Mind-mapping is a brainstorming tool most of us know about. I’m creating a daily mind-map journal to help with my blogging and novel-writing projects.
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The Popularity Contest of Life
Sometimes life seems like a huge popularity contest.
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Drum Circle Inspiration For Writers
Six years ago a man told me he thought it was sad that our small town didn’t have a drum circle.
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Blog Retrofitting: Revisions, Updates, and Maintenance
I have a collection of blogs, so blog retrofitting is constantly on my to-do list. Each day I choose a blog and go there to see what I can do to make it better.
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A To-Do List on a Spreadsheet
My friends asked me to share my to-do list spreadsheet, so here it is!
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Publishing Opportunities for Writers: Adjust Your Expectations
There are hundreds of thousands of novels being written every year, and the publishing industry will not be willing to publish more than just a few of them. We can create our own publishing opportunities instead.
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Are You Goal-Driven?
I believe in setting goals because they motivate me to get things done. If I don’t have a goal in mind, my mind wanders – a lot. I’m interested in so many things it is easy to get distracted into one thing, then another, until I can’t remember what it was I wanted to do with my time.
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Creativity Recordings
In Mt. Shasta I picked up a Hemi-Sync CD – this one has a modern rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons added to it. It is called Seasons at Roberts Mountain. I live with a Robert and he loves mountains, but that’s not why I got this CD. The CD is supposed to have the vibrations for enhanced learning and creativity. Creativity is the core of my spiritual practice, so anything that encourages my creativity is greatly appreciated. So far I’m enjoying the CD. It took me a few minutes to get used to the new age rendition of the Four Seasons. That’s one of my favorite classical pieces, and I’ve never heard it quite like this before. Modernistic, but pleasant. Relaxing. Happy-making. Serene and peaceful. Joyful… and endearing.
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Keeping The Home Fires Burning While Writing Novels
It is that fireplace time of year, and we have no wood, so how am I to keep the home fires burning? When I came to the Klamath River Valley to live – nearly twelve years ago – I had no idea how to heat a house with firewood. It is primitive! That’s certain! I was a San Francisco Bay Area girl born and bred, and was used to turning up the thermostat to keep warm. Nothing more.
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The Business of Bigfoot
I’ve been a Bigfoot researcher since 2005. It all started when I was sitting in my little office inside the laundromat here in Happy Camp, California. Yes, we have a laundromat with an office room in the corner, it was for rent, and I paid 2/3 of the rent while the Chamber of Commerce paid the other 1/3. This is a very small town!
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Help For Worried Authors Fretting About Agent Queries
There’s a message board thread at Absolute Write where authors worried about submissions fret about query letters and agent acceptance. From reading that board I found this blog by a literary agent who makes fun of things writers say in their query letters. This epitomizes what’s wrong with the publishing industry.
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Why I’ve Decided to Self-Publish My Books
I’ve been mulling over the self-publishing options for months. I have ten unpublished novels. I love to write. I have non-fiction book ideas too. But the gatekeepers of the publishing industry – agents and editors – have made the hope of getting published seem like a distant dream.
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Writing Novels for Your Activist Agenda
I love the idea of writing novels to express social justice issues of importance to activists. However, how viable an idea is that? Is the time spent on writing a novel cost-effective? Will it bring the attention you need to the cause you’re passionate about? And speaking of passion, how much emotion can you put into that novel so that readers will truly be swayed to accept and even adopt your position?
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