Social Distancing and Staying Busy

Photo by Leeanne Dodge

As we all do our part to participate in social distancing and stay at home, the issue becomes how to fill our time and stay productive.

I think the biggest thing we can do is to develop a routine for the day. This happens to also be one of the things that successful people do anyway, so why not.

I've decided that this is an excellent time to develop a daily writing habit. Between working a full-time job for over 40 years and last year's medical issues, I had not worked this into my regular schedule. This year, however, I am changing everything. I put in for retirement and started doing water aerobics. Then comes the social distancing, and out goes the water aerobics. There are, however, yoga and exercise videos on Youtube. Not quite the same, but they work.

For me, the routine I'm developing is a daily exercise video, an or more hour writing, a little housework (have to keep up the basics anyway), walk to the mailbox, read a book. They say if you want to write, you need to read. The other thing I'm doing to keep busy is online courses. I've been interested in creating one, so I've been researching that as well as taking some. Time is also filled up with Facetime calls to the grandkiddos and texting with friends. I even watched a live Facebook video when a friend fed her goats. Okay, okay, watching goats eat breakfast can get you off schedule a bit. Apparently, goats aren't into social distancing.  I'm still working on doing these things every day, but at least I'm heading in the right direction.

Another way to keep on track with your writing goals is to use NaNoWriMo. They are currently running a program called StayHomeWriMo (Stay Home and Write More). Their website has lots of information and checklists with ideas. You can join one of their communities and converse with fellow writers about things that interest you, including general conversation, characters, and more. They are providing daily writing tips for both your creative well-being and your social well-being, examples are below.

Creative Well-Being 🧐
Writing Prompt: Interview one of your own characters about what their social-distancing experience would look like.

Social Well-Being 👋
If you're not a caretaker and you're able to, offer to video chat with a toddler or child. Sing songs, play a game, let them give you a tour of their toys.

Have a productive and safe month.

Linda Sue

Writing is a craft

Margie Yee-Webb, Marsha Dowd, Lynn Tosello, Teresa LeYung-Ryan
March 2016 North State Writers meeting

A couple of years ago I had the privilege of listening to Teresa LeYung-Ryan and Margie Yee-Webb when they spoke at a meeting of North State Writers. They gave us a presentation on Teresa's book "Build Your Writers' Platform & Fanbase in 22 days". It brought home this blog post I wrote but hadn't posted yet so I decided to go ahead and post it.

How many times have you heard that writing is a craft? I'm not sure I truly understood this until I started writing myself. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. In other words, write, write, write, the more you write the more creative you become and the better the end result will be. I am loving the journey I've started. It helps to consult with the experts and I wanted to share a few books that have helped me.

There are so many books out there it's difficult to make a list of all of them but here are a few I've read over the years that I feel have helped me with life in general, business or the craft of writing:

Probably not complete and in no particular order:

• The Secret
• The E Myth, Michael E. Gerber
• 10 Things a Millionaire Taught Me, Richard Paul Evans
• Multiple Streams of Income, Robert G. Allen
• Between the Lines, Jessica Morrell
• Writing Subtext, Dr. Linda Seger
• The 3a.m. Epiphany, Brian Kiteley
• Book in A Month - Great tips on organizing your process and on creating characters. Once I retire I should be able to I can find the time to write one in a month. I'll have to try Nanowrimo someday.
• Anything in the genre you are writing in

If you have any other suggestions please share them, I am always looking for the next great read. Hope these help you on your own journey wherever you are headed, keep writing and reading.

Linda Sue Forrister

Author of  "The Poisoned Queen, A Joe Fish Adventure" (coming soon)