As writers, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the process of getting
that story from your head to “paper.” However, in the publishing environment we
find ourselves in today, it’s important to gather your resources. Authors need
to know how to edit their work, set up a business, get that book published
(traditionally or independently), and market their book, among other things.
The purpose of this article is to present you with a resource page
that will provide you with additional tools to make your journey easier. You’ll
find experienced authors and professionals who can coach you, assist you with
your writing, editing, technology, and business as well as marketing tips.
The Author Toolbox — Candee Fick
Author Candee Fick
Author Candee Fick accumulated over 100 of her favorite tools for authors and shared them in The Author Toolbox. She also provides mentoring, hands-on advice, and personal coaching in person for those in the northern Colorado area, or via Skype, or phone for those further away. Candee is also the acquisitions and content editor for a Christian press.
Watch your grammar – Amanda Cabot
Amanda Cabot
Since the mechanics of writing is critical, it’s essential to watch your grammar. Amanda Cabot’s R & R: Raves and Rants provides you with that essential tool that will help you avoid those inevitable mistakes. In my article, Publish Don’t Perish – Tip #12: Watch Your Grammar, I provide a brief description and link to each of Amanda’s invaluable articles which can be found on L.A. Sartor’s blog, An Indie Adventure — another invaluable resource.
Pageant Wagon Publishing — Kathryn Ross
Kathryn Ross
If you’re interested in a Christian writing mentor or an independent publisher who can help you develop your book idea into a print publication, you may want to reach out to Kathryn Ross, Author, Book Shepherd, Independent Publisher, Pageant Wagon Publishing, 856-205-9334.
Time management & the multifaceted solution to getting to the end -apods
Amanda Cabot’s APODS Series is an incredible must read for not only authors, but EVERYONE. In Publish Don’t Perish – Tip #5: Apply APODS to Your Life, hI provide a one stop post that provides a link with a summary of each of Amanda’s articles for your convenience. You won’t want to miss it.
legal advice for your business
Karen Van Den Heuvel Fischer
If you live in Colorado or Florida and need assistance with your
business, intellectual property concerns, or estate planning, see what Karen
VDH Fischer LLC has to offer or email me at kvdhfischer@gmail.com.
If you have any recommendations for our fellow writers, please feel free to share!
Since February is the month for love and heart health, this is the perfect time to share Tip#7 — Don’t Forget the Chocolate! Although any kind of chocolate can show love, only the right type of chocolate is healthy for our hearts and mind.
What’s the Right Type of Chocolate
Theobroma cacao is the botanical name for chocolate and it means “food of the gods.” As with most food items in today’s society, chocolate is processed every which way. Processed chocolate is high in sugar and fat with very little nutritional value. The right type of chocolate is dark chocolate with a high concentration of cacao (at least 70%).
Chocolate: Are You a Cacao or Cocoa Writer by Kathryn Ross
Kathryn Ross wrote a wonderful article, Chocolate: Are You a Cacao or Cocoa Writer? This article delves deeper into the differences between chocolate and cacao, and in her creative and talented manner, Kathryn applies it to your writing.
Potential Health Benefit
If you combine the right kind of chocolate with a healthy lifestyle, research shows that potential health benefits include:
improved blood pressure;
enhanced heart health;
decreased LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol); and
increased blood flow to your brain.
Dark Chocolate – Good for Your Heart and Mind
Studies also show that dark chocolate may reduce the risk of diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels. Diabetes is a growing problem and a known risk factor for heart disease, with an even higher risk for women. Keep in mind, a healthy lifestyle is critical. For more information, check out my article, Dark Chocolate & Love’s Heart Healthy Month.
Karen Van Den Heuvel Fischer
Your writing and life can benefit from the “food of the gods” so long as you combine it with a healthy lifestyle. Tip #3 — TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF will provide you with guidelines to make that a reality. Remember, your best writing, your best work, your best time happens when you’re at your best self.
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
Isaiah 60:13
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
by Kathryn Ross
Christmas past
I remember when Daddy brought home the Christmas tree each year. In those days, we’d never think of using a fake tree. We weren’t quite into the trendy silver trees with revolving multi-colored lights, either.
No. Mom and Dad would only have a real tree!
Christmas Tree Farm
Two weeks before Christmas we’d head to the tree lot and choose a nice full pine in just the right shape. Dad trimmed the base, dragged it through the front door into the living room, and secured it in the tree holder.
