"7 Ways to Educate and Motivate Your Muse” by Joan Y. Edwards
What can you do after you've submitted a manuscript to a publisher or agent?
What can you do when you're not working on marketing your work?
I believe this is the time to educate and motivate the muse within you. Here are 7 ways to educate and motivate your muse:
1. Experience Life, attend workshops, take courses.
a. Bake cakes.b. Go on a tour of an Historic house.
c. Attend a weekend workshop.
d. Volunteer at a homeless shelter for children.
e. Take a writing course at a community college or other learning institution.
2. Read three books about the craft of writing.
a. Darcy Pattison: Novel Metamorphosisb. Donald Maass: Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook
c. James N. Frey How to Write a Damn Good Novel
d. James N. Frey The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth
e. Karl Iglesias: Writing for Emotional Impact
f. Margaret Lucke: Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories
3. Read three best-selling books in your favorite genre.
4. Watch three movies in the genre you write.
5. Study the websites of three best-selling authors.
Here is a list of many to choose from or search for your favorite online.Best-Selling Authors for Children
James Patterson
Rick Riordan
Jeff Kinney
Victoria Kann
Jane O’Connor
Suzanne Collins
J. K. Rowling
Best-Selling Authors for Adults
John Grisham
George R. R. Martin
Catherine Coulter
Janet Evanovich
6. Study and find three matching three publishers and agents for your manuscripts:
a. Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents 2011: Who They Are! What They Want! How to Win Them Over! by Jeff Hermanb. Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Market Guide
c. Children’s Writer’s And Illustrator’s Market, Writer’s Digest Books
d. Writer’s Market by Writer’s Digest Books
c. Visit the Preditors & Editors website to check out the editors and agents you’ve chosen. It’ll tell you if they are legitimate or warn you about them. http://pred-ed.com/
f. Check the submission guidelines of the websites of the publishers and agents of three of your favorite books.
7. Write.
Pub Subbers from my website will recognize these as activities for Week 4. I hope these ideas lead you to the right experiences to educate and motivate the creative muse in you. Believe in you. I do.
Please leave a comment with other ideas to activate the creativity within you.
Celebrate you now.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards
Joan’s Elder Care Guide, Release Early 2015 by 4RV Publishing
For more articles to inspire you and help you market your writing, read Joan's Never Give Up Blog
Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards
Flip Flap Floodle,
the Never Give Up duck.
Joan’s Elder Care Guide, Release Early 2015 by 4RV Publishing
For more articles to inspire you and help you market your writing, read Joan's Never Give Up Blog
6 comments:
Joan, what a great list of ideas and tips to keep the writing flowing. Not sure when they'll be a marketing downtime, but this list is worthy of incorporating into our schedules. I like the 3s theme.
And, thanks for all the links!
Dear Karen,
Thanks for writing. I'm glad you think this is a great list of ideas and tips to keep the writing flowing. I'm glad you like the three's theme. I think the power of three helps us remember things. Good luck with all of your writing, publishing, and marketing ventures.
Celebrate you
Never Give Up
Joan
This fits right in with my motto, Joan: “Careers that are not fed die as readily
as any living organism given no sustenance.” I'm disappointed that my The Frugal Book Promoter http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo and The Frugal Editor http://bit.ly/FrugalEditorKind aren't on it, though, 'cause I know how much they can help authors. Both in their second edition. Both multi award-winners.
Good luck with your own editing
What a generous amount of information! Thank-you so much, Joan!
Dear Carolyn,
You always make me laugh. You are right. If you don't feed a career, it will die as readily as a living organism with no food. I wrote this list before I knew about your Frugal Book Promoter. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I just copied and pasted it from an earlier blog post of mine.
I hope you'll forgive me.
Never Give Up
Joan
Dear Kathleen,
Thank you for writing. You're welcome for the information. It is my pleasure to share with you. I hope it helps feed the muse within.
Never Give Up
Joan
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