Digging Your Gold Mine

I dashed off a note to a promising new writer who said she enjoyed and appreciated Carla Stewart’s interview yesterday. I did too! In the note, I mentioned the place in a writer’s development where suddenly it makes no sense to agonize over one’s words. You know, that thing where you put in a word or phrase, take it out, put it back in, move it, until you’re at square one again. Suddenly you don’t have time. You have deadlines, whether contracted or self-imposed. And you realize how much your writing has changed.
Writing Tip for Today: When you truly embrace that words are like Doritos, we can make more, then, to mangle metaphors, you can think of your work as more like open pit mining where you must generate tons of ore to extract small treasures. The sooner you begin digging, the faster you’re likely to strike gold.

  • Word Count Counts! Writers who concentrate on word count instead of nitzy editing will have a much larger pile of ore (or Doritos) to cull out the best.
  • Write Regularly. A schedule may help you stick to a commitment to producing words at absolute top speed.
  • Be a Pro Writer. It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you start believing in your writing today, it may be easier to adopt the attitude of a pro writer, like Carla Stewart.

Thanks to all who left a comment for Carla’s Broken Wings giveaway. Keep ’em coming and I’ll announce the lucky recipient on Monday.

About Linda S. Clare

I'm an author, speaker, writing coach and mentor. I teach both fiction and nonfiction writing at Lane Community College and in the doctoral program as expert writing advisor for George Fox University. I love helping writers improve their craft and I'm both an avid reader and writer of stories about those with wounded hearts.

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