We had to wait for the lights to be strung and each bulb tested. But soon, we could begin opening all the ornament boxes and set to tree-trimming. We gently placed three or four silvery icicles on the branches and spaced out the colorful glass bulbs and home-made ornaments. Daddy made sure the tree-topper angel was in place. Together, as a family, we stood back to assess our festive work.
The Beauty of the Christmas Tree
The beauty of this glorious work of nature, strung with man-made embellishments, immediately transformed the house. It cast a warm, restful glow throughout the living room—and our hearts. The pine scent’s restorative qualities alleviated stress and anxiety as it deodorized and freshened the entire house. With a deep breath, my whole body seemed rejuvenated and overflowing with a sense of great joy.
Our anticipation for Christmas Day increased as each morning passed with the comforting sight and scent of our wonderous Christmas tree. Mother kept it well-watered and checked the branches to be sure the greenery remained supple and soft. Tiny green needles peppering the carpet were easily removed with a daily vacuuming.
My favorite time to sit with the tree was in the evening. I’d turn all the lights off except for the glow of the bulbs on the tree. My once familiar home seemed entirely changed and beautified by its presence. Sitting in a chair facing the tree, breathing deep the healing properties of pine, and snuggling with my blanket or cat, the peace of the season permeated the sanctuary.
In these early days of my writing career, Christmas and its celebratory elements inspired me to wax poetic on the glory of the season. I still have my little green composition book from my childhood with neatly hand-written poems and short stories. Stirred by the delight, beauty, and sacred nature of mystery and wonder I felt deep inside, my words seemed to bubble forth from my spirit, ignited by His Spirit. Not that I understood such a truth then. In matured hindsight, I know these things now. I treasure them—as Mary—pondering them in my heart.
Christmas Present
I expect this is why the Hallmark Channel, in recent years, has become so popular with their nostalgic, romantic, guilty-pleasure Christmas movies we all love to joke about and binge watch—savoring every sappy moment of them. Their writers employ predictable cliché plots, lines, settings, and characters, and we don’t try to edit them. Only at Christmas could they get away with this, and we are happy to let them do so.
We all want to live in Hallmark Christmas villages with every small-town pleasure in kith and kin. Hallmark writers have tapped into a shared sense of wonder that Christmas bestows on young and old. But perhaps what they’ve tapped into is more akin to hunger—for the innocent, childlike, simple joys that Christmas awakens in our humanity. That restorative quality Christmas brings with it. We never want it to end.
I never want Christmas to end. Or my tree to leave.
But as in Christmases past, time marches on. Year after year, the big day comes and goes—followed by a week of family visiting. We see everyone’s trees and gifts—aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. They pay a call to our home, too. Parties. Shopping. And counting the days before a new year supplants the old, and our Christmas respite is packed up in boxes until next time.
On New Year’s Day, the tree, which has brought us so much joy, is dismantled and removed to the trash pile, awaiting the garbage truck and its ultimate destination in the dump.
A sorrowful melancholy washes over me when I see disposed Christmas trees abandoned by the side of the road.
Even so, the pine scent lingers, and random needles might be stumbled upon in forgotten corners of the room in ensuing months. I may pause before vacuuming them up and cherish a transporting moment when I mentally return to my sanctuary in the glow of a glorious Christmas tree.
The Glory of Christmas
I’m glad we have seasons. There is a comfort in the repetition of precious moments throughout our lives. We hope that when Christmas comes around each year, we are grown a bit wiser and more able to appreciate the glory and beauty of the day. We hope we can better capture it in words on paper that may only ever be read by its writer—and the loving God Who so generously inspires our words with His Word made Flesh, dwelling among us.
Under the glow of the Christmas pine, I’m reading. I’m writing. I’m pondering things in my heart. Deep things shared with my Savior. I remember His birth and the beautification of the pine tree trimmed in lights and ornament remnants of lives lived from year to year.
A tree that was planted purposely for this job. Lived its allotted number of years. Was chopped down, to die. And then raised up in my home, alive again in a more glorious manner than before, transforming the entire atmosphere of my home with a newness of life.
It is a metaphor of Jesus Christ—His birth, life, death, resurrection, and the transformed life He lives in the home of my heart. Like the healing scent of pine, He vanquishes stress and anxiety, deodorizes and freshens the atmosphere of my life—beautifying the place of my sanctuary—and rejuvenates me with an overflowing sense of great joy, a glorious place for His feet to rest.
