Pinterest and Writers

My name is Bonita and I’m a Pinterest addict.

If you don’t know what Pinterest is then stop reading right now. You’re better off. Once you know, you’ll be an addict too.

But if you must know, the Pinterest help page tells you all about it.

I enjoy Pinterest for several reasons:
-It’s beautiful- so many lovely pictures.
-It’s a social media site that’s way more fun than Twitter or Facebook.
-You can find and learn about anything there.
-You can share your own great stuff and other cool things you find.

It can be a great resource for writers. Check out some of the boards I’ve made specifically for and about writing:
This one is called Writing, Writing, Writing.

Next is Humor for Writers.

How about Books by People I Know?

Or you can check out all the boards by Bonita Lillie (me).

How can Pinterest specifically benefit writers?
-We can learn more about writing via posts that are pinned.
-Things we write can be pinned by ourselves or others so our audience grows.
-When others pin our stuff over and over it’s basically free marketing.

Sounds like a winning situation to me!

But there are drawbacks:
You might have noticed that little red button in my sidebar that looks like this:

That button gives you permission to pin posts from this blog. I also have one on my Reality Homeschooling blog. (Click the red button and you will be taken to a site where you can get your own.)

Why do you need permission? Pinterest is fairly new and growing rapidly. Unfortunately, a lot of copyright laws are being violated so we have to be careful about what we’re pinning. I’m currently in the process of weeding through my hundreds of pins to remove anything that violates copyright and to make sure that I’m only pinning things that are okay to pin. This could take a while!!

To find out more info about how to use Pinterest, check out these posts:

The Ultimate List of Pinterest Tips

Pinterest and Copyright: What I’m Doing

Pinterest Pet Peeves

56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest

Pinterest: Everything You Need to Know is in This Massive Post

It’s Not Just Pinterest Re: Copyright and Legal Issues

How Your Website Can Profit From Pinterest Today

If you have any comments or ideas to share about Pinterest, I’d really like to hear them.

Your Archenemies

They lurk in the crevices of your mind watching for an opportunity to take you down and take you out. Left unchecked, they will stop you in your tracks. Their mission: Destroy your writing productivity.
Who are these wicked villians?

    Procrastination                               and                            Perfectionism

These sinister twins work as a tag team. When you get the handle on one, the other steps in to take its place. If you aren’t careful you’ll find yourself volleying between the two and never accomplishing anything.

Procrastination boasts in his ability to make you put off writing “till later.” He flexes his muscles saying,

“You don’t have time right now.”
”Wait until things slow down and you can think.”
”One day you’ll ample time to do nothing but write.”
”All those other writers aren’t as busy as you. They have more time to write.”
”Do it later.”

When later finally comes you won’t have the same flow of inspiration. Thus, his mission is accomplished. Destruction complete.

If you happen to overcome the strength of procrastination, perfectionism is waiting for his round in the ring with you. Perfectionism is your inner English teacher, questioning your spelling, pointing out punctuation errors, holding you accountable to rigid rules that strangle your writing efforts. His job is to convince you that you must do it perfectly or it isn’t worth doing.

He’s a relentless nagger, a heartless killer of creativity, demanding perfection at every turn. If you lean your ear his way, he’ll strip you of your confidence and make you believe you can’t write at all.

The first step to winning the battle is recognizing the enemy.

Now it’s time to slay those evil villains that aim to forever label you a potentially great writer. Destroy their power and develop that potential into actual, tangible writing progress.

Win over procrastination and perfectionism!


Images by lawndart on Flickr

How Do You Spell Writing Success?

How do you become a successful writer? Success in writing can be spelled out with one simple acronym: WORK!

W- Write, write write! Writing isn’t talking about it. It’s not dreaming about the day you become an author. It isn’t even reading or studying about it. Writing is writing, the act of actually doing it. You are a writer because you write, not because you enjoy the subject or know a lot about it. No writer has ever been successful who didn’t write.

O- Overcome all obstacles. A quote from author Richard Bach hands in my office. “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” So true. Writers must persevere through all obstacles. When you face rejection, pick yourself back up and try again. When you feel discouraged, renew your vision. Keep a positive attitude. Keep going no matter what.

R- Revise and polish. Everything you write is a rough draft until it’s revised and polished. Think of it like a tarnished teapot. The rough outline is there and something beautiful lies beneath the ruddy appearance, but it takes elbow grease to make it shine. The same is true of your writing. It takes editing, revising, and rewriting to get it in top condition. If you think your first draft is good enough, you’re wrong. All writing can stand improvement.

K- Kick your excuses to the curb. Successful writers make writing a priority. They don’t wait for long stretches of writing time that will never come. They don’t allow a busy schedule to crowd out writing. They plod on when they’re tired, when they’re facing trials, when life isn’t perfect. They don’t bow to excuses. Instead, they simply write.

Some say that writing doors open for the lucky. I’ve discovered that the harder I work the luckier I get. The more writing I produce, the more doors open for me. It’s not a magic formula that brings success in writing. It’s just one magic word: WORK!

