Sound Writing Advice from Taylor Swift

This half-hour long video of Taylor Swift meeting with some young kids discussing reading and writing is filled with sound advice for any writer of any genre. Taylor partnered with Scholastic to provide 25,000 new books for NYC schools. Taylor then donated her time to do this webcast with these great kids.

This webcast is worth every minute of it's short 30-minute length and I highly suggest all writers listen to and watch the video.

A few of my favorite quotes from the webcast are:

"Journaling is what made me discover that I loved poetry and poetry is so close to song writing in concept."

"Writing your feelings down simplifies them."

"If you make writing something you look forward to, who knows where it will take you? Who knows if you'll start to think about story lines and you'll decide that you want to write a book someday?"

"There are so many things you can discover about yourself if you write."

If you're a writer now or if you're thinking about writing, you need to watch this video. Pause and repeat. Take notes (I did).

What amazes me about Taylor Swift is her utter lack of fear. She writes about those who hurt her, turning it into something for her instead of about her. In many ways I've been afraid to write about personal experiences because so many negative, horrible things happened to me in ministry as my husband and I have worked over 32 years for the furtherance of the Gospel.

Maybe other pastor's wives would benefit from knowing they aren't alone in experiencing vicious gossip, slander or people lying to them and about them. Maybe it's time to tell these stories.

Maybe it's high time this little gramma became as fearless as a young song writer who, through comforting herself in her trials, turned it into something amazing that benefits the entire world.

Click here to watch the entire webcast.

~Tricia

Comments

Top Ten Most Common Edits - 2

My #2 most common edit is "toward." The vast majority of my clients use "towards" instead of "toward," as in, "Walking towards the entrance..." I correct this every time because in the US, where we use what is commonly called American English, the preferred choice is "toward," as in single. "Towards" is more commonly used in UK English and Australian English, as noted on Grammarly . In the USA, it's best to say, "Walking toward the entrance...." So, while "towards" is acceptable in other countries, for the US and Canada, "toward" is a much better choice. Keep moving toward good grammar! Write well. Write often. Just write. ~Tricia

Overcoming Failure - Part 1

Every writer has failures. Without exception. Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times before he was finally able to get And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street published by Vanguard Press in 1937. Search other famous authors and you will find they were all rejected at some point. Famed author Amanda Hocking came to my writing class with a thick folder full of rejection letters. When she, in class, learned about self-publishing and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing , she published her own work. Soon, after selling over 1 million copies, she got the attention of some of the largest publishing houses. Then they fought for her. They could fight for you one day. In my book, Writing for Publication , I give 6 ways to overcome rejection and failure in your writing. My next 6 blog posts will each highlight one of these techniques. Appreciate your Own Talent If you know you are a good writer and if you have something valid to say, appreciate that in yourself...

Book Review: Hillbilly Elegy

This book, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, describes my life so well it's eerie. I was born in Middletown, OH, into a Hillbilly Elegy . Some of the stories J.D. Vance told in this book could have been my own. Like Vance, I worked my entire life to overcome and rise above my Hillbilly Elegy. I wanted something more than the despair and unreasonable use of alcohol I saw all around me growing up. Fortunately for me, only half my family had the full Hillbilly Elegy in force. My mother and my maternal grandmother defied the odds of their Hillbilly Elegy by rising above it and insisting on more civilized behavior, which resulted in a more civilized lifestyle. Neither of them drank alcohol, even though both their husbands did. I don't recall my maternal grandfather ever drinking in their house and I would be hard pressed to remember ever seeing a beer in their refrigerator. It was an unspoken truth, known by everyone in the family, that my grandmother did not tolerate drinking in ...

Search This Blog