Blisscraft Life With Christina Katz

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Happy weekend, everyone!

Enjoy the last weeks of summer vacation.

I hope you will…

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I had to turn a writer down for phone coaching recently.

We all know that saying no isn’t always the most fun thing in the world to have to do, but the bottom line was that his needs and what I offer were not compatible.

So I said no and I felt perfectly okay about it.

In the past, I might have worried that I was hurting this writer’s feelings or that I should work with him because he asked me, even if it didn’t seem like the wisest choice for me.

But these days, I don’t have trouble making the wisest choices for me because I know these are the best choices for everyone.

If I am going to ask you to trust your instincts, then I’d better do it, too. Right?

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Feeling sluggish from all the down time this summer?

Wondering how you will ever get back to being as productive with your writing as you were last school year?

Well, never fear. Here are ten ways to wet your writing whistle before fall arrives:

1. Purge your office.

Lordy, I had no idea I was such a hoarder. I’ll tell you what you are going to need if you find yourself in the same boat as me–a really sturdy shredder. Mine has broken like three times already from all the overuse. I would get this one next time:

Or maybe even this one:

2. Redecorate your office.

I have not gotten this far yet because I’m still purging, but may I suggest inspiring posters from my Etsy shop? I am planning to use some in my office.

3. Buy yourself a fun or beautiful desktop object.

I have been wanting a red Swingline for a while now. I use a stapler regularly to attach my payments to my invoices, so it will be nice to have a snazzier one for this task.

4. Update your portfolio.

I do this on an ongoing basis and I find it keeps me abreast of my own work, since I am rather prolific. I have two types of portfolios: a hard copy binder of all my monthly articles and an online article bank for editors. If I don’t stay up to date on all my articles, who will?

5. Gather recent testimonials.

You’ve been seeing me posting weekly testimonials in this blog. I’m making that a habit for this year. I’ve got a steady stream of them pouring in. Why wouldn’t I share them with others?

6. Display your latest accomplishments.

I hang my latest articles on wires above my desk. I also put my books in shadow boxes and display my posters. If I don’t update what’s on display once in a while, it gets old quickly. This is the old view.

7. Make your office pet-happy.

We lost a beloved cat over the summer. We got three kittens last summer, anticipating that Devo would be going soon, but he decided to stick around another year. Now that he’s gone we are combining generations. Our 8-year-old rescue lost her best buddy (who we were keeping away from our kittens) and she  is now being integrated with a band of young hooligans. Needless to say, they are thrilled, but her not-so-much. It’s an adjustment, but every day they get a bit happier together. Oddly, all three kittens are getting along with our two dogs, maybe because the dogs have mellowed now that they are older. So we have a houseful of animals that almost all get along. Meanwhile our barn cat turned house cat has another litter of kittens on the way (she was already preggers when we rescued her and her kittens, which now all have homes). She is kept away from the fray for now. I guess my best advice for a low-energy office would be to get a kitten or two to keep you company. And don’t skimp on the cat towers, so they don’t take out their crazies on your furniture. You won’t be sorry!

Aspen acting like the boss of everyone, which he basically is.

8. Buy a new calendar or planner.

I usually use an academic wall calendar in the kitchen to keep track of everybody’s everything. This is an example of one I would typically like.

9. Back up computers and devices and update software.

Ugh. My least favorite task to do. But the one I celebrate being done with the most. I have a few backup hard drives and I also use the cloud. Pretty happy with both my Seagate (portable) and my G-drive (desktop).

10. Garden or spend time in nature.

I get a ton of writing inspiration when I’m out in my gardens. I am having a lot more fun in my garden again since I put down soaker hoses to keep everything hydrated during the dog days. If you don’t already have a built-in watering system and, like me, you are always creating new gardens, keep them looking their best all late summer and early fall.

The bottom line? Sometimes you have to make a mess to become more productive. My office is in shambles right now. But I have already filled the recycle bin four times!

