Writing Archives - Page 4 of 5 - MUSE • Leslie Keenan

A Little, Easy Thing…

From my Newsletter, August 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Because I am now working on this myself, and because it came up in my last Microsoft Word for Writers class, I thought it worth bringing up again how helpful it is to have your files in order on your computer, and to name your different versions correctly so you can find everything in one place. This is a little like creating a binder on your computer for your work. And since I think what our work is about is bringing ideas into form,…read more

The Value of Doing Nothing

From my Newsletter, Late Summer 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In our busy-busy; go-go culture, spending time idly, perhaps even staring into space, is not thought well of. In fact, if you went by what people say in the press, you’d think having some alone-time is highly suspect. When reporters couldn’t follow Obama at all times on the campaign trail, because, gasp, he wanted to have some moments alone, they didn’t understand why. And yet, for creativity to emerge, we need some down-time for it to formulate itself, or for us to access…read more

Writing: Visual or Auditory?

From my Newsletter, June 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had an interesting discussion with a student in a recent class. Someone had made editing suggestions that she wasn’t sure about, and she wanted me to review them. As we went over each suggested change, I realized what was going on. My student tends to write from a more auditory position, and the feedback was from a more visual perspective. Some of you may be familiar with Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). As with many things I know, I first learned of it through publishing…read more

From First to Second Draft: The Journey Continues…

From my Newsletter, Spring 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A student who finished her first draft (yeah!) asked me, How should I approach doing the edit? If you’ve taken my and others’ advice and let yourself just write out the first draft to the end, there are a bunch of things you have to look at in the edit which will produce the second draft. First, structural things. Are there places you know things need to change? What things do you know now that you’ve finished the draft that you didn’t know in…read more

Are Times Really So Bad?

From my Newsletter, February 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am being asked frequently, is this a bad time to look for an agent? Isn’t it a bad time to try to sell a book to a publisher? Or I’m being told with a knowing nod, that things are bad in publishing right now. Is this the truth? Here’s what I think. Publishing has always been a margin business. By that I mean the numbers are small all around and the profit is consistent, but consistently low. This is good and bad. It’s…read more

Self-Publishing – What, Why, How – and Why Now?

Posted by Leslie in Publishing, Writing

From my Newsletter, January 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today I want to write about the question of self-publishing versus a commercial publisher. In the past this was an easier decision. Self-publishing required quite a bit of money, and many people didn’t have the wherewithal to do it. But now, with on-demand publishing, this choice has become a viable option for many. So how do you decide? And does it work? First some definitions. On-demand publishing means that instead of ordering thousands of books from a printer which are stored in a warehouse,…read more

New Year’s Resolutions?

I hate new year’s resolutions. The new year is just an arbitrary date created by a linear calendar that happens to start in the dead of winter. And resolutions are usually just lists of things we think we “should” do but haven’t been able to. So a month, or even a few weeks, in you feel like a failure because you’ve not been able to do it now either. Instead of a new year, I like to focus on the fact that we get a brand new twenty-four hours each…read more

Completing That Book: The Seven Stages

From my Newsletter, Winter 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A student sent me an email. She’d been working on her manuscript a long time, and I’d asked her if she’d gotten it done. She said she was surprised that it was almost done but there were more things than she thought involved in finishing. I told her, well there are always stages to “doneness,” and it helps to realize that there are at least seven completion points. She immediately asked, oh, can you tell me what they all are? This is my answer….read more

Managing Documents

From my Newsletter, Summer 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you first began to write your book, you probably just opened a new file in Word and started typing. You didn’t think about how to organize it, you were probably just grateful you got started. But now maybe you have 100 pages and you aren’t sure what you’ve got and you’ve been having trouble finding paragraphs you know you already wrote. This is where it’s handy to know a few tricks about managing large documents. It helps to start using some of these…read more

Finding Time to Write

From my Newsletter, Spring 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The issue I’ve been finding my clients struggling with lately is finding the time to write in the middle of your life. How can you make time for it? The key is, you have to make writing your top priority, and commit to your schedule no matter what it is – keeping in mind that your highest priority may not take up the most time. So what does this look like? Well, I can use myself as an example here. Since I came back…read more