Welcome to the Easy Writing Newsletter, a weekly blast of inspiration to help you and your writing – creatively and financially. Greetings If you haven't done so already, you can join the Easy Way To Write online community. We have a live weekly Q&A session every Sunday where you can meet and chat with other writers and ask me any question you like! I used to host it myself but nowadays Glen and Cheryl from fearofwriting.com do it for me. Chats are posted to the easywaytowrite chat group after every event. Go here to join the chat group: http://groups.yahoo.com/easywaytowrite Here are the times: East Coast US: 8pm Central US: 7pm West Coast (Pacific): 5pm Hope to ‘see’ you there. As always, contact me for any reason at: rob@easywaytowrite.com ======================================= ‘Writing for a Living’: Structure You might remember I was whining recently about having to build some drainage channels around the house. Well, sigh, I did all the digging. I got all the pipes and channels and joints, cut and stuck them all together and now, barring gravel infill, I’ve nearly finished. Did I tell you I hate manual labor? Never mind, as always I used the time to think about creative issues. It occurred to me that I might be able to use the experience as a useful analogy to help a common writing problem. Let me explain a couple of things first. We live on a hill overlooking Adelaide. Nice view of the city, the sea beyond and the distant Gawler Plains. The down side is that the slope our house sits on varies from a 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 slope, depending on where you are in the garden. This in itself is not so bad. The problem is with the rain. Living in the hills means we get at least four times as much rain as our city dwelling neighbors. On many winter days we’re completely immersed in cloud. When it rains, gallons of water a minute come rushing down the hill and straight across our property. Now, without guidance, the water goes where it wants – the proverbial path of lease resistance – which means if it can find itself into the house, it will. Hence the need for better drainage. So for the last X number of weeks I’ve been digging earth and laying out new pipes to help get the water get from the top of the garden to the bottom without ruining the carpets and lower walls inside the house. Hence I’m using fixed channels to help guide the water to flow to its proper destination. It’s a bit like plotting a novel or constructing a book of any kind. Imagine that your talent and creativity are the water – gushing aimlessly downhill, finding your own runnels, creeping in through cracks, pooling in depressions, spilling over, ever down. At first the water spreads itself thin until it finally digs itself a channel that deepens into a groove that, while it may act as a conduit for itself, might not be the most appropriate. Because without structure, without a frame, (a drainage system!), your talent might get where you want to go but not without wasting lots of energy and time. If you let yourself be taken the ‘natural’ course, your talent will inevitably get sidetracked, led into dead ends and sometimes dissipate aimlessly. But when you write with a definite purpose in mind, you really want the force of your creativity going full bore in one concentrated direction, don’t you? Okay, it’s strained analogy, I admit, but if you think about what I’m saying, you’ll see that I’m on to something! Because before you write anything, I believe you need a plan, a template on which to hang your ideas. You must know the direction of your creative flow and get to the point of exit the most efficient way you can. Build a drainage system for your creativity. Don’t waste the power of your talent. Channel it. robparnell 2004 If you'd like to learn more about the art of Re-Writing from the author of half a dozen novels, go here: http://easywaytowrite.com/rewrite.html ======================================= Featured Resource Have you ever wondered just how easy it might be to change your career or your job to something that was fulfilling and paid well? How by using one simple tool – your life - you could totally transform your work, your income and your potential. The ‘Easy Way to Write’ is proud to present a powerful new resource from Stephanie Brail, renowned personal and business coach. If you value your future, I urge you to go here: http://www.easywaytowrite.com/steph.html This is practical, invaluable advice and quality guidance from an expert, specifically designed to help you achieve your goals. Take a look: http://www.easywaytowrite.com/steph.html =========================================== Inspiration, Which Rock is That Under? I got this next piece of advice from a life coach I worked with a couple of years ago. BTW: If you’ve never worked with a coach, let it be the first thing you spend money on when you can afford it. Okay, they usually don’t come cheap but a good one can catapult your career towards the stars! Anyway…the advice is this: Write a letter to yourself from the future. Date it one year or five years from now and write to tell yourself how far you’ve come, what you’ve achieved and how good your life is. Thank yourself for being who you are now and point out all the current traits (even the bad ones!) you have that resulted in your future success. Write about all the things that inspired you and how you overcame problems to get the goals you set yourself. The best part? Getting to the date you wrote the letter from, and rereading it. You’ll be amazed. It’s like you were psychic! ============================================ Stop Press: The Art of Spin author Mike Stevens has asked me to discontinue selling his ebook – but that’s okay, my contract with writers allows them to do that. The good news is that Mike’s been offered a real life publishing deal on the book on the condition it is withdrawn from sale on the Net. So, you only have a short time left to get hold of your own copy before this ‘self promotion made easy’ guide disappears! Get it now, while it’s hot! http://www.easywaytowrite.com/Spin.html =========================================== And if YOU have a book, maybe you should let me publish it for you. The same thing might happen to you – The Easy Way to Write is clearly a respected force out there! =========================================== Thanks for reading, keep well and happy Yours ever, Rob@easywaytowrite.com Creating Better Writers http://easywaytowrite.com ========================= One-Click Safe Un-Subscribe http://secure.MakeBuyingEasy.com/r.cgi?ID=55591 Powered by MakeBuyingEasy.com http://MakeBuyingEasy.com/x.cgi?id=730