Be ye blessed this Christmas as you ponder—and write—about these truths in your own life.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
It’s that time of year again! When the leaves turn, and I wake to crisp air in the morning, my pantry gets a clean sweep and restocking. I’ve stuffed it chock-full of spices, sprinkles, sugars, flours, fruits, candies, nuts, and specialty ingredients for seasonal baking over the next three months. I plan my holiday recipes with experiments in October, so I can decide the winners and losers for Thanksgiving and Christmas giving.
Thyme for Writers – Pumpkin Harvest
Pumpkin cans stacked next to complimentary spices stand at the ready to mix and pour into pumpkin what-all. From pies to puddings, to sauces to scones to cakes to breads to souffle, pumpkin baking in the oven scents the home with tangible comfort. The sense of smell ignites stories of Autumns long ago when childhood wonder at the change of season opened a world of delights that only October brought. Can you smell the fragrant stories of bygone fall days:
Trips to apple orchards and pumpkin patches
Crunching dried leaves under our feet before raking them into piles
Pulling the sweaters out and wrapping up cozy in the evening
Cringing in fright when that giant orb spider weaves his web outside the front window
Though pumpkin itself lacks flavor on its own, a generous blend of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg is vital to every pumpkin recipe. In fact, this blend of spices, commonly referred to as pumpkin pie spice, adds seasonal flavor to any fall dish.
Each of these spices should be measured with care, though. For instance—more cinnamon than clove, less ginger than cinnamon, and a sparse touch of nutmeg are best. The just right amount pleases the palate. Too much, though, ruins the plate.
And one of those spices, used in excess, is actually toxic.
Nutmeg, the pungent, sweet, warm spice from the dried seeds of the nutmeg tree, though an important element of pumpkin pie spice, when taken alone and in excess acts as poison. A tragic chapter in the story of nutmeg is its 19th century use to induce abortions. In fact, when taken in large amounts it may cause anxiety, drunkenness, confusion, headaches, nausea, allergic reactions, dermatitis, and episodes of hallucinations and psychosis. This type of nutmeg overdose most often happens as an accident in children or on purpose with teenagers experimenting with substance abuse.
This toxic use of a valuable and tasty spice reminds me of how our words, used well and in properly measured amounts, can delight and amplify the satisfaction of a story, well told. Our words can be used to bless or abused to poison. This is true in relation to the technical elements of writing and composition—how we measure out our words with attention to grammar and syntax. But it also relates to the subjects we choose to write about and how we use words to influence readers and culture for good or for ill.
In such times as these, words are wielded as weapons by irresponsible writers, filling print and online platforms with toxic spices. Like a nutmeg overdose. The power of words to poison minds and destroy the reputations of others has become the toxic spice of choice in popular media and entertainment.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
by Kathryn Ross
As a writer, I feel a higher sense of calling in the words I write. My pen must be an antidote to nutmeg-like toxic-level words stirred into the current events’ mix. When I blend my word spices responsibly—with just the right amount of nutmeg balanced with companion cinnamon, ginger, and clove—I set an example of how to add spice to an otherwise bland squash and enrich a nutritious meal or sweet desert.
I hope to do so with my ready supply of baking ingredients in my pantry this season, as well as the measured words I write and speak. And, I have found the perfect spice blend to the purpose in Philippians 4:8 NLT:
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
My prayer for you is that your word-mix in this present season be finely measured. For all of us who seek to be God flavors in the earth, may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in the sight of the Lord—and health to all who taste of it. (Psalm 19:14)
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
If writing that book and getting it published were only that easy … . If it was just a matter of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys) …, but it’s not. In today’s fast-paced technological society, writing is a multifaceted business.
Thyme for Writers
Since writing is a long, difficult, and solitary road for the most part,
The Author Toolbox
Thyme for Writers is meant to lighten your load for each facet of writing. It’s purpose is to be:
a source of inspiration to writers and readers alike with words of encouragement and uplifting stories that bring a smile to your face; and
a go-to resource with helpful hints, tools, and knowledge.
Technology
To help you through the technology behind it all, Candee Fick shared her Author Toolbox. A tool everyone should have on their “shelf.” If you haven’t checked it out yet, it may be “thyme.”
