Last fall I was looking for some podcasts to add to my listening arsenal and came across the Writing Excuses podcast. This is a weekly show that is only 15-20 minutes long so it can be handled quickly. There are several hosts, all of whom are published writers from a variety of fields. They have also brought in guest authors to join the weekly panel and have done Q&A episodes using listener questions.

Each week the team brings you discussion on a specific topic related to writing, editing or getting your work published. Every episode also includes a “book of the week” and they finish with a writing prompt and the instructions that “you’re out of excuses, now go write!” I need to stop listening to this one in the car on my way to work so that I can actually follow that instruction as soon as I’m finished listening to each episode.

While not every topic may be related to what you are writing about at the moment, it’s great to hear experienced authors talk about their craft and know that they have overcome hurdles and challenges in their careers. It’s also nice to hear them speak candidly about writing as a career and understand that it’s not all sunshine and roses to be a “professional writer.”

All in all, I highly recommend Writing Excuses for anyone serious (or even not so serious) about being a writer.

I mentioned in my post last week that I had been getting help and support from a writer’s group. I firmly believe in the importance of finding a group of people similar to you, but different enough to provide diverse opinions. I say it’s “my” group only in that I’m a member. No one person truly “owns” the group since it is a collaborative effort.

Chance Meeting
I actually had the benefit of finding this group on LinkedIn last fall. A fellow writer put the group together which consists of 5-10 writers. We connect via a Google Group and generally review one story each week. The make-up of the group has changed a bit over the past 6 months and it’s kind of nice to get different viewpoints from a variety of sources.

One of the problems that I have with my stories is figuring out when they are “finished.” The last story that I gave to this group for their feedback was one that I couldn’t figure out a good ending for. Because it was my turn to submit a story, I had to give them something so I lopped off the last several paragraphs of my story, left it at a place where it could end, but with sort of a cliffhanger, and threw it out to the group.

Crippling Fear!
I’m often a bit hesitant to send out my writing. I have that fear that I think most writers face of being told that it’s terrible, that I should give up writing and stick with something I’m good at.

But perhaps the real fear is that someone will tell me that it’s good.

Every time I’m encouraged, it adds to my personal pressure to continue to writer great material. I suppose that should be a good thing. I have recently been reading from a great blog about writing called Positive Writer. If you want to be, or already are, a writer, I highly encourage you to check out his work. You will not be disappointed and it may help you get off your butt and start writing.

Pleasantly Surprised
Needless to say, much of the feedback I’ve received from my writing workshop group has been positive. Even when the other writers are not entirely thrilled with my writing, they offer their feedback in a constructive way and explain WHY a certain part of my story is not working for them. If I intended it the way they took it, I can leave it as it is. If not, it’s something I can look at changing for the better.

When I initially joined the group, I thought back to my days in college when I took writing workshop classes. They were some of the most informative and enjoyable classes that I’ve ever taken and I have always wanted to find something like them for my writing. With this group I have found that place, and I am so thankful to everyone who participates in it with me.

I am pretty sure that I have written before about shifting perspectives and how I look at things in different ways as I age, but I ask that you indulge me with that topic once again.

I have written earlier this week on several topics that are difficult to nail down in terms of a specific definition.  Beauty, love, heroism, and leadership are all things that we think we know about, but when asked to define them, the answer is more often than not that we will “know them when we see them.”  I looked back at my own experiences in life and realized that I would have defined all of these things much differently 10 or 15 years ago than I do today and I owe that entirely to the things that I have seen and done.

Long ago I would have listed physical attributes as the only thing that could denote beauty, but I know now that inner beauty is so much better.

My thoughts on love haven’t changed too much over time, but have only strengthened.  I am able to understand that I love more things and why I love them that I may have when I was younger.

My heroes are certainly different today than they were in high school or even college and I understand today much more clearly what it truly means to be a hero.

Finally, leadership has probably changed the most in my mind.  As I wrote yesterday, leadership had long been about position in an organizational structure until my eyes were opened by leaders like John Maxwell.  I now understand that leadership is much more than just being a “manager” or “supervisor” of people and that one can lead from any position.

As you can see, my own personal thoughts about these different concepts have changed over the past several years.  I urge you to think about what you have experienced that has led to changes in your thinking over time.

I asked in a post back in August about the fascination of watching children.  I realized the other day that observing children learn and grow is one of my favorite things to do in the whole world.

Not only do children bring with them a level of innocence and curiosity, but the look on their faces when they figure something out on their own is amazing.  Watching kids process problems in their minds and work through to an answer is so rewarding.

This behavior in children is so inspiring to me and on a personal level it drives me every day to try and be better for my own children.  There is talk in the media lately that the current generation of children in America may be the first even to not live as long as their parents and not necessarily be better off than their parents.  I firmly believe that this is not the case and that our kids are smarter than we are and will make a better world, regardless of the card that they are dealt.

Go out and find a child to inspire you today.  Hopefully you already know one and don’t have to look too far…

So I have to credit Seth Godin with this again.

He posted a link on his blog yesterday to something called the Icarus Sessions.  He invites people around the world to meet up and share 140 seconds of what they are working on in their art.

I've already signed up to attend the one in Rochester on January 2nd once the location is figured out.  Check out the site and if you have something worth putting out to the world, find your nearest meeting place and join in "making a ruckus."

Let's try to change the world!

I'm trying to think of new and different muses.

It's tough always trying to be original.

With the millions of writers out there in the world, how do I keep my self original and differentiate my writing from everyone else?

What topics have you always wanted to read about but can never find writing on?