How to start/finish - & other useful blog posts?

[littlebutfierce]

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has a post on how to start something new, as well as one on how to finish. Zen Habits is a sort of minimalist productivity blog, so it's no surprise that his posts (brief ones, both of them) focus on making things simple.

I thought of fic, naturally: Write one sentence. Or one paragraph. That's how, maybe, you could start something.

On a related note, are there any creativity or inspiration blogs people find useful? I am so torn on them (& books on similar topics)--a lot of the time I read them & cringe, either because they seem rather out of touch w/how a lot of people live, or because they just seem... embarrassingly hippy-dippy (though I appreciate that this reaction could mean that this is just what I need!).

Then again, I have the same reaction to Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way--& I've abandoned lots of things she suggests, because they just don't feel right to me. But 750 Words is based on one of her ideas, & I absolutely would not be here writing fic w/o that site & doing that practice.

Like most other things, I guess it's just about finding the gold among the dross. So! Anyone have any relevant sites they like?

Comments

[charamei]

I have a similar love-hate relationship with Holly Lisle as you seem to with Julia Cameron. She's got some brilliant advice in her articles, about everything from the nitty-gritty of writing to the importance of slogging through the bits you're not enjoying. I adore her one-pass editing technique. But she has a tendency to present her way of writing as The One Way and to make the rules sound far more rigid than they actually are, so she's best taken with a pinch of salt and a lot of self-knowledge about what works for you and what doesn't. I certainly wouldn't recommend her to a new writer who was just developing a unique voice; I suspect she'd be stifling.

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, that article about editing looks really useful (even if I shrink it down to shortfic-size ;). But yeah, sounds like it would be the most helpful once you have some idea of how to tweak the system so it really works for your own style.

One of the things about Julia Cameron that bugs me is the implicit assumption that she's writing to an audience of people w/money. She mentions taking yourself on "artist's dates" & says that they don't have to cost a lot of money--you can just drive to a new town or spend $5 at the dollar store, etc.--but I know people for whom finding enough gas money is a problem, & for whom sometimes $5 is a lot of money, y'know? I just wish she'd spend less time talking about how she takes 30-minute cab rides in Manhattan & also drives cross-country to her second home & more time offering suggestions that are more widely applicable. < / rant>

I seem to be landing on a lot of general creativity blogs lately--people offering advice on ideas/moving forward w/projects/etc. that aren't specifically fiction (crafts, art, etc.). & ... I dunno. Maybe my cynicism about self-affirmations or whatever means I ought to give them a go, heh.

[lacygrey]

Other sites on creativity...43 folders hes some interesting stuff, although its not very organised so you need to root around.

I did Artists Way a while back. There is a lot in it, but I don't remember much: artist date, morning pages, monsters, god jar... And the fact that is was organised like an addiction recovery program. I followed it with a very lively email group (as I said, it was a while back!), there was a lot of discussion and occasional rounds of flaming!

I think the Artist's Way tries to be everything to everybody, which is why it was so popular and why to any single person many of the things will seem irrelevant. I gave my copy away to a friend in in the end. I must still have my notes somewhere though: What would your eight-year-old self have to say to you now? etc.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, interesting! So that 43 Folders is specifically geared towards creativity combined w/the GTD system (something I have often thought about implementing, buuuut... never got off my butt to do ;_; ). I will have to dig around there--as you say, it's not organized v. well--but thank you for the link!

I find some of the exercises in the Artist's Way to be useful, & some of them make me cringe--I think the thing for me is to find out which ones make me cringe b/c they bump up against my insecurities (& thus maybe I should take a deep breath & try them), & which make me cringe b/c they're just not how I work/not useful for me.