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words by Kathryn Ross
Writing Tips
Kathryn Ross is back with her monthly, The Write Spice – Writing Tips for Flavorful Words. If you haven’t seen her posts yet, wait no further. Each article is just a click away:
One of the largest stumbling blocks for most people, especially writers, is time management. I am excited to have Amanda Cabot as a monthly guest, the fourth Thursday of each month for her series on time management. She not only teaches workshops on this subject, but her life is a reflection of how well it works as a multi-published author who juggled a sixty-hour a week job with nonnegotiable deadlines while building a house long-distance at the same time that she wrote two books a year.
Legal Pitfalls
Writers Beware of the Legal Pitfalls
As a writer, reader, or someone who may have your own website, you are probably following some of the legal issues that hit the news lately — GDPR compliance and trademark issues to name just a couple. To provide some insight on what may be lurking, I will start a monthly series the third Thursday of the month as an educational resource — Writers Beware of the Legal Pitfalls. As with the workshops and university Business Law courses I teach, this series is meant for educational purposes as a general resource ONLY and NOT to provide legal advice. For any legal issues you may have, you will need to speak to your attorney.
I’ll continue to feature other guests on Thyme for Writers… . I hope you enjoy what’s to come!
Kathryn Ross is back with Sage Advice When There’s No Thyme to Write! I’m sure you’ll enjoy this article as much as I did… . Thank you Kathryn!
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words by Kathryn Ross
I’ve just returned to the world of written words, blog posts, and editing projects from a hiatus of too-much-busy. April, May, and now seemingly June, have been a whirlwind of overwhelm. Other than my writing, my full plate involved the birth of a new grandson, settling into the new normal of Nana duty each week, opening the lakehouse ministry my husband and I manage for Christian leaders, transforming a vacant marketplace facility into a one-day history museum with over 40 exhibits and historical re-enactors for our hometown’s Founder’s Day event, and the preparation of my father’s house for the impending arrival of my sister and her husband moving back to our hometown. All this, and a sprained foot, too!
Fur Baby
Oh—and did I mention keeping up with my husband’s routine and regular home-front duties? And the cats, of course.
Yeah. I had to cut something from the to-do list or nothing would ever be to-done.
To that end, I needed to take a break from blogging until I could dedicate serious hours to my writing, once again. In so doing, I have learned a few things to encourage the writer who just can’t find the thyme to write—let alone the words and inspiration. Here’s my sage advice in case you find yourself in your own whirlwind of overwhelm with deadlines looming:
Turn Deadlines into Lifelines.
Stop
When we struggle with too many things requiring our attention, all at the same time, we lose the ability to focus with excellence on any one thing. We may try to make our deadline, only to turn in a poorly crafted piece that is not a true representation of our ability. What we produce will have little to no benefit on our readers. We flail about like a swimmer drowning in the ocean. STOP. Stop floundering with wasted energy and little focus. Float instead. Accept that priorities may need to be readjusted for a season. Reorder responsibilities so they are manageable when new or unexpected things step into the picture. This may mean asking for an extension on a post’s due date, or even a lengthier delay in order to turn a deadline into a lifeline, allowing room to breathe, think, and function.
Retreat to Advance.
Retreat
My husband and I manage a lakehouse retreat for Christian leaders in the church, home, and arts—including writers–in need of a respite to renew and be refreshed for ministry. As I was readying the lakehouse in anticipation of its formal dedication, I became aware that I was simply going through the motions of organizing an event. I had not fully connected to the ministry concept, even though I have spent years teaching and studying on developing a sanctuary lifestyle of retreat and renewal. On the day of the dedication, I sat by the water, waiting for the guests to arrive, and realized for the first time in months that I was in need of a respite! Just those couple of hours in a quiet, sanctuary setting prior to everyone’s arrival, realigned my inner compass with the knowledge that my greatest need to restore my writing routine was not time—but REST. I have to book myself to use the lakehouse retreat before I can adequately expect to advance in my writing goals and continued ministry.
Take Time to Smell the Flowers.
In my book, Fragrant Fields: Poetic Reflections for Journaling, I share the story of driving about on a busy day of errands when I passed a huge field of flowers I’d never seen before. The sight arrested my soul—I just had to pull over and stare into it for a while. The powerful fragrance settled my stressed mind and body. My mouth opened in spontaneous prayer, thanking the Lord for such a generous gift—to RENEW! I don’t remember how long I lingered there, but I do remember the moments spent in the field being permanently etched upon my spirit. Returning home, I was inspired to write—words pouring forth from the impact of a close encounter with my Lord built into the curative glories of Creation.
Stop. Rest. Renew
Stop. Rest. Renew.
