Real Words

I love being part of great blog carnivals that bring posts about writing together in one place. I’ve got two posts in recent blog carnivals. The other posts at those carnivals should be of interest to you if you’re a writer. Both of the posts were designed to inspire writers.

The first one is for a really inspiring blog carnival called a carnival of inspirational quotations. I love all of the inspiring words that are linked to here! The post that I included was Digging Deep Down Inside of Ourselves which includes quote that has resonated with me for years. Other posts in this blog carnival were contributed by Rough Fractals, Enhance Life, Parasites of the Mind, ManyHeavyThoughts, tarot13, GeekMBA360, Lady Green, Jody Fransch, Jacob Duchaine, OhMishka, Pet Chatter, Hammarskjold Blog and Raw Living.

The other post here that was recently included in a blog carnival here was Valuing What We Write Well which was included at the Carnival of Beginning Writers. It’s in the inspiration category along with posts on finding good ideas, doing creative writing exercises and muscle building in your writing. Other categories in the blog carnival included writing experience, giving opinions, samples from poems and short stories. There was also specific advice on topics including article submission, yoga for bloggers, and writers’ websites.

Happy reading!

As mentioned earlier this week, most of my news about blog carnivals is going to be featured over at my new blog – Diary of a Smart Chick. What I’m doing over there is commenting on all of my various work around the web which is something that might be of interest to other writers who also write on a diverse range of different topics.

Real Words is returning to be just a blog about writing and the process of writing and what it’s like to live a writer’s life. But part of living a writer’s life is indeed – at least for me – submitting posts about writing to blog carnivals as a means of networking and sharing work with other writers. So those writing posts that come from this blog that end up on blog carnivals will indeed get mentioned here in the hopes that other writers will find those links interesting.

There were two posts of mine that were from this blog that were lucky enough to be included at blog carnivals this week. My thoughts on valuing what we write well were included in the Mad Editor’s Round-Up alongside other writing tips on things like writer’s block, writing from the heart, perfectionism and finding good ideas. My links to hundreds of resources for writers was part of the Writing Success blog carnival with loads of other great posts on writing.

It is my hope that writers who read my blog will be interested in the posts about writing that are at many different blogs – both new and established. I think it is through reading other people’s thoughts on writing that we clarify our own thoughts on our chosen work. What do you think?

Some of my posts were found around the web this week at various blog carnivals. Here’s a summary of that:

ON WRITING:

• My set of tips for Writing Timely Blog Posts was included at the How to Write Successfully blog carnival. Other good posts there were on blog commenting, internet book marketing, writer’s block, first books and writing down your ideas.
• My opinion on A Writer’s Weekends was included in the Just Write blog carnival. Other good ones here were on status writing, fantasy writing, bad writing, sentence construction, finding a voice, and selling self-published books.
• My 20 Great Things About Dating a Writer was part of a blog carnival about health, fitness and dating along with loads of other posts on those topics.
• My ideas of Things to Write on Valentine’s Day was part of the Make it from Scratch blog carnival. Another good one here was on making scented paper.
• My memories of Writing to Pen Pals were included at Blogger’s Best. Other notable posts here were on multi-tasking, life’s valuable moments and coming out of the broom closet.
• My Hundreds of Resources for Writers was part of the ThatsBlog carnival along with posts on making money blogging, choosing a domain name and using Twitter.
• My 25 Ways to Get Links to your Blog was part of the “bring more traffic to your blog” carnival. Other good posts here were on things like driving traffic, internet marketing, forum marketing and micro blogging.

ON MONEY:

• My article on 15 Good Things to Come out of the Bad Economy was included in the Personal Finance News blog carnival and the Rich Life blog carnival.
• My article on Things you Can Re-Sell was part of a great Festival of Frugality blog carnival.
• My personal budget tips were included as part of the Solid Planning Tips carnival. Another good one here was on starting a scrapbooking business. This same post was at the Carnival of Bankruptcy and Debt Management.

ON OTHER STUFF:

• My article on Dog Aggression was included in the Puppy in Training blog carnival along with lots of other great posts about dogs. I also had a post on Top Ten Dog Breeds that was part of the Carnival of Family Life where there are tons of great family posts.
• My suggestions for Irish Drinks for Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day was part of the Weekend Eats carnival.
• My article on EcoCities was part of the All Things Eco blog carnival. Other good green posts here were on laptops, community building and exercise.
• My design article on Choosing a Kitchen Island was part of the Home Improvement Carnival.
• My travel article on Metro Manila, Philippines was part of the Carnival of Cities. There’s another great post there on NOLA book stores.
• My health information on menstrual spotting was included at Advice for Women from Women along with posts on families, fitness, finances and spirituality.
• My tips for getting a picky toddler to eat were over at Good Parenting.
• My guide to safely losing weight with diet pills was part of the Weight Master carnival.

Regular readers should note that this will be the last week that a full list of my blog carnival activity will be posted on Real Words. In the future, I’m planning to stick to only listing the activity of my articles on writing here. Other blog carnival activity will be posted on my newest blog, Diary of a Smart Chick. More news about that blog to follow soon.

