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Wasting Time: Seven Hard Questions To Ask Yourself
“Don’t waste your time chasing things that will never be beneficial to your future.” ― April Mae Monterrosa Are you wasting your time? Now that you are safely nestled into the routine of a New Year, it’s time to be honest about how you’d like this untouched calendar to be filled. You may have regret over how 2016 turned out for you and a possible repeat of regrets gives you the willies. Instead of waiting to see what happens, ask yourself these tough questions about how you spend your time. 1. Are Your Priorities A Mess? This is what it may look like: You want to be that person…
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Top 10 Ways To Beat Insecurity (At Least Temporarily!)
We are insecure for a lot of reasons. We’re insecure because we probably have artistic temperaments that makes us feel deeply. We overthink and over analyze. We find it’s easier to dwell on what it negative in our life rather than what is positive. We may have lived in environments in which confidence and boldness was discouraged and despair was fertilized with lies and fear. We may lack skills. We may fear failure. We may long for approval and we know it’s hard to achieve it anywhere, much less in this field. We’ve been burned before. The last person who read our work was mean or hateful or didn’t get…
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Top 10 Things You Should Be Saying To Yourself That Will Help Make You More Successful
By Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist I believe we can accomplish great things if we get our thought life under control. Good thoughts produce good habits. Good habits produce good patterns. Good patterns help us grow in discipline, which makes us more confident, which allows us to succeed. I strongly encourage you, as you are facing the end of this year and the beginning of the new one, that you consider what you think about and focus only on the good things. In June, I posted, Top 10 Things You Could Be Saying To Yourself That Will Guarantee Your Failure As A Writer Today I want to do the opposite! 1.…
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Top 10 Great Things That Happened When I Stopped Complaining
by Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist Sometimes, the world really is insufficient, faulty or stupid. But sometimes it’s just better not to notice. A few years ago, after a particularly difficult time in my life, I challenged myself to watch what I said and to stop complaining. I thought that by stopping the bad attitude was just a generally a good step in the direction of restraint. I had no idea that this would change nearly everything about my life. Now, this blog has the main purpose of encouraging time-crunched writers in their dreams, but sometimes, I want to write for everyone. I firmly believe that the world would change dramatically…
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Top 10 Ways To Love Yourself When You’re Sick
by Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist You know when you’re playing Wii Golf and you hit the ball way to hard? That was the noise I heard in my ear whenever I blew my nose. I didn’t have the flu, a sinus infection, an ear infection or bronchitis. I didn’t have the fever to warrant antibiotics and I didn’t have enough symptoms to make even a trip to the ER worth it. I knew they’d say, “yup, your ears are stuffed up”. I knew that the treatment would be a combination of Mucinex and Benadryl and Motrin for pain and rest. Lots of fluids. This stupid virus was interfering with my…
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Top 10 Effective Ways I Deal With My Evil Inner Critic
by Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist In my writing life, my inner critic is the single greatest threat to my success. My inner critic blames me for things that go wrong. My inner critic calls me names like stupid and loser. My inner critic compares me to others and finds me wanting. My inner critic sets impossible standards of perfection. My inner critic tells me that if I’m not the best, then I’m nothing. My inner critic beats me up for the smallest mistake. My inner critic keeps track of my failures and shortcomings. My inner critic exaggerates my weaknesses. My inner critic threatens to withhold love. My inner critic…
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Top 10 Ways To Get Your Readers To Fall In Love With You
According to an interesting article on WikiHow, “How To Fall In Love” you can find yourself in a satisfying relationship in a few not-so-easy steps. I’d like to suggest that authors follow their advice to be “in love” with their readers. And hopefully, readers will fall in love with them too! Boost Your Self-Esteem. For those looking for romance, this means exude confidence, know who you are, and stop comparing yourself to others. This will make you attractive to others. Writers should do the same thing. Take the time to make yourself into a good writer. That means that you need to seek out challenging mentors and coaches that can push…