It’s a very similar recipe for the writer short on time to write. But also, extremely difficult to purpose into our crowded lives. Most of us are active achievers, skimping on personal time. Yet, we can achieve more when we recognize when our calendar fills to overflowing, and are brave enough to turn off the spicket. Stop. Make the effort to do nothing. Rest. Breathe in the goodness of God in our stillness—He is ever present with a bouquet of good things and beauty to give us. Renew.
So, I’m back. And better for it. I look forward to diligently applying my own sage advice to my literary life. And in so doing—make the thyme to write.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
Welcome back Kathryn Ross! Balancing Written Words to Taste for Flavorful Influence is the next in her series — The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words. From sweet to sour, salty to savory, and a tad of bitterness in between, well-seasoned stories touch readers’ taste buds with memorable flavors and healthful influence.
When you write, do you think how your words will taste in the mind and heart of a reader? Will it be winsome and compelling, inviting eager eyes to read further on, hungry for more? Or, will it be repellant and unconvincing, disgusting and dulling to your reader’s sensibilities?
Benefits
Like a sumptuous meal of many courses and flavors, your writing possesses the most healthful benefits with a balance of tastes. The old adage, “variety is the spice of life,” applies to written works, too.
Heart Health & Magnesium
Human taste-buds are highly charged nerve endings on the tip of the tongue, uniquely designed to identify five basic tastes categorized as either aversive or appetitive. For instance, sweet tastes clue our bodies into energy-rich foods as sure as bitterness warns the body of possible poison.
Unless you’re a coffee or cocoa lover, bitter flavors that often elicit a sweet response.
Five Taste Senses
There are five taste senses that bode benefit or harm regarding foods, much like the words we choose in our storytelling. Whether we’re crafting a fictional tale or non-fiction essay on crucial topics, the words we use must be garnished with “the write spice.” Sprinkle your words generously with these four tastes:
Sweetness is the taste commonly associated with sugar. It is a pleasant taste that can energize and delight in measured doses, but also cause illness in excess. How you add sugar to your story, in wise amounts, evenly distributed—with an extra dollop on top at the end—will determine the satisfaction of the story, leaving its reader lifted and smiling.
Lemons
Sourness in taste is a clue to the acidity of a thing. Perhaps this is best used in smaller doses. Though youngsters gravitate to the shocking sour flavor of certain popular candies, sour, well diluted, is best. Consider the sharp pucker of a pungent lemon slice until squeezed into a tall glass of water where a spritz of sour gives just the right bit of refreshment. So, too, a pungent word or scene can arrest a reader’s attention with a refreshing perspective if mixed well.
Saltiness in foods is what makes the bland turn to bliss on the tongue. Consider how dull any dish is without a dash of salt. Salt levels in processed foods makes them tasty. Salt and sweet together are especially addictive. But, remember—a little dash’il-do-ya. High salt/sodium content in foods makes the heart race and is not healthy. Again, a pinch of salt and a cup of sugar blend brilliantly in baked goods and storytelling.
Balancing Written Words to Taste for Flavorful Influence by Kathryn Ross
Savory flavor is where you’ll find more substance, such as in broths and cooked meats. Our writing should be savory with substance. Say something! Savory tastes are the low notes that add depth and gravy—I mean, gravity—to your work. If we want to provide healthy influence with our words, make the body of your work something a reader wants to savor in their heart and mind—the meat and potatoes of the meal.
Dark Chocolate – Good for Your Heart and Mind
Bitterness in foods may be immediately repulsive and unpleasant, but a bittering agent may be just the nutritional ingredient to make your dish effective. So, too, in your writing, a blob of bitterness stirred into the mix—like unsweetened cocoa powder added to a cake batter—might just surprise you when you taste the finished product. Sometimes a bitter twist in your writing is the unexpected plot element that ultimately sweetens by the end of the story. The surprising flavor keeps your reader engaged until, mixed together with the sweet, sour, salty, and savory, you have a delicious dish that will prompt your reader to ask for second helpings!
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview.
Kathryn Ross is our guest today on Thyme for Writers as she shares the next in her Write Spice Series: Preparing Your Writer’s Garden to Grow: 6 Steps to a Fruitful Manuscript Harvest.
Preparing Your Writer’s Garden to Grow
March is still pretty chilly where I live. Unseasonable warm days are kept in check with bursts of unseasonable cold and the last few roars of winter snow storms. I am dreaming about springtime and harvest, but not keen to venture out into the yard with spade and hoe in preparation for such dreams to come true.