We have to make room for new growth and the best way to do that is to cut away the old growth. I hope you will join me this last month of summer in getting ready for a big growth spurt come fall.

Share your de-cluttering stories in the comments if you like.

If you liked this post, I recently wrote another on “Paper-lovers, Practical Home Office Products To Inspire Your Next Organizational Update.” Check it out!

I also wrote “A Continuous Quest For Joy Is What My Creative Writing Process Is About,” which you can read here.

Thanks for reading! And thanks for sharing this post with fellow writers! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer Newsletter for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to start learning.

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There is probably nothing I offer that is as powerful as my one-on-one phone coaching sessions. Thanks to almost two decades in the writing and publishing business I can help you cut write to the most important aspects of your business and channel your enthusiasm into them. Learn more by clicking the badge below.

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One of the common refrains I am hearing this summer from my extremely productive students is, “Oh no, I’m not getting nearly as much writing done this summer as I did all year.”

Since many of my students are moms, and kids (and sometimes spouses) are home for the summer, this is not surprising.

I think they expect me to come at them, as I often do, with productivity tips. But instead I’m more inclined to say, “Let it go and enjoy the change of pace.”

Writing career growth is a spiral, not a sprint. And if you don’t allow yourself some time for your fields to run fallow, if you are always a slave to your to-do list, your nervous system is not going to reset itself in preparation for more growth.

The trick to growing your career is to learn new habits and apply them, while still applying the habits that you already have in your toolbox. But you don’t want your writing career to turn into slavish monotony.

So go ahead and read that trashy novel this summer. Buy fluffy magazines and flip through them on the beach. (You might be able to pick up lightly used magazines at your local book reseller for next to nothing.) If you usually read a lot of nonfiction, read some fiction. If you usually read fiction, read some nonfiction.

If you are always online, get offline. Take a break from compulsive social networking and rework your goals and dreams for the upcoming year. Remember who is in charge of your writing career success, and refine your vision of your hopes and dreams for your writing.

Summer is a great time to celebrate all that you have already accomplished, organize it, display it, and prepare for a whole new cycle of creative career growth.

But you won’t benefit from a break if you don’t take it.

Of course there is nothing wrong with working in the summer. Most successful entrepreneurs do not take the entire summer off. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs work more than folks with jobs.

However, recognize that summer is the time when you are supposed to take a step back and evaluate your progress thus far. Not the time to obsess and worry about all the ways you are not keeping up the intense pace from the rest of the year.

Working too much can become an addiction. You don’t want your creative work to become a compulsion and it’s not good for your career if it does. People who overwork are prone to illness. They also have trouble thinking for themselves because they don’t unplug from the group mind, which is more powerful than you may realize.

I support writing career success, but I also support work-family balance and individual happiness.

So, listen up—it’s summer. Step back a bit and smell the flowers. Take that walk on the beach. Try doing nothing. Cut back on your work schedule if you can and see what you notice when you do work.

I bet you will miss writing and that’s a good thing. I bet you will have fresh ideas you might not have had. I bet your long-term goals will start to come into focus in a way they might not have if you didn’t take a break.

Summer is not endless, it’s fleeting. Enjoy it. And come back to the keyboard refreshed.

~ Repost from July 23, 2013

Thanks for reading! And thanks for sharing this post with fellow writers! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer Newsletter for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to start learning.

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Thanks for reading! And thanks for sharing this post with fellow writers! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer Newsletter for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to start learning.

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I did not update this list last summer and it’s time. You can help by chiming in on movies you suggest from the past year and a half. Please make movie suggestions in the comments and I will review each suggestion.

