Why I Don’t Blog Every Day

There’s this guy whose writing I very much enjoy. Naturally, I subscribed to his blog through the RSS feed. But dang it if every single day I wasn’t getting a blog post from him. Truly, I wanted to read him; he is thought-provoking. But as busy as I was, I found myself not reading, so I began to move all his blogs over to a special folder with his name on it and told myself, “Goody, I’ll have them all in one place and can spend an enjoyable hour or two immersing myself.” Day after day his special folder got longer and longer, and one day it was time to read him. Here is what I found. One: I could not stand to read his “important” blog posts in such concentrated a fashion. Two: His posts needed to be read several days apart. Three: I was being driven to distraction as he hounded me Continue reading Why I Don’t Blog Every Day

This is my Village

I hear it all the time. “Angela, you know everybody and everybody knows you. You’re everywhere, all the time! How do you find the time?” While it is true that I do go out for meet-and-greets, and schedule coffee meetings where we can have deeper chin wags, it is not true that’s all I do. I had a meeting yesterday with Carlos and Guillermo. Couple of young fellas who have plans and are also out there making it happen. I knew I was going to get along just fine with them when to open up our meeting one of them said while the other nodded, “We read your blog and said to ourselves oh, we have to meet her!” Anyone who is moved in a positive manner by anything I write is a-okay by me. So the conversation went very well. We three enjoyed ourselves. Then we got to talking Continue reading This is my Village

“Do it by the Book”

So you think you want to live the True Writing Life. You’re working hard on your craft. Of course, one must eat. Whether it’s books, stories, poems, or songs that are ruling your life, you want to figure out a way to monetize it, right? Well, the True Writing Life knows that to monetize ones words takes discipline. It is a dogged pursuit in the face of everyone telling you it will never happen. Oh, their reasons vary, but one oft-recurring reason is this: You can only succeed if you “do it by the book.” Want to know what “do it by the book” really means? It could mean two things. One is negative. One is positive. Let’s look at the positve first. Positive “doing it by the book” means this: 1. Learn your craft 2. Study the industry into which you want to sell 3. Identify marketing methodologies 4. Continue reading “Do it by the Book”

The True Writing Life

The True Writing Life ain’t easy. If you get into it for the money, you’ll not be happy, that’s for sure. My passion is words. Has been since as far back as I remember. But it wasn’t until the last few years that I removed obstacles to allow that passion full rein. In practical terms, what does that mean? I’ll tell you. The True Writing Life means my bosses are the words, the sentences, the paragraphs, and chapters, and whole books…and now songs, too. When they are ready to come out, they must come. Their time rules. “Write me…now,” they say, “or else you’ll be sorry.” Yes, I’m punished with headaches and blues. The True Writing Life means you have bosses whose agendas come first. Characters tell me their stories and I must tell their stories, not as I want them to be, but as they are: True to that Continue reading The True Writing Life