In fact, I tend to regularly make the mistake of waiting until a happy, sunny day in May before I venture to the local garden shop looking for some green veggies to plant or springtime bulbs the wise gardener buried last fall. With a patient smile, the shop attendant explains that the reason there are so few vegetable greens left for planting in May is that they should have been planted in March for a truly fruitful harvest. But in March, I was only dreaming about such a thing, bundled in my sweater and hoping the wind chill and gray sky wasn’t so foreboding.
Sweet Italian Basil — Home Grown
Better gardeners than I brave chilly March days with solid plans and preparations for lush foliage and home-grown vegetable goodness later in the year. Whether it is planting trays of select seeds to sprout indoors before replanting after the frost dies or taking hoe in hand to whack away at the winter hardened earth, clearing away the leftover debris of last season greenery, smart and serious gardeners get to work by March to reap rewards in summer and fall.
I may never attain Master Gardener when it comes to preparing my floral and vegetable fields in a timely manner. But I can apply this principle of preparation and planning to my writing life and the harvests I dream of reaping from my Writer’s Garden.
The Writer’s Garden
When we don’t take care to prepare our fields…
When we don’t take care to prepare our fields for the desired harvest of a fruitful writing life, we reap little, with no healthy green goods to take to market. Here are six things you can do for properly preparing your Writer’s Garden in hopes of harvesting a manuscript in due season:
Break Up Fallow Ground in your lifestyle to prepare your Writer’s Garden soil for creating life-giving words. Removing the things that block you from your writing goals. This can be bad habits like procrastination, poor organization, a cluttered workspace, or an overburdened schedule of busy activities that dry up your mental focus and vitality. List the fallow ground blockages that keep your creative soils from being prepared and whack away at them.
Plant Inspiration SeedsEarly by jotting down your ideas as soon as they come to you in a file or binder. When you come across a resource that you think will prove fruitful in the future, plant it right away. This could be a book (hard-copy or digital) you know will be invaluable to your research, or a computer file with website URLs saved to follow-up on later. Perhaps an image is inspiring to you for your project purposes, or even a physical object. Collect them as you find them and plant them in your creative space where you can brood over them for a time.
Water Ideas Daily with free writing on your project topic. If you’re working on a series of online posts, a fiction book, a non-fiction manuscript, poem, play, or what-all, visit your ideas on the project regularly. Discipline yourself to water it, in effect, by expanding on your previous work. This could mean reading another resource to add notes to your research. It could mean writing another chapter, or just adding another layer to a character description or plot outline. Visiting your Writer’s Garden with the water can of daily work feeds your inspiration seeds to take root and sprout.
Weed Carefully, at least once a week, with focused editing. Clear out unnecessary material and keep your writing and project work focused so only the strongest shoots are getting the nutrients of your skilled efforts. Don’t allow unruly vines to grow and choke out the full potential of your project.
Control Pests that seek to steal, kill, and destroy your precious harvest potential. Culprits such as Fear, Complaint, Laziness, Stress, Depression, Envy, Disobedience, and more can eat away at every new stem of writing produced if allowed to remain in your Writer’s Garden. Look for them hiding under the leaves of your work and brutally remove them.
Harvest on Time—not too early and not too late—to get the best nutrient return on your fruitful garden of words. In due season, under the blessing of the Lord, you will reap the benefits of what you have sown and stewarded, enriching both writer and reader.
This month, when farmers are already tilling the soil and planting crops for summer and fall harvests, are you planning how you’ll prepare and tend your Writer’s Garden?
(C) 2018 Kathryn Ross
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
The Gatekeeper’s Key by Kathryn Ross – Nominated for Christian Indie Awards 2018
Writer, speaker, teacher, and enrichment artist, Kathryn Ross, sweeps readers into the story-worlds of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Hannah Hurnard, Marguerite de Angeli, John Bunyan, and others, exploring powerful truths to fulfilling God’s plan for your life in her latest publication, The Gatekeeper’s Key—nominated for the Christian Indie Awards 2018 in the devotional genre. Discern your place and season, with encouragement to see purpose in boundaries, find comfort in trials, and gain fortitude in going forth. Short story, personal testimony, excerpts from classic literature, visual imagery, challenge questions for discussion, and journal prompts for writing assignments draw you before the Gatekeeper. It’s quite a journey—but you’re never alone. Always in His Presence, with an Invitation, a Gatekeeper, and a Key. Perhaps more than one. Purchase on Amazon or direct from Pageant Wagon Publishing.
