Love, Attention, and Consistency
If you want to get better at what you do, you have to have three qualities: love, attention, and consistency. If you want to meet the goals you’ve set, you need the same three things. If you want someone to know you care for them, you also need those three things. You have to give that person love and attention and do so with consistency.
Write Now or Later?
While I believe in deadlines and writing regularly, I know that some writing is better done immediately while other is better done later. The latter is the moment “recollected in tranquility.” The former is in the moment and may or may not be emotionally charged.
How to Become a Better Writer: Quit Writing
Before you throw a tizzy fit, please listen: you are not going to become a better writer simply by continuing to write. It just isn’t going to happen. It’s like hoping you’re going to be chosen for the all-star basketball team even though your aim is all wrong and you refuse to listen to the coaches and other players who could help you improve your game. If you don’t listen to those people, it doesn’t matter how many times you shoot the basketball. You’re never going to make more than a few baskets.
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The Germination Period
Some words aren’t ready to be published once they’re set on the page. They’re half-cocked, half-baked, half-***ed. They need a bit more sun, a little water, and a lot of weeding before they’re ready to be shared with the world.
National Poem in Your Pocket Day
A tweet is an incredibly appropriate size for a poem. – Not Dead Yet: How Technology is Saving Poetry
Poets seem almost inevitably drawn toward Twitter. The challenge of communicating something, anything, within 140 characters is irresistible. It’s a space that requires sparseness of language and clarity of thought. It is, in some ways, akin to the traditionally known haiku with its five-seven-five syllable scheme. It is a place with a strict form – how to manipulate the content to fit within it?