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Last year I declared that Saturday would be “Self-Care Saturday” — a day when I would do little to no work for my full-time job or my side hustle. But my Saturdays still have a to-do list, nonetheless.
Here are 7 things I think every writer should do every weekend.
Back in September, I challenged the women of the See Jane Write Collective to write their future writing bio, the bio that they would want someone to read before they took the stage to speak at their favorite conference. This was my attempt to get them to “write the vision and make it plain.” This future bio, I’d hoped, would give them a clear picture of what they wanted and where they were going, so then they could focus on figuring out how to get there.
For me, this year’s #bloglikecrazy challenge has been all about returning to the good old days of blogging when we bloggers blogged not for page views or for profit but simply because we couldn’t help ourselves. We wanted to create content and build community and that was enough. One of my favorite things from old-school blogging is the “Currently” feature, which you can find on many personal blogs.
Kristin Tweedale of the feminist scrapbooking blog Rukristin.com created the Currently List Journaling Challenge. The goal of the Currently List Journaling Challenge is to spend five minutes once a week telling your “right-now” story. Kristin even sells Currently journaling cards, stamps, and post-it pads to make the challenge easier and more fun.
So, today I’m sharing with you what I’m currently watching, reading, listening to, making, feeling, planning, and loving.
I remember posting a graphic on Instagram once that simply said, “Stop scrolling. Start writing.”
As with every admonishment I post on my blog or on social media, it was meant more for myself than my IG followers. So often, I open Instagram, telling myself I’m just going to scroll for five minutes and then get captivated by compelling captions and interesting images or get lost in a loop of IG stories and find myself still in the app 30 minutes later!
But what if we went to Instagram not just as an escape, but also for inspiration? What if we started using images, quotes, captions, and even videos as writing prompts?
One of the things I admire most about the young people I teach is their willingness to use those voices while they’re still finding their voices. We grownups are often afraid to speak our minds because we fear that we might one day change our mind or simply because we fear what others may think. But we should be much more afraid of what will happen if we stay silent.
Here are five ways you can use your words to make a difference.