Charity Singleton Craig - On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life that Lasts

ON BEING A WRITER

12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life thatLasts

charity singleton craig

&

ann kroeker

masters in fine living series

T. S. Poetry Press New York

T. S. Poetry Press

Ossining, New York

Tspoetry.com

2014 Charity Singleton Craig and AnnKroeker

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This book includes variousreferences from or to the following brands & sources: Brooks isa trademark of Brooks Sports, Inc.; LABYRINTH is an annual literarymagazine sponsored by the Hutton Honors College of IndianaUniversity; To Kill aMockingbird , by Harper Lee, Warner BooksEdition (1960); Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, Random House, LLC(1995-2014); Post-it is a registered trademark of 3M; MacBook is atrademark of Apple Inc.; BuzzFeed is owned by BuzzFeed Inc.; National Public Radio,NPR, and NPR program names are service marks of National PublicRadio, Inc., its member stations or the Content Providers; Kool-Aidis a trademark of Kraft Foods Group, Inc.; GOODWILL is aregistered trademark of Goodwill Industries International, Inc.;Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is an American nonprofitorganization based in Washington, D.C.; iPhone is a registeredtrademark of Apple Inc.; Marguerite Henry is the author of Misty ofChincoteague , Justin Morgan Had aHorse (Aladdin 2006), and King of the Wind: The Story of the GodolphinArabian (Rand Mcnally & Company1948); NANCY DREW is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.; The Bobbsey Twins , mosttitles published by Grosset & Dunlap (later books published bySimon and Schuster), and authored by several people under thepen-name Laura Lee Hope; Trixie Belden is a registered trademarkof Random House Publishing; This AmericanLife is a registered trademark of ThisAmerican Life; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, Harper& Row (1974 ); The IndianapolisStar is owned by Gannett Co., Inc.; Little Women by Louisa MayAlcott, Bantam Books (1983); Anne of GreenGables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, BantamBooks (1987); Pepto-Bismol is a trademark of Procter & Gamble;Microsoft, OneNote, and Excel are trademarks of the Microsoft groupof companies; EVERNOTE, the Evernote Elephant logo and REMEMBEREVERYTHING are trademarks of Evernote Corporation; Google Drive isa trademark of Google Inc.; Seven StoreyMountain by Thomas Merton, Harcourt Brace& Co. (1998); A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, Doubleday (2001); The Glass Castle byJeannette Walls, Scribner (2005); Not SoFast by Ann Kroeker, David C. Cook(2009); Louisville Courier-Journal is owned by Gannett Co., Inc.; Google and theGoogle Logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc.; PomodoroTechnique and Pomodoro are registered trademarks of FrancescoCirillo. The Pomodoro Technique is run by FC Garage GmbH, Berlin,Germany; Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.;Guitar Hero is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing,Inc.; HGTV is a trademark of Scripps Networks, LLC.; Writers Market 2014 edited by Robert Lee Brewer, Writers Digest (2013); The High Calling is aprogram of the Foundations for Laity Renewal; The Saturday Evening Post is apublication of the nonprofit Saturday Evening Post Society; The Diane Rehm Show isproduced at WAMU 88.5 and distributed by National Public Radio, NPRWorldwide, and SIRIUS satellite radio. All WAMU trademarks, servicemarks, and trade names are proprietary; PLAY-DOH is a registeredtrademark of Hasbro; My Side of theMountain by Jean Craighead George, Dutton(1959); SCRABBLE is a registered trademark in the U.S.A and Canadaby Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear& Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiaryof Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro;Barnes & Noble is a registered trademark of Barnes & NobleBooksellers, Inc.; Starbucks and the Starbucks logo are registeredtrademarks of Starbucks; Airstream is a trademark of Airstream, asubsidiary of Thor Industries, Inc.; Oprah is a registeredtrademark of Harpo, Inc.; Twitter is a registered trademark ofTwitter, Inc.; Pinterest is a registered trademark of PinterestInc.; Real Simple ,Time Inc.; The New York Times is owned by The New York Times Company; Netflix isa registered trademark of Netflix, Inc.; Elk Pattern for Origamireferences Irish Elk, Opus 537, folded and composed by Robert J.Lang Origami (2008); Dodge is a registered trademark of ChryslerGroup, LLC; Kool is a support brand of the R.J. Reynolds TobaccoCompany.

Cover image by Claire Burgeclaireburge.com

ISBN 978-0-9898542-4-5

Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data:
Craig, Charity Singleton and Kroeker, Ann

[Nonfiction.]
On Being a Writer/Charity Singleton Craig & Ann Kroeker
ISBN 978-0-9898542-4-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952756

To Daniel, Nathalie, Sophie, Isabelle, andPhilippe,

who bring laughter and meaning to my life andwriting.

Ann

To Jacob, Caleb, and Nicholas,

who put the life in my writing life dayafter day,

and Steven, who believes in me.

Charity

I am a writer

I organize my lifemy time, my space, my priorities
so I can write

I surround myself with people, activities, and books that willinfluence my writing

I attend to and record whats going on around me

I sit down and put words to paper

I want to publish what I write

I want other people to know I am a writer

When I write, I find myself

I interact with writers, artists, and others who support mywriting

I am intentional about next steps

Sometimes, I stop for a while and do other things

Because I write, I let some things go

Tools for the Writing Life

Recommended Reading

Artist Dates

Resources for Writing a Book Proposal

Resources for Launching a Writers Group

Introduction

Is your writing life all it can be? Have youwondered when youll discover the secrets to find inspiration,improve your skills, get published where you wish, and be part of areal writing community?

Writers can feel both excited and confusedabout where to start, what to do, how to keep writing. Deep inside,a story itches to be told through personal narrative or fiction,ideas beg to be explored in essays, images ask to be played with,and conflicts yearn to be expressed. We want to do the worktowriteand one day find our words inked on a page or shared at aspace online where we know others visit and read. In her bookThe Forest for the Trees, Betsy Lerner quotes John Updike ashe recalls his childhood wish to write, to enter some transfiguredmode of being, called a writers life.

How do we enter in? How do we experience thattransfigured mode? How do we live a writers life?

Because we come at this business from severalanglesauthor, editor, writing coachpeople often ask us aboutthat. They want to hear about our writing lives and get a visionfor their own. How did you find your publishers? Should Iself-publish? How do I write a query and proposal? What aboutagentshow do you get one? And, I want to be a writer. How do I getstarted?

Great questions. People dream of writing andwonder how to launch. Some are drafting manuscripts but dont knowhow the publishing world works. Others have finished a project andwant to take the next step but the process seems confusing.

Some writers reach a plateauthey may havepublished an essay in a journal, or found a publishing home for abook, arrived at some level of online successand still, they havequestions about sustaining themselves over the long haul andcreating a writing life that will last.