Stream of Guilty Conscienceness

A couple of days ago my writer-friend Mike Dunne read a blog entry titled, "10 Questions on Becoming a Better Writer". Impressed by Ramona's words of wisdom, Mike wrote an entry at his blog about Ramona's blog, and posted a link to it on his FB page. He described Ramona like this,   "...author, editor, instructor, and knight in shining armor." 

I agree. Ramona DeFelice Long is an experienced & professional editor, talented author and teacher-of-author-master-classes, and some time life coach. Her public readings are flawless. Totally enjoyable! Her advice to authors tends to be succinct & penetrating. If I could afford her, I would ask her to be my writing guru.

Now might be a good time for you to check Ramona's blog entry even if you're not an author. Here's the first of her ten questions,
"What one skill—if improved—would make you a better writer?"
So, you're not an author? Substitute an activity that's important to you, in which you have invested a sizable chunk of time. Answer this question and the rest. And don't ignore the self-revelation.

By the time I answered Ramona's last question, I was convicted of the most inexcusable sin in writing. Willful manuscript neglect. (cringe) I've had my share of writer's block in my time--more than my share when it comes t0 the G&B behemoth--but Tree House Tales has never once blocked me. It deserves better. Likewise Marooned, once Caprice freed the manuscript and me from our semi-permanent stasis. 

I confessed in Comments,
"I enjoyed your no nonsense, no wiggle room approach. You combine focused advice with a wide range of applicability. I might have liked the entry even more if I could have closed your page & blithely resumed my three weeks long website reconstruction.*

"I do need a decent website but my first commitment should be final pre-pub revisions of both “Marooned” (new Narenta novel) and my “Tree House Tales” anthology.
[My goodness! For months, my email sig read, "Tree House Tales" forthcoming later this summer--until I changed it to 'later this year'.] 

"Playing with The Scroll Chamber has been fun but Writer Vacation is over. Time to hit the books. Thanks for the course correction!     TreeLady"     
(I posted this to MD's FB page as well.)

Convicted of manuscript neglect, I read Ramona's ten suggestions on how I might best rehabilitate myself. Only about half of the strategies fit and were possible but that was more than enough! No more wasting  h/o/u/r/s  d/a/y/s  weeks on website construction!

With a renewed sense of author purpose, I closed both R's blog & M's FB page, and began again...

Maybe THIS time I'll finally create a blog that people will read! *


* Cue Ramona's voice in my head, "Did you hear nothing I said?"