I’ve been lucky to be included in a lot of really great blog carnivals this week. Take a look:

My Writing Posts:

• My post on Reasons to Date a Writer was part of the Everything Worth Reading Carnival. Cool posts from that carnival include those on public speaking, love poems, blogging and stress.
• My Thoughts on Revealing your Writing Rates were included in the Make Money Blogging Carnival along with a whole slew of others posts on important blogging topics such as google adsense, word press, site indexing, niche marketing, keywords, Twitter and other social media. This same post was included in the carnival of struggling bumbling newbies.
• My opinion on A Writer’s Weekends was part of the business freelance writing carnival along with posts on article writing, book writing and marketing, doing reviews, building a portfolio and even some thoughts on defamation.
• My links to Hundreds of Resources for Writers were included on the Free the Internet carnival. Other interesting posts there were on blogging, eHow, search engine optimization, meta tags, web hosting and web traffic.

My Posts on Freelance Taxes:

• My Freelance Tax Writeoff Tips were included on a huge carnival of government and money under the tax situation alongside other tax topics such as tax software reviews, tax preparation, tax filing and tax refunds.
• My Freelancer’s Guide to Important Tax Deductions was in the Working at Home Blog Carnival. It was featured in the business section of the blog carnival along with some great posts on IT careers during the recession, budgeting software, passive income, marketing optimism and entrepreneurs. This carnival also had posts on many other topics including home organization, investment, filing taxes, choosing good opportunities, setting goals, business book writing and marketing, article writing, email interviews, health care, Roth IRAs, productivity , frontier living, making money online (and getting paid), computer inventions, teleseminars and even VoIP (a topic I used to write about).

Other Posts:

• My Ideas for Sticking to a Personal Budget were featured in the budgeting section of a personal finance carnival along with posts on the economy, scholarships and tracking living expenses. This money blog carnival also had posts on economics, financial planning, home financing, income, debt and spending.

Okay, okay so I constantly post announcements that stuff from this blog has been included in a blog carnival somewhere else on the web. It’s true – I have a serious love of the blog carnival. I particularly like blog carnivals about writing because I feel like they provide me with an opportunity to explore the great writing tips and thoughts that come from other people around the blogosphere who are interested in the craft that I call my career.

And sure enough, my recent post on the importance of exposing yourself to creativity in all forms has been included in a new blog carnival over at Distiller’s Corner. I particularly love this blog carnival because it’s a carnival of beginning writers which means that the theme is to give advice and thoughts to new writers. Of course, this advice often turns out to serve as great reminders for established writers as well.

Advice that came out of this blog carnival ran the gamut of topics including basic plot writing, developing a character’s voice, use of organizational tools and journals, being persistent and persuasive and passionate, and tips on working from home. In addition to this advice, there were samples of people’s writing on a range of things including family vacations, drawing and life in the future.

There are a lot of great writers contributing to carnivals like this one so I hope you’ll check them out.

And although it’s not a blog carnival, I’d like to point out that my recent post on reasons to date a writer was included in a fun roundup of Valentine’s Day writing posts that also included posts of Valentine’s presents, the business of freelancing and the value of loving what you do. Great stuff!

I recently pointed out that posts from this blog were included in a couple of blog carnivals on writing. And it turns out that the fun wasn’t done yet because another post of mine turned up in two more blog carnivals this week.

The Diary of a Mad Editor blog does a blog carnival which included a post I wrote recently on the importance of exposing yourself to other forms of creativity even though writing may be your main form of creative self-expression. My post was in good company with some other writers on this blog that you may find worthwhile to check out. My post was under the writing tips category which also included thoughts on the importance of routines as well as thoughts on protecting your reputation. Three additional posts in this blog carnival were an interview with Samuel Shem (which is actually a pen name used by psychiatrist / author Stephen Bergman), thoughts on the death of Rumpole creator John Mortimer, and info on the use of Twitter as a freelancer.

That same blog post of mine was also part of the Fiction Scribe blog carnival. It was one of only two posts in the “writing tools” category; the other was on using controversy in marketing. There was one post each in the categories of humor, poetry and true life stories. Interestingly, Diary of a Mad Editor (from the carnival listed above) had several contributions included in this carnival. Other contributors with multiple submissions were RayRay’s Writing and Gal Josefsberg. Other individual submissions worthy of note included minimalist writing tips, thoughts on deriving ideas, tips for selling books on a blog and fiction samples from Pandora Parker, Steve Likes to Curse, Mixed Metaphor and Cold Snapdragon.

Those two blog carnivals were the ones that would probably interest writers most but I have another article of mine included in a third blog carnival – this one on the topic of home design. I write weekly articles over at Houzz.com about different design stuff and one of my articles (on stairways) was included in the blog carnival at ABC’s of Fine Design. People who are interested in interior design may want to check out the other posts at the carnival which included posts on decorating bathrooms, nurseries and the outdoors (including lawn care). There were also tips on making your home smell good, organizing in a small space, using light and decorating to sell your home. Plus there was a cool post on chairs, a topic which I’ve also written about recently.

Hope you enjoy these blog carnivals as much as I did!