Craft Your Content - Those moments of happiness.

Welcome to The Writing Rundown, a weekly newsletter that offers advice, short essays, and reading suggestions to help driven writers (like you) 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: 3 minutes

“When he left the hardware store with the order inside his suitcase, he felt that all moments of happiness, large and small, deserved to be projected into a town square.” ― María José Ferrada, How to Order the Universe

Elisa’s Thought for the Week

In the interest of the time I’m sure no one has available for the next 3 newsletters, we’re going to be paring back this essay section so you can focus on the other parts of The Writing Rundown … and then get back to eating latkes or decking halls or laying the Mkeka or whatever you choose to celebrate with. Merry Happy ChrismaKwanzaKkah my friends!

What You Missed on Craft Your Content …

Our articles have the same mission we do — to help you to make your own words even better!

• As we come up on the final push for the end-of-year holidays, here are 70 Gifts for Writers that I pulled together in 2022 that you won’t find on a ton of other lists.
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• ​Set your calendar for a big announcement on Monday, December 23rd at 12PM EST.

In Other Reading This Week …

Need more insights and inspiration for your writing and mindset?
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• Want to ask yourself some questions to determine if that 2023 writing goal is right for you? Seth Godin put together a nice quick list of some questions to help you figure that out.
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• I’m a big fan of breaking big changes down into small steps, something many of us struggle with because they don’t feel like enough. Kayleigh Moore suggests you frame them as tiny wins to help your brain reframe.
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• Did you know there are 7 types of rest? I definitely didn’t, but after reading this actually in-depth article from Megan Liscomb on Buzzfeed, I’m going to be working it into my next year.
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• ‘Tis the season…for holiday meals and standard dishes. I love this oldie-but-a-goodie rehash from Ann Handley on the marketing lessons we can learn from green bean casserole.​
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• It can be easy to feel, as a writer, that we intellectually need to engage in every discussion we are invited into. Which is why Anne-Laure Le Cunff offers this advice on how to spot weak arguments before you even get into them.

Weekly Writing Tip …

A quick chance to learn from the masters.

“I always kept two books in my pocket: one to read, one to write in.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

Untranslatable …

Exquisite words from other languages.

Seldcūth [SELD-koo-th] (adj.) – This Olde English word means something strange and unfamiliar, that you still feel an overwhelming sense of wonder and awe about. It’s nearly obsolete at this point, and literally means “rarely known.” Sorta synonyms: stupendous, novel, marvelous, inspiring, special, state-of-the-art

This Week’s Writing Prompt …

We often do our thinking when we write.

What holiday traditions have you kept from childhood? What new holiday traditions have you created as an adult?

For the Upcoming Week …

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

It's important to have good personal and professional support systems.

Cheers ~