Five on a Friday

1. Some of you already saw this on Facebook, but just in case you didn't: agent Nathan Bransford, who I think is the bee's knees (ha!) and I'm so envious Suzanne Young got to meet him at the WA conference, channeled Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights. The actual post is not for the faint of heart. It's about the state of the publishing industry right now. But ya gotta love the speech he gives us writers. You can read it HERE. In the comments, I told him he should channel Tim Riggins next and tell us to go out and buy books with a steamy look in his eye. He responded - "ha. I don't know if TIm Riggins is the book buying type." Maybe that's what we need! We need Riggins to become a big reader!! FNL writers, you hear that!?

2. We're going to see the movie UP this weekend! Have you seen it? So far everyone seems to love it! I can't wait. I love getting lost in a story, on the page or on a screen.

3. Some authors are getting great use out of Twitter. I would not be one of those authors. I can't tweet while I'm at work. On the weekends, if I'm at the computer, I really should be writing. It seems like a lot of people use it as a giant chat room. And that's great and fun, except a) that's time I really don't have and b) it starts to feel like a popularity contest. If I tweet and no one responds but there's all this back and forth between other people, I feel like a loser. Okay, I feel like a loser enough of the time in this writing biz where it's about this list and that list and nice deals or freaking you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me-deals. So I don't know if I'm going to keep my account. I heard that a huge percentage, like over 50% of people, who start a twitter account delete it after a month.

4. I must follow up #4 with some affirming thoughts, because I don't want to think of myself as a loser. I feel great! I feel joyful! I am good at what I do. Say it with me! :)

5. A writing tip. Can you remember a book you were really excited about writing? Can you remember a time when you didn't want to get up from the computer because it was flowing so well? Before you sit down to write next time, close your eyes and remember that time. Remember how it made you FEEL. Then go to the page with that feeling right there and present. Tell yourself you are excited. Do everything you can to be excited, even if that means finding the feeling of excitement from a previous writing time.