and you may have no notion of why certain pictures replay themselves in your head, though you’ll almost certainly discover why as you write. Become like our family wolf, Cochise, who has a rawhide bone that he carries around and drops and chews on for a while, picks up and hides in our bed, and soon retrieves to carry around some more. What details and scraps of memory do you gnaw on and buy and unearth and gnaw on again?

Meg Files, write from life, p. 16