Reading time: About 4 minutes
The tuxedos, the fancy ball gowns and the red carpet: what else could it be but the peak of the awards season, the Oscars? I’m not wearing Swarovski crystals to present these awards for the best articles or pots I read this month. But on the upside, there are only 10 categories, and you should be able to read this post in about four minutes. Heck, even if you clicked on and read every single link embedded in here, it would take you less time than 20% of the entire Oscar event.
Best blog post
Senior editor for the blog Literary Hub and a published author — her first novel, The Lightness, will coming out later this year — Emily Temple (@knownEmily) had a timely idea for her Feb. 7/20 blog post. She turned it into an Academy Awards section for books. In fact, it was her column that inspired my approach to the post you’re reading here. By the way, I second Temple’s choices of Sally Rooney for Normal People, Elizabeth Strout for Olive, Again and Ben Lerner for The Topeka School as “Best Novel.” Check out her entire list, here.
Best health advice
If you’re like most writers, you drink a lot of caffeine. Noted author Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) (Cooked/How to Change Your Mind) has just released a new audiobook on the subject and I heard him interviewed by NPR’s inimitable Terry Gross (@nprfreshair) on the Fresh Air podcast. If you want to learn more about the benefits and detriments of caffeine — and discover how its half-life might undo your sleep, be sure to listen to this highly engaging 35-minute interview (if you want to hear the interview, click the blue link at the top saying “35-minute listen” or, you can read the show notes just below.) My husband, who desperately wants to restore his sleep is considering a caffeine-fast as a result of this interview.
Best setting
Where do you do your writing? Ann Janzer (@AnneJanzer) caught my eye when she wrote about airline seats — my favourite place to write for the last 20 years. She suggests replicating this environment at home by limiting connectivity and adding background noise, both of which are great ideas, both of which I do almost daily.
Best documentary
Do you ever worry about privacy? I know I do. I don’t like the way Big Brother is able to build a data file on me. As a result, I’m careful of the tracking I’ll permit my cellphone to do and I’m now trying to opt out of anything that allows other people to track me (for example, my grocery store.) But I’d never thought that my Kindle purchases might reveal a great deal about my tastes and my reading habits. (Well, d’uh, of course they would!) Piotr Kowalcyzk (@geekowalczyk) has a fascinating post on this topic in the Feb 10 issue of the blog E-book Friendly. In addition to letting Kindle know which books I’m reading, it had never occurred to me that they will also be able to track my mother tongue, how often I read, when I read, and whether I’m sensitive to price. Argh!!
Best editing
A columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, writer and editor Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) often offers terrific advice on her award-winning blog. She outdid herself in a recent post under the headline, “Here’s a System and Template for Tracking Your Submissions.” Jane begins her post in this way: “Throwing your new manuscript into the query trenches can be an exhilarating but nerve-crushing experience. I use a systematic and business-like approach to help take the sting out of rejections and keep me focused on moving forward with querying.” I find her spreadsheet — and the detailed instructions she provides for creating it — as well as her recommendation to create separate email folders to be fantastically helpful.
Best sound mixing
Editor and writer Shayla Raquel (@shaylaleeraquel) published a February blog post by author and software engineer Dustin Maxey (@dustin_maxey). In his post under the headline, “Make editing fast and fun in 2020 by editing out loud,” Maxey suggested using text-to-speech to read your work aloud to yourself. I’ve suggested this idea to others for better proofing, but after reading Maxey’s argument, I can see how it would also lead to better editing. I also liked the way he provided the same suggestion to his beta readers, making their job easier, too. Brilliant!
Best (non)production design
Scott Young (@ScottHYoung) has built a career on challenging himself in provocative ways. First, he tried to learn MIT’s 4-year computer science curriculum without taking any classes, and then he stopped speaking English for a year as he worked to learn four languages. Such focus is not only remarkable but also exhausting, so I was intrigued to read his blog post under the headline: “Seven Habits that Seem Lazy (But Actually Let You Get More Done).” My favourite of his seven tips? Perhaps predictably it is “taking long walks just to think.” But “Actually getting enough sleep,” comes a close second.
Best supporting actor
I’m a longtime fan of Austin Kleon, (@austinkleon) a self-described “writer who draws” and a New York Times bestselling author of three books including Steal Like An Artist. I discovered an older post of his, recently, when following the backlinks through a February column. Headlined, “We are verbs, not nouns,” the piece offers a profound meditation on the value and importance of doing and creating. As Kleon puts it: “So many people think you have to first call yourself an artist, know who you are and what you’re about, and then you can start making art. No, no, no. You do the stuff first, then you can worry about what it is, who you are. The important thing is the practice. The doing. The verb.”
Best supporting actress
Carol Tice (@TiceWrites) is a freelance writer based in Seattle who offers a great, practical blog under the title Make a Living Writing. A recent post of hers — about writing conferences taking place in 2020 — will help any writers who have some sort of travel budget and an interest in networking with other writers and, in particular, agents. Did you know that a writing conference can be a great place to meet an agent? Many conferences even offer opportunities to make brief pitches to agents, in a sort of speed-dating like setting. One of my clients found his agent this way!
Red carpet highlight
Have you heard about the controversy surrounding the novel American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins? The book — an apparent page-turner about the Mexican immigrant experience — had earned a seven-figure advance and many laudatory pre-reviews. And a spot on Oprah’s book club. But when the book landed in stores, other writers began suggesting that a non-Mexican, non-migrant wasn’t entitled to tell this story. Publisher Flatiron Books ended up releasing a ham-fisted apology which only served to fan the flames of the controversy. I do modest amounts of crisis-communications work myself, so I was very interested to read a sophisticated analysis of the issue by Christina Hennessy (@Throughliners) on the excellent Throughline Communications blog. Read this post before you make your next apology!
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If you want to write your own book (or thesis or dissertation), consider applying to my Get It Done program. Applications for the March 1 entry date close this coming Friday, Feb. 21/20. To apply, go here, scroll to the very end of the page and select the bright green “click here to apply now” button.
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My video podcast last week gave advice for how to juggle the various tasks associated with writing a book. Or, read the transcript, and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. If you have a question about writing you’d like me to address, be sure to send it to me by email, Twitter or Skype and I’ll try to answer it in the podcast.
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What are the best blog posts you’ve read in the last month? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below. Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by Feb. 29/20 will be put in a draw for a copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!