Welcome back Kathryn Ross to Thyme for Writers! Chocolate: Are You a Cacao or Cocoa Writer? is Kathryn’s next article in her series, The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words.
Series—The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words Chocolate: Are You a Cacao or Cocoa Writer? By Kathryn Ross
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Chocolate is sweet
And super-good for you!
February winter chills warm when lovers celebrate Valentine’s Day with time-honored flair. Romantic dinners, handcrafted card exchanges, flower deliveries, and close to 60 million pounds of chocolate candy consumed on Valentine’s Day, mark the traditions of this holiday, sharing expressions of love.
Chocolate
The glory of a heart-shaped box of chocolates may tickle your taste-buds with luscious flavors, but the cost to your body in cocoa-calories and sugar content has little real health benefits or love for your body in the aftermath. Chocolate is delicious and satisfying to enjoy—but, if overindulged, extra pounds on the scale and sugar-related maladies will require editing.
Cocoa verses Cacao
Why, then, do doctors claim that chocolate has health benefits? Don’t be deceived—not all chocolate is created equal. Cacao is the raw seed from the pod of an evergreen tree grown in South America and West Africa. It possesses a host of health benefits. But, the process used to create cocoa—the type of chocolate that is commonly found in candies and desserts—includes the application of high heat to raw cacao. Minimal nutritional benefits remain, and are further negated with the addition of sugar, oils, or milk fat. Here’s a terrific article to further explain this confusion regarding chocolate.
Only dark chocolate with cacao amounts of 70% and above affect the body for wellness. Quality dark chocolate is less sweet and still adds calories. However, its nutritional value in the areas of anti-oxidants, cardio wellness, brain function, cholesterol control, blood pressure regulation, and more, suggest that cacao chocolate makes it beneficial for daily consumption. A very small square, savored slowly after dinner, will do the job. It won’t satisfy like a typical milk chocolate bar, which feeds disease rather than fights it. Those sinfully delicious candies nestled in a Valentine box are predominately sugar and very addictive. You can’t eat just one! Cacao chocolate is slightly bitter to taste and very rich. You won’t be able to eat a lot of it at one time, forcing you to savor it in your mouth longer. Eating cacao chocolate cannot be rushed.
Are You a Cacao or Cocoa Writer?
Writing is work.
Composition takes time.
Like a bite of dark chocolate
Savored slowly, makes prime.
Chocolate: Are You a Cacao or Cocoa Writer? By Kathryn Ross
When we rush our writing, we run the risk of overloading it with empty calories and a host of unhealthy ingredients. It’s like binging on the wrong kind of chocolate—cocoa not cacao.
Take your time. Savor each word in your work.
Don’t rush the plot. Tell your story, but chew slowly to be sure you extract its fullest flavors.
Critically assess the purpose of each line, removing unnecessary filler ingredients to deliver optimum reader benefits.
Use quality words rich in meaning, imagery, and depth for full effectiveness. Depending upon your unique writing voice, be it flowery or sharp and concise, word choice enhances every style.
One of my favorite Hebrew words found repeatedly throughout the Psalms is “selah.” It comes between verses ripe with meaning and impact, inviting the reader to stop and think about what they’ve just read. Like slowly savoring a quality piece of chocolate, mining the full essence and zest of the sweet, employ “selah” to your writing life.
So, how do you approach your writing? Are you a cacao writer or a cocoa writer?
(C) 2018 Kathryn Ross
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words Kathryn Ross
Writer, speaker, teacher, and enrichment artist, Kathryn Ross, sweeps readers into the story-worlds of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Hannah Hurnard, Marguerite de Angeli, John Bunyan, and others, exploring powerful truths to fulfilling God’s plan for your life in her latest publication, The Gatekeeper’s Key. Discern your place and season, with encouragement to see purpose in boundaries, find comfort in trials, and gain fortitude in going forth. Short story, personal testimony, excerpts from classic literature, visual imagery, challenge questions for discussion, and journal prompts for writing assignments draw you before the Gatekeeper. It’s quite a journey—but you’re never alone. Always in His Presence, with an Invitation, a Gatekeeper, and a Key. Perhaps more than one. Purchase on Amazon or direct from Pageant Wagon Publishing.
Welcome back Kathryn Ross for January’s The Write Spice Series — Lemon Oil: Clearing Out for a Clean Start. **
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words
Did you eat too many sweets over the holidays?
