Welcome back! I hope you had a restful weekend and that your mind is refreshed and bubbling over with ideas. That leads me to the tip of the day. Shall we begin?
TIP OF THE DAY
Take a break! This is one I recently began adopting. Anyone who knows me knows that I am somewhat of a prolific writer. I churn out the words daily in an attempt to beat the clock and Father Time….but….
I have learned that I am much more refreshed and my writing is much better if I take weekends off. I can’t say in truth that my mind shuts down because I am always coming up with ideas for articles, but I do not allow myself to write on weekends.
A good friend of mine, Cyndi, talked about this recently. She said she needs to get out in nature and feed her soul, and I believe that is crucial for a writer. All work and no play makes for a very one-dimensional individual. Give yourself permission to go have fun. Your writing will be better because of it.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In Hollywood the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can’t read. If they could read their stuff, they’d stop writing.”
Will Rogers
I’m laughing out loud at this quote. Why? Because it is so true in the world of writing.
I found great inspiration the other day when I came upon a novel in the library that was so poorly written as to be embarrassing. The dialogue was dull….the plot juvenile….the phrasing stunted….and this guy was published!
What I deduced from that was that a lot of writing and being published is being in the right place at the right time. There are many great writers who have never been published. There are many mediocre writers who have been published. Do not bother to try and make sense of it all. Just hold out hope and keep writing.
WRITER OF THE DAY
Say hello to my dear friend Vicki. You can find her here on HubPages. She is a reflective sort with wonderful insights about life, and on top of that she is a fine human being. Give her a shout out and in the process do yourself a favor. 
CONTEST OF THE DAY
500 Words Writing Contest can be found here. Write a short story of 500 words or less. Due date in September. Great contest for you flash fiction folks out there.
SITE OF THE DAY
Practical tips on writing a book from 23 authors is here. I ran across this blog a few days ago and found it interesting. There are some very good suggestions from some people who know what they are talking about.
AUTHOR OF THE DAY
I’m not much for religious writing, and I try to avoid preaching about God. Having said that, years ago I came across Og Mandino and found his books so good that I devoured them all.
Mandino wrote in such a simple style that one could easily read an entire book in a day. He was a master storyteller and every single book had an important, inspirational message. I highly recommend his books. If you ever want a kick in the butt motivational boost, try reading “The God Memorandum.”
PROMPT OF THE DAY
Here is another picture from the beautiful Pacific Northwest. If you have never been here then you owe yourself a visit. We really are surrounded by stunning natural beauty.
MORE TOMORROW
Enough for one day! Have a great day of writing and I’ll toss some more tidbits at you tomorrow. Thanks, as always, for the visit.
Bill
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 