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Top 10 Ways To Respect Your Art As A Writer by Katharine Grubb
Thank you, Internet! Because of you, I have to do so little work to expose myself and my family to the works of the world’s greatest artists. Gone are the days when we have to pay for parking at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Now, all we have to do is click the mouse a few times and we are seeing, perhaps not perfectly, the art of the masters. I appreciate this as a writer because I clearly don’t have enough distractions as it is. But I also can appreciate it because I believe that writing is an art. I also believe that like the great painters of western civilization,…
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Top Ten Things You Could Be Saying To Yourself That Will Guarantee Your Failure As A Writer by Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist
I spend DECADES of my life saying negative things to myself. Slowly, I’m addressing them one by one, changing what I say and taking positive steps (like NOT buying a box of donuts to eat in one sitting) to make my life better and my soul happier. Below I have a list of the top ten things wannabe writers say to themselves that keep them stuck in failure. If you are saying any of these things to yourself, then you will, most certainly fail. The reason? This negative self talk is a paralyzer. It fosters inaction. The antidote is two fold: say positive things and take baby steps out. 1.…
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Top Ten Ways To Deal With Writer’s Block by Katharine Grubb, 10 Minute Novelist
Have you fought with writer’s block? It sucks, doesn’t it? Writer’s block is that state when there seems to be no inspiration. Writer’s block is when you wrestle back and forth in your confidence to create and still come up with nothing. Writer’s block is the realization that you have no ideas. Writer’s block is a searching for new words or new ideas and putting only dull words on the paper. Writer’s block can be dangerous in that we start believing that we’ll never have a good story again. Writer’s block is frustrating and maddening. Writer’s block can be blamed on our muse ignoring us, on our chest cold, on…
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10 Destructive, Cowardly Lies I Had To Discard So I Could Become A Writer
This is one of my favorite blog posts. I’m bringing it back from 2014 because I think we could all use a fresh reminder! We don’t get in this business to be comfortable. We get in this business because the drive to create is bigger than the drive to be accepted. It takes guts and courage to throw your words to the world. And if lies are keeping you back, then you need to put them in the toilet with the rest of the ca-ca in your life. I’ve overcome a lot of lies to get where I am today. That alone makes me a success. Not sales, not followers…
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Why I Stopped Journaling And How It’s Made Me Happier and Healthier
Once, a long time ago, I thought that my journals had magical powers. Journals, were, since I had started writing in one at age 14, a place were all my feels (and believe me, I had a lot of feels) were safe. My journals were a place that I could take out my feels. I could analyze them. I could ruminate on them. I took each thought as if it were a pebble from a pocket run my fingers across its jagged edges. With a journal you can go back and remember pain. I would analyze events and observations the way an astronomer analyzes the stars. I wanted clarity perhaps, or…
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Why I Picture My Inner Critic As An Evil Disney Sidekick (And How I Take Him To The Woodshed)
Ursula the Sea Witch has two eels named Flotsam and Jetsam. Gaston has the cleverly named Le Fou. Aladdin‘s Jafar has that parrot, Iago, who I really wanted to punch in the mouth and Scar, from The Lion King had three goofy hyenas. My point? All villains have henchmen. This isn’t a post about how to create great sidekicks for your villains, that may or may not be cute as a button and who may or may not break out into song at a moment’s notice. The henchman I’m referring to is far darker and far destructive than anything Disney could create. It could even be Hitchcockian or Wes Craven-ish. I’m talking…
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What To Do With Too Much Writing Advice (And How Not To Let it Drive You To Drink)
I think I understand why old school writers were heavy drinkers. I think I understand why some of them fell into dark thoughts, depression or loneliness. I think I understand why writers generally are isolated introverts, hiding from the real world, wrapping themselves up in their imaginary lands, fighting dragons, discovering treasure and falling in love: They’re hiding from ubiquitous and contradictory writing advice. Single point of view or not? Past tense or not? Predictable, relatable characters or something unique? Write what you know or write what you don’t know? Publish it immediately to get it out there or rewrite it a million times? And that’s just the craft…