Sutter Communications

We’re wild about words!

Is 2019 the year you want to write a book or a blog?

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Write a book
Writing a book takes discipline and patience but it can be done!

Judging by the emails and calls my business, Sutter Communications, has been getting, it seems many people have made a New Year’s resolution to write a book or finish the book they started many moons ago. Or they’ve resolved to learn how to blog, or blog more consistently or grow their blogging audience.

If you’re one of them, here are a few tips that work for me.

Resolve to spend 15 minutes a day on your writing.

Of course, you can do a lot more, but 15 minutes seems do-able, right? You’d be amazed at how going slow and steady brings actual results. I learned this when I was researching and writing a thesis, while working many hours as an editor at the Democrat and Chronicle. Once you start writing, I’ll bet you find it so fun you’ll spend more than 15 minutes on it!

Related: 5 Takeaways from State of Blogging Industry report 

Set up deadlines.

You want to write a book? “Deadline is the greatest motivator” became my mantra years ago, when as both a reporter and then an editor, I realized that deadlines are critical to getting work done. It’s too easy to put off the writing. Want your book to be printed in time for holiday sales? Then do a back-out schedule that makes that happen.

Related: Got writer’s block? 5 quotes from Ernest Hemingway may help

Take a class.

You go to the gym to get stronger and in better shape, right? Then taking a class can do the same for your creativity and desire to write a book. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blogging, whatever your genre, I recommend you check out the classes at Writers and Books.

I’ve been on the faculty there for almost four years, and I’ve also attended classes and author talks. You’ll come away inspired and more than likely, you’ll meet some fellow writers who may become life-long friends and a great support system.

Over the next two months, I’m teaching Blogging 101, Blogging 201 and a new-ish workshop called Social Media for Writers. You can see the entire list of Writers and Books offerings here.

Hope you find these tips helpful. What works for you?

Got writer’s block? 5 quotes from Ernest Hemingway may help

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Ernest Hemingway before he became the famous writer.

We writers are always looking for inspiration and ways to make the writing come easier. Maybe we should just accept that even brilliant writers like Ernest Hemingway struggled.

Here are five quotes from the book Ernest Hemingway on Writing, edited by Larry Phillips.

  • “There’s no rule on how it is to write … Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly. Sometimes it is like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”
  • “After a book, I am emotionally exhausted. If you are not, you have not transferred the emotion completely to the reader. Anyway, that is the way it works for me.”
  • “Have been work(ing) very hard on this book. She pretty near over. All that remains now is to perform the unperformable miracle you have to always do at the end.”

This next one is from Hemingway’s speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954.

  • “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity or the lack of it, each day.”

For when you are struggling for the right word:

  • “Actually if a writer needs a dictionary, he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at least three times from beginning to end and then have loaned it to someone who needs. There are only certain words which are valid and similies (bring me my dictionary) are like defective ammunition (the lowest thing I can think of at this time).”

Do you have a favorite quote on writing?

 

Robin Roberts: Make your mess your message

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Robin Roberts shares her personal philosophies in this memoir.
Robin Roberts shares her personal philosophies in this memoir.

I just finished reading Robin Roberts’ fabulous memoir Everybody’s Got Something about her roller coaster ride dealing with a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

I first saw Roberts on TV when she was a news anchor for ESPN. “Wow, that’s different,” I thought. I could hardly believe that I was seeing a black woman actually getting to anchor a sports show with the guys, and she was not relegated to the sidelines. Then she moved over to Good Morning America. “Good for her,” I thought. “Someone is recognizing her talent and she’s not being pigeon-holed into staying in sports coverage.”

When I was shopping at the Pittsford Library book sale recently, I saw her memoir, and I passed over it at first, then decided to buy it as I’m always looking for an inspirational read. I’m not a morning TV show watcher, and I don’t think I even knew Roberts had gone through a bone marrow transplant, although I did recall that she’d had breast cancer several years ago.

In her memoir, Roberts writes,

“In Mississippi, where I’m from, there’s an understanding that hard times don’t discriminate. My mother used to say, ‘Everybody’s got something.’ This is the story of my something and my road to something better.”

Yes, everyone has something, some pain, some problem, that they have to deal with. But the saying that stood out to me is another from Roberts’ mother: “Make your mess your message.”

That’s brilliant. If you face adversity, then somehow, some way, turn that into a cause. Roberts certainly did, by being open with her TV audience about her disease, her need for a bone marrow transplant or else she would die within two years. Lucky for her, one of her sisters was a 100 percent match. Roberts’ story inspired thousands of people to join the national bone marrow registry. The majority of people who need a bone marrow transplant never get one because they never find a match. Roberts also has spent time communicating and encouraging people who are waiting for that match.

Her book makes clear that her journey with MDS was no picnic; her mother passed shortly after she was diagnosed so she dealt with that grief in addition to her illness. I admire Roberts’ candor about her feelings and her struggles. Even if you’re a celebrity, it takes courage to share such a personal story.

What’s your mess? What’s your message?