If you’re a writer, and you probably are if you’re reading this, you’ve heard the idea that we need to Protect The Work. Meaning, save your best self, your peak hours, for writing. Not talking to your mother on the phone. Not having lunch with girlfriends. And certainly not pursuing social media!
That is one reason why I never participated in a blog hop until this past week when I was lured in by a week of solitude. Because writers need friends too. And also, I got an iPad at Xmas and I am going to use it to read blogs during commercials on Nashville and Parenthood and Bones instead of magazines or newspapers or checking FB & email one more time.
Engaging in this hop introduced me to some great writing blogs and I’m not just talking about “learning your craft” stuff. I also really dig reading about new social media tools, practically painless self-promotion, and healthy writer reports. Also tarot, meditation, yoga, and self-care. There are blogs about all this stuff just out there waiting to be discovered.
Who needs The New York Times? I am a little bit mad at them because their e-version of the Sunday Book Review has way less reviews than the print version. Why? Makes no sense. Also let me buy Sunday only and share with my husband on his Kindle! Geez.
Strayed a tad off point, but all I’m really saying is I love having all those hoppers with links in this post and I am going to visit each and every one of them. I’ll be posting my favorites soon with links in Must-Read Blogs. Sometimes I forget that it is really fun to do new things and that the work can protect itself.
Cynthia Harrison 
You need to get alone to collect your thoughts and formulate your sentences… but you need to read and be read, too.
I love the camaraderie of my art group for this. We’re all working on our own things, but we experience each other’s work and share feedback and encouragement and just generally socialise. I feel it’s so much more enriching than chaining yourself up in the basement and being a martyr to your craft.
I look forward to seeing your must read blogs list.
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So wise John. I’m distracted so much, it’s part of who I am, that I find focusing in a challenge. To do so, sometimes I have to isolate. No music, no people, no nothing. Except I can take it to extremes–despite lots of stretching and yoga breaks, my back complained. Got that message loud and clear: time to get out of the house!
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