Do not leave a live dragon out of your calculations.

Welcome to The Writing Rundown, a weekly newsletter that offers advice, short essays, and reading suggestions to help driven writers improve their writing craft. It's nice to see you here! If someone forwarded you this email because they love your writing, you can subscribe here.

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Elisa’s Thought for the Week

How absolutely out-of-this-world is it that I am writing this newsletter to you in December?

December!

It feels like just last month it was June.

(Or, if you've had a 2022 like me, it might feel like it has been 8 years since June, but who's counting?)

The thing about this time of year is that it lends itself to reflection and rumination.

Reflection = Good
Rumination = Not-good-in-fact-it-drags-you-into-a-spiral-of-angst-and-yuck-so-ahhhhhhh

While I've not always been great at annual planning, one thing I have consistently done in my years of writing is taking time to sit with my writing life and think about the past year.

Notice how I said writing life, not just writing?

Because even though you are a writer, you are more than a writer.

And every single thing that happens in your head, in your heart, in your body, and in the world around you will affect your writing.

The place you write in. The process you use. The people you spend your time with. The ability your body has to sit for hours on end staring at a blinking cursor on a screen and attempting to punch words out of your shaking-in-frustration fingers.

Do you know what your past year has been? What you'd keep? What you'd like to change? The good, the bad, and the not-good-in-fact-it-drags-you-into-a-spiral-of-angst-and-yuck-so-ahhhhhhh?

In Other Reading This Week …

Need more insights and inspiration for your writing and mindset?​
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• I'm a person who likes slow living and deep thinking, but sometimes we want (or need) time to move a bit faster. Gino Silva-Payne has 11 ways to speed up time on Email Meter.
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• It can be a struggle as a freelancer, figuring out what to share with your clients and what to keep private. So how do you pitch a LGBTQ+ publication when you are a straight-passing bisexual? Dana Miranda explores that exact quandry over on I Like to Dabble.
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• As we come into the season of X Under XX lists and articles, it's good to remember that it isn't over if you didn't do it early. Like Anne Henriksen, who traded decades driving taxis for a professional sculpture studio.​
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• Once you've been able to push time forward, why not take Jason Vu Nguyen's advice and slow down to find the JOMO in life.​
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• If you are a grown-up full adulting human, you've likely fallen victim to burnout at some point. But did you know there are 3 types of burnout? Melody Wilding explains what they are, and how to avoid (or recover) over on Harvard Business Review.

Weekly Writing Tip …

A quick chance to learn from the masters.

“Nature fits all her children with something to do, he who would write and can't write, can surely review.” ― James Russell Lowell

Untranslatable …

Exquisite words from other languages.

Growlery [GROWL-er-ee] (n.) English word from 1853 (actually from Charles Dickens’ Bleak House) — it is a place you retreat to for the purposes of growling, muttering, and letting off steam. Sorta synonyms: rage club, mantuary, anger room

This Week’s Writing Prompt …

We often do our thinking when we write.

Do you review your year as a writer? What sort of information and statistics do you collect? Or do you not focus on metrics at all? How do you share it — with anyone, or a select few, or just yourself?

For the Upcoming Week …

Because we all need a good chuckle to start things off right!

Ok, but I only burn with flames to chase down tiny baby frogs occasionally.

Cheers ~