Keeping on Track

So, I've decided that my lack of writing has been my lack of learning.  When I first started writing seriously, I read, studied and wrote every day.  I still read but not stuff that would help me grow as a writer.  So here are my helper this month and maybe for a few months:

1. The Everyday Writer by Andrea A. Lunsford
2.The Open Handbook by Ann Raimes with Maria Jerskey
3. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books by Harold D. Underdown
4. Painless Writing by Jeffrey Strausser

 I'm reading two books to imspire me, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss







Learning new words too.

alacrity - briskness, lively action

feint - a false attack

pugnacious - quarrelsome

promulgate - to make known officially

disdain - contempt


The horse alacrity movements let me know I would be sore after the trail ride.

My grandmother's pugnacious behavior makes holiday's hard for my mother.

The officer would not promulgate the charges against my son.

Can y'all make sentences using the above words?  It's fun.


Here is a tidbit I read today.  It speaks to me because I'm guilty of this.

Give yourself large blocks of time for a long work, allowing yourself to become immersed.  Reading quickly in short sessions will lead to sketchy or superficial understand of the work.  As Woody Allen puts it, "I took a course in speed reading and I've just finished War and Peace.  It pertains to Russia."