by Carlos Cooper |
I am addicted to the song “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic. It’s the first thing I listen to in the morning. It all started when the lead singer of OneRepublic, Ryan Tedder, was a guest mentor on The Voice. Now, I know you’re gonna cringe, but I’ll say it anyway. I love music, and yet, even as a writer, I never digest the lyrics. Weird I know.
In this case something Tedder said struck a chord. He described the meaning behind the song (being broke, worrying about money, wishing not to worry…) and all of a sudden I wanted to listen to the song and absorb the lyrics. In doing so, I found a stockpile of similarities between the words in the song and my life as a writer. Let’s take a look at the lyrics and see if they hit you too.
by Carlos Cooper |
I’ve always loved reading. As a kid, I’d get lost for days in stories that swept me away to distance lands or plunged me into a murky abyss.
It wasn’t until much later that I realized how pivotal those books were in molding me into the writer I am today. Let’s look at four ways reading has shaped our work.
by Carlos Cooper |
What does it mean to be a prolific writer? In non-dictionary terms, it basically means you write a lot and publish a lot of work. If you’re trying to be prolific, where do you start?
by Carlos Cooper |
What is a mantra? Why use one? What are you even talking about?
Let me start at the beginning. Once you do something for a while you tend to morph into some level of expert. You may not feel it in your gut, but others view you that way. Here’s my example: I’ve been writing for a couple years. I’m getting better and better…I hope. Out of the blue friends started referring wannabe writers to me. Cool.
by Carlos Cooper |
Time is relative, especially in a writer’s world. It’s easy for any one of us to get sucked into some shiny rabbit hole. We lose time like it’s cool.
We spend time being ‘busy’. Busy marketing on social media. Busy networking with fellow writers. Busy submitting manuscripts to publishers.
You know what we forget? We’re writers. We need to write!