Image by Landahlauts on Flickr

Honey, I Shrunk My Blog!

It’s taken me a long time to learn the fine art of blogging.

I’ve had several blogs, but have settled into this one and my homeschooling blog as the ones that are the best fit for me.

But I’m not satisfied with this blog and eventually I want to move it to Wordpress.

So I went on a blog post purge. If you’ve been around these parts a while you might notice some missing posts.

As I’ve grown as both a writer and a blogger, I’ve learned a lot. It’s taken me a while, but I feel like I have a much better idea of the types of things I want and need to write about on this blog, as well as who my target audience is and what they need from me.

I have focus.

And those who know me know that’s a miracle! But one I’ve prayed long and hard for.

So things are a changin’ around these parts and will continue to change. No post is safe. Some will stick around, but get a major upgrade. Others will go bye-bye.

I thought the purging process would be hard, but it’s so freeing.

Once you have a clear focus and know what you want to write, it’s a whole lot easier to hit the delete button on anything that isn’t within your target zone.

What about you? Has your blog or your writing gotten cluttered, off track, stale, stagnant?

Maybe it’s time to purge.

Get rid of the old to make room for the new.

My Latest Writing Project

This post is simply to let you see what I’ve been working on that has kept me extremely busy over the last few weeks. But, alas, it’s finally ready!

Stay tuned, though, because next time I’m hosting a give-away right here that you won’t want to miss.

This is my latest project:

I have a new blog for homeschoolers—a place where I share candidly about life as a homeschooling family. If you know any homeschoolers, please direct them to my blog. Check out Reality Homeschooling.

Don’t forget. Next time is a give-away right here!

Topics That Never Go Out of Style

If you’re suffering from writer’s block, let me suggest a few topics that are both broad and forever popular.

Health- Obviously, January is the big month when everyone goes on a diet and starts exercising, but people want information about health in all seasons. Whether you write about getting healthy, staying healthy, or what to do when you discover you aren’t healthy, this topic is always fashionable.

Finances- Money is big, big, big! People want to know how to save, how to earn, and how to invest. They also want current news about the national economy and what to expect in the future.

Women’s issues- Most readers are women. And they like to read topics that apply to their lives. Women’s health, marriage, parenting, friendship, balancing career and family. This is a huge topic!

Decorating- Blogs, magazines, TV shows—everybody seems to want to know how to beautify their homes and lives. Interior decorating is widely popular on blogs especially.

Fashion and Beauty- The trends are always changing, but the topic is always in style. People want to know how to look their best. They also want to stay current and know what to expect in the future. Even the outrageous is acceptable in this genre.

How-to –People want to be taught. They like to learn new skills and have step-by-step instructions to follow for anything and everything.

News- Whether it’s current events or juicy celebrity gossip, people want to know what’s happening in the world around them.

Technology- It’s here to stay and if you happen to be someone who can explain things well, or who keeps abreast of all the latest advances, this is your topic.

Inspiration and Motivation- Encourage, motivate, cheerlead, inspire to dream and achieve. Anyone who can make others feel better and move forward will always have a place in society.

Stories- Stories will not be going out of style any time soon. Spin a tale and tell it well and you will always have an audience.

Those should keep you busy for a while. Can you think of other topics that never go out of style?

It Won’t Be Easy

One of the best things you can do as a writer is settle in your mind that it won’t be easy. If it turns out to be easier than you think, that’s great, but if it doesn’t, you’ll be armed with the right mindset.

Frankly, I don’t find many people who think writing to produce is easy. It might be fun. It might be rewarding. It might even be profitable. But it’s rarely easy.

Last spring I decided to create a homeschooling blog based on one of my most popular talks. I’d heard a lot about Wordpress.org and decided this was the route I wanted to go since you own your site and your work on Wordpress. Also, it’s more search engine friendly, better for monetizing, and you can do a lot of cool things with a Wordpress blog. Not to mention, I’d heard how easy it was to use once you get past the learning curve.

Well, it might be easy for people who speak computer or pick up on technical things easily, but it has been far from easy for me. I’ve yet to make it past the learning curve! Even with a designer and oodles of help!

I really wish I’d gone into this venture with an accurate picture for someone like me, rather than thinking, “This will be a piece of cake.” I mean I’d been on Blogger for years. How hard or different could Wordpress be?

Months later, I still haven’t gotten that blog ready. If it weren’t for the fact that I paid a lot to have it designed, I’d have chucked it long ago.

It’s on my list of things to complete this year—sooner rather than later. But I’ve armed myself with a new mentality. I’m going into this knowing that I’m still facing a steep learning curve and that every new thing I do will probably have a degree of difficulty and frustration. That doesn’t make me excited, but it is realistic.

That’s the reality of writing. Some things won’t be easy. Even if the writing itself comes easily, other areas—editing, marketing, finding a publisher—might not.

I’m not advocating that we approach writing with a doom and gloom attitude. Quite the contrary. I think we need to approach it as an adventure, something that might take some doing to accomplish.

Most of all, I want us all to throw out the assumption that it will be a piece of cake!