Writing in the Fast Lane

Kindle
Nov 2012
ASIN: B004BSGFZQ
$2.99

 

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NOTE:  This ebook is the 2010 revised version of 2006 trade paperback release, Common Sense Guide for Writers.  The quotes that follow are on the 2006 edition, now out of print. At the request of readers, I’ve updated and made the revised version ebook available on Kindle.

Quotes

“Well, you did it to me again!  My Hi-liter went “Winchester” (out-of-ammo) and I had to break out a new one to use on THE COMMON SENSE GUIDE FOR WRITERS.  What a WONDERFUL book!  And not just for writers.  I read the book in two sittings.  I just could not put it down…”                                                                                                         — Dick Brauer

Chapter Excerpt:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Guidepost 1:  Courage
Guidepost 2:  Getting a Grip
Guidepost 3:  Flexible
Guidepost 4:  Fear of Success
Guidepost 5:  Develop Thick Skin
Guidepost 6:  Mind-set
Guidepost 7:  Define Your Mission
Guidepost 8:  Nurture
Guidepost 9:  Do the Right Thing
Guidepost 10:  Gratitude
Guidepost 11:  Know When to Quit
Guidepost 12:  Recognize Potential
Guidepost 13:  Start Wherever You Are
Guidepost 14:  Holding On Too Tightly Chokes
Guidepost 15:  The Big Picture
Guidepost 16:  Responsibility Isn’t a Coat
Guidepost 17:  Success IS in How You Play the Game
Guidepost 18:  Love “Em Through It
Bonus Section
Bonus 1:  Fragility of Life… and Death
Bonus 2:  Believe, Believe, Believe…
Bonus 3:  Surviving the Tough Times
Bonus 4:  Losing is Winning?
Bonus 5:  Life Interrupts
Bonus 6:  Sunshine, Cemeteries, Diamonds
Bonus 7:  Balance:  Writing, Obligations
Bonus 8:  New Year’s Day—Grace
Bonus 9:  Planning the Year Ahead
Bonus 10:  When Life Interrupts
Bonus 11:  Chances
Bonus 12:  If it Ain’t One Thing
Bonus 13:  Happy Birthday to Me
Bonus 14:  Lost Treasures
Bonus 15:  When I Grow Up…
Final Thought

Excerpt
©2010, Vicki Hinze
WRITING IN THE FAST LANE—AND STAYING SANE DOING IT

Life is magnificent, and it’s tough.
For writers and other creative people, sometimes it is worse than tough, particularly when we’re writing to sell—that’s writing in the fast lane.  We can lose our way or ourselves, forget who we are and why we are who we are.  Limping down an unclear path riddled with obstacles and land mines gets daunting even for the heartiest of writers.  We can get muddled and mired and confused—lost—and not even know it… for a time.  But eventually we do realize we’re lost, or that we’ve forgotten the reason we started writing in the first place, and then our basic instincts insist we find someone to blame.
And so we do.
We blame our publisher, our editor or agent; our spouse or kids; our in-laws, parents and/or siblings.  We blame a cover artist, a copyeditor, a critique partner, a peer–or, if necessary, a rushed salesclerk, a slow-moving driver or a harried postal worker.
We blame any and everyone except us.
But sooner or later, we hit the wall on blaming others and it pops us right between the eyes that we’re the ones doing the limping in the fast lane.  We’re the ones doing the rationalizing and the forgetting.  We’re the ones working hardest at making our lives most tough.  And then we’re astonished.
Why do we do this us?
More importantly . . .
How can we not do this to us?
Any writer or creative genius that wants a more fulfilled life can have one by:
1.Thinking and making conscious decisions.
2. Avoiding errors others have made because they got lost in the fast lane.
3. Paying attention to those errors and consciously trying to avoid them constructively to preserve the human being in the writer.
4. Exercising a little common sense and summoning your own inner courage.
You supply the courage.
The rest of the above is offered in Writing in the Fast Lane.