Enjoying What We Do

I write this in the days before Christmas, and my heart still rejoices over the good news of the birth of Jesus, God's Son, sent to live, die, and be raised from death for our sakes.

Entering another Christmas season, to be followed by a new year, my thoughts turn to the daily work of writing for 2015.

You know how much we writers must read of others' work; I am now reading a weighty biography about a prolific writer of the new nation formed from 13 original colonies of the United States, who became the fourth president of the United States--Virginia's James Madison. Michael Beschloss called Lynne Cheney's biography of Madison a "compelling, elegant, original biography" (back cover). That and other reviews piqued my interest in the historical figure I had otherwise thought only of as the honoree of a Virginia university.

In the book's Prologue, these words stood out to me: "Madison's time of extraordinary accomplishment came after years of intense focus, deep concentration, and nearly obsessive effort...." (Page 5, emphasis added here)
 
This reinforced for me the importance of years of writing, which are times also to hone thoughts.

James Madison's disregard for getting credit for his formative ideas for a new nation could inspire any writer of these different yet difficult times when gaining "name-recognition" can easily become too large a concern of the writer.

Whatever comes in the Christmas and New Year season, if drafting-writing-honing thoughts continues to be as enjoyably satisfying as ever, I expect, God willing, to stick with it for the joy of words, ideas, info, and--very important to this writer--connecting with readers like you!

Life offers much to claim our attention now, in this remarkable season and beyond; I encourage all of us to remember a former president's commitment and enter a new year with our own kind of "intense focus, deep concentration, and nearly obsessive effort..." --which undoubtedly influenced one of our presidents' role among his peers. I read that he set himself to the task of guarding conversation with people of different minds about the issues and life of his day.

I hope that we will use this privilege of freely thinking and speaking in this work we do and enjoy--writing.I hope that we, too, will calmly listen to different views and not flee from conversation about them.

Cheney, Lynne. James Madison: A Life  Reconsidered. Viking, 2014. 

"Lonely Life" of Writing-get over that idea!

Jean Purcell

"I did it alone!" Hearty kudos and "thank you!" to you, visitor and reader of Author Support! I invite you to sign up for e-mail delivery for new posts or join this blog, if you have not already done that!

As I type this, the visit counter for Author Support moves ahead toward a speed of 10,000 visitors! Opinari Writers, another member of this blog family, moves at 20,000 VPB (Visitors Per Blog). Both are aiming to register higher VPB's in the future.

Clearly, "I did it alone!" cannot be true. I thank all of you who visit here! My love of writing and my love of giving tips to other writers, including pointing to resources, revs up my work! Whether you land on this site deliberately or stumble here and linger, read, or investigate...however you get here, my job is to share and build on my years of writing and print and digital publishing experience.

I tweak my blogs now and then, aiming for more attractive and attracting blogs. I started this in earnest a few months ago, and decided to focus specifically and more regularly on (1) writing new articles, (2) blog design (adding/ changing gadgets/widgets; colors, fonts, column sizes, and related factors), (3) writing craft: style and substance focus, (4) digital networking (Twitter-1 and Twitter-2, Facebook-FB, for example), and (5) paying regular, daily attention.

I do the same thing, in my own way, that you do or want to do, and I share my years of experience and attention to how and what to write and communicate. I love it! Have a blog you want to improve? You can do it by refocusing on these five elements:

• Better writing - improved knowledge and use of the craft of writing  
• Sharper blog design - examine blog designs you like and can adapt
• Tighter writing focus - edit, edit, edit
• Frequent digital networking - for friendly ideas, re-tweeting work by others, posting your links 
• Regular new writing - draft/edit/save, draft/edit/save, draft/edit/save...and publish. 

What writers do, they often do "alone," as "in solitude," and yet...we are connecting with others all the time! We have support from many people we may never see or meet face to face. We learn from people we know and don't know who have good ideas, technical help (including creative solutions), and motivational cues.

Thinking the writing life is a lonely life? Get over it, and may your writing move forward with even tighter and more disciplined goals. Keep learning from others! I know I learn from you...what Stat Counter tells me, post by post, that you read and come back to! I am adding spiritual growth books to my  hand-picked books online store. It's growing, too.