Wednesday, August 29, 2007

How to be a Happier Writer

1. Put the girls first. Remember, as Eleanor snuggles in your lap, that Mia used to do this too, a hundred years ago. The computer will always be there, the snuggling won't.

2. Put lots of eggs in lots of baskets. Then you won’t be so emotionally attached to that one essay that the managing editor last month said she would respond to in one week.

3. Think in chapters, not in books. Short chapters.

4. Just like you tell the girls: “Be patient! What does patient mean? That’s right. Happy while we wait.”

5. Remember Tivo keeps shows forever. Heck, it still has your show tunes episode of American Idol from the second season. Mad Men and 30 Rock will wait for you.

6. Book is book, journal is journal and blog is blog. Remember the three talk to each other, but after a lunch hour chatting, they go back to their separate jobs.

7. Write less, revise more. In Bloom’s taxonomy, synthesis is a higher order of thinking than recall. Just bring it on home.

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