I did. And far too many second helpings of festive foods prepared and enjoyed only at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Though my taste-buds have been blessed, my body cries out for relief from all the celebration. The post-holiday lethargy sets in as my digestive system attempts to process the influx of sugar, cheese, and carbs consumed.
The Lemon Oil January Principle. Clearing Out for a Clean Start
That’s when I reach for the little miracles in my essential oils cabinet—and one in particular: Lemon Oil.
When I first saw a demonstration of this powerful little therapeutic grade* oil, I made sure I was first in line to get a bottle and make it a regular go-to remedy for internal cleansing. The demonstrator put one drop on a Styrofoam plate. I watched in amazement as it virtually disintegrated the plate, promising to do the same to all manner of artery and intestinal-clogging enemies in my body. SOLD!
Lemon oil remains a daily part of my nutritional regime. Just a drop in my morning water and evening tea keeps the pipes clear and clean. In January, I tend to double my lemon oil intake, to compensate for all my jolly holiday no-guilt feasting in December. The lethargy of stressed digestion is cleansed. The mental fog of too much busy and Christmas cake clears, energizing my body for the new year to come.
If only those little drops of lemon oil could make quick work of cleaning out my office and desktop in January. Like a healthy digestive cleanse, I need to collect myself after a busy year, clean the debris left behind, and see clearly my path for writing goals in the new year.
You, too?
It’s a common malady for all of us—but especially writers. We tend to begin each year with a plan. As winter turns to spring, new inspirations and opportunities arrest our attention. We collect ideas, layering them in random computer files and hard-copy folders on both our virtual and physical desktops. Working on new projects battle the monthly writing deadlines we’re already committed to, for our time and creative energy. The busy of home, family, church activities, and school responsibilities shift into hyper-drive once September rolls around, and spins into warp speed come Christmas.
It’s no wonder I can’t see an ounce of wood grain on my desk and have only a path from the door to the printer in my backroom office. I’ve stuffed myself full in my life and work and need to apply some lemon oil to clear the way and make a clean start for a healthy and productive new year. To accomplish this, I schedule a week early in January to purge and purpose.
Purge:
Toss or file all paper items that are unnecessary. Be wise and selective.
Clean out desk drawers. Be brutal.
Remove unnecessary objects from your work area. Everything has a place—put it there.
Delete random images and documents saved on your computer that are no longer useful. Watch the temptation to get sidelined with distractions.
Purpose:
Re-think the use of your work and storage space. Think outside the box.
Re-organize how you use your work and storage space. Plan for your new projects.
Chart the new year with all monthly deadlines, project goals, conference plans, and personal/family aspirations.
File random images and documents saved on your computer in new folders that are better organized for easy access. Create a folder marked Inspiration 2017 for anything you can’t quite categorize but want to keep.
Once you clear and clean your work spaces, you’ll find the new year lethargy dissipates, replaced with fresh energy and insight for stepping into a new season of activity and accomplishment. Drink a tall glass of lemon water and get to work for a productive new year! Do you have any specific tips or annual rituals you use for clearing out and making a clean start each year?
(C) 2018 Kathryn Ross
*Only ingest quality certified therapeutic grade oils. Do your research before buying!
** Please speak to your physician before making any changes to your health care regime.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words By Kathryn Ross
Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.
The Write Spice: Writing Tips for Flavorful Words Kathryn Ross
Writer, speaker, teacher, and enrichment artist, Kathryn Ross, sweeps readers into the story-worlds of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Hannah Hurnard, Marguerite de Angeli, John Bunyan, and others, exploring powerful truths to fulfilling God’s plan for your life in her latest publication, The Gatekeeper’s Key. Discern your place and season, with encouragement to see purpose in boundaries, find comfort in trials, and gain fortitude in going forth. Short story, personal testimony, excerpts from classic literature, visual imagery, challenge questions for discussion, and journal prompts for writing assignments draw you before the Gatekeeper. It’s quite a journey—but you’re never alone. Always in His Presence, with an Invitation, a Gatekeeper, and a Key. Perhaps more than one. Purchase on Amazon or direct from Pageant Wagon Publishing.
Sweetness is the taste commonly associated with sugar. It is a pleasant taste that can energize and delight in measured doses, but also cause illness in excess. How you add sugar to your story, in wise amounts, evenly distributed—with an extra dollop on top at the end—will determine the satisfaction of the story, leaving its reader lifted and smiling.
