Priorities

I haven't posted in a while. Why? Priorities. While I know it's important to be visible and give blog readers new content, I'm a writer of novels first. So I've been writing my mystery novel. Not being the Energizer Bunny, I can't do it all and not be tired. And being tired means my creative juices dry up, my brain yawns and says, "Check with me later after I've had a nap." In other words my writing suffers. So I haven't been writing posts here, making friends on Shelfari, Grouply, etc. I've been writing. First things first.

I just read this great article that makes three excellent points all writers should consider. One of them talks about writers looking inward too much. Amen. Way too many would be authors write so much about their lives and what they've been through. Not that I'm against memoirs. Yet, and this includes me, our life stories are usually not as groundbreakingly unique as we all think. From a business standpoint I've been blunt with writers who approach me with their sometimes thinly veiled autobiographies (or family stories). Most agents and editors can name at least five published memoirs off the top of their heads that tell the same stories of greed, pain, loss, abuse, abandonment, etc. So what makes your story stand out?

Anyway, here is the fab article Seven Things I've Learned About Writing, Part I