Saturday, January 9, 2016

Saturday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts


By: K.M. Weiland

I have news for you: as a writer, you are failing. And that’s fantastic! Okay, maybe not the “failing” part so much. But the fact that you know you’re failing should have you break dancing in the living room. Why? Because if you know your writing weaknesses, then you’re halfway down the road to overcoming them. Nothing revolutionary there, of course. We all know that “admitting you have a problem” is the first step to success. What’s tricky is going beyond just that vague sense that’s something wrong to being able to actually figure out what your writing weaknesses are.

But, first, let me back up a step–because even though most writers are happy for the chance to overcome their writing weaknesses, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re happy you have weaknesses. Our first reaction to our own less-than-perfect writing is often denial, followed by shame. Writing is a journey of never-ending learning that can leave even experienced writers gasping and overwhelmed in the face of their own inadequacies.

But I’m here to tell you to stop your hyperventilating right now. As Verlyn Klinkenborg encourages in Several Short Sentences About Writing,

Whenever you get a glimpse of your ignorance, don’t fear it or be embarrassed by it. Acknowledge it. What you don’t know and why you don’t know it is information too.

So throw your triumphant arms in the air and shout it with me: “I am not a perfect writer! Wahoo!” And then let’s get to work figuring out what your writing weaknesses are and how you can leverage them to become, if not a perfect writer, then a better writer.

5 Ways to Identify Your Writing Weaknesses

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If you missed my latest writing & marketing tweets, here they are again:
Happy writing and running, Kathy

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