Selection parameters:

• A main character in the film must be a writer. No ensembles in this list unless writing is central to the storyline.
• Only cinema movies are included. No TV movies.
• Only print journalism. No broadcast journalism in this list. Screenwriting and TV writing are both represented. Bloggers are included.
• Biographies or biopics about writers are listed. No documentaries are included.
• No academics as central characters, unless the character is a novelist or some other type of writer.
• Diaries are included, if the diary is part of the central part of the story.
• If a film is about a writer but is obscure or very unknown it may have been intentionally excluded.
• Films are listed in chronological order by release year.
• If a movie was re-released, then it is listed by its most recent release date.
• Suggestions for films to add are always welcome in the comments section when I post the annual update in my blog each year.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this list. We had fun pulling it together.

Enjoy!

1. Barrets of Wimpole St. (1934) LINK
2. It Happened One Night (1934) LINK
3. His Girl Friday (1940) LINK
4. The Philadelphia Story (1940) LINK
5. Foreign Correspondent (1940) LINK
6. Woman of the Year (1942) LINK
7. Old Acquaintance (1943) LINK
8. The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) LINK
9. It Happened Tomorrow (1944) LINK
10. The Lost Weekend (1945) LINK
11. Christmas in Connecticut (1945) LINK
12. The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) LINK
13. I Remember Mama (1948) LINK
14. Call Northside 777 (1948) LINK
15. The Third Man (1949) LINK
16. In a Lonely Place (1950) LINK
17. Sunset Boulevard (1950) LINK
18. Orpheus (1950) LINK
19. Ace in the Hole (1951) LINK
20. Hans Christian Andersen (1952) LINK
21. A Face In The Crowd (1957) LINK
22. Some Came Running (1958) LINK
23. Teacher’s Pet (1958) LINK
24. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) LINK
25. La Dolce Vita (1960) LINK
26. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) LINK
27. Through A Glass Darkly (1961) LINK
28. The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) LINK
29. Jules and Jim (1962) LINK
30. 8 ½ (1963) LINK
31. Contempt (1963) LINK
32. Youngblood Hawke (1964) LINK
33. A Man For All Seasons (1966) LINK
34. Color of Pomegranates (1968) LINK
35. The Odd Couple (1968) LINK
36. Man of La Mancha (1972) LINK
37. Sleuth (1972) LINK
38. The Way We Were (1973) LINK
39. Front Page (1974, originally 1931) LINK
40. All the Presidents Men (1976) LINK
41. The Front (1976) LINK
42. Julia (1977) LINK
43. Providence (1977)
44. Superman (1978) LINK
45. Stevie (1978) LINK
46. My Brilliant Career (1979) LINK
47. Manhattan (1979) LINK
48. Heart Beat (1980) LINK
49. Seems Like Old Times (1980) LINK
50. The Shining (1980) LINK
51. Somewhere in Time (1980) LINK
52. Reds (1981) LINK
53. Rich & Famous (1981) LINK
54. Priest of Love (1981) LINK
55. The World According to Garp (1982) LINK
56. Deathtrap (1982) LINK
57. Author! Author! (1982) LINK
58. My Favorite Year (1982) LINK
59. Missing (1982) LINK
60. Sophie’s Choice (1982) LINK
61. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) LINK
62. Cross Creek (1983) LINK
63. American Dreamer (1984) LINK
64. Romancing The Stone (1984) LINK
65. Irreconcilable Differences (1984) LINK
66. Just One of the Guys (1985) LINK
67. Out of Africa (1985) LINK
68. Mishima: A Life in 4 Chapters (1985) LINK
69. Heartburn (1986) LINK
70. Stand By Me (1986) LINK
71. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) LINK
72. 84 Charing Cross Road (1986) LINK
73. The Singing Detective (1986) LINK
74. Throw Mama From the Train (1987) LINK
75. Barfly (1987) LINK
76. Waiting for the Moon (1987) LINK
77. Prick Up Your Ears (1987) LINK
78. Best Seller (1987) LINK
79. Rowing With the Wind (1988) LINK
76. Funny Farm (1988) LINK
80. The Accidental Tourist (1988) LINK
81. Da (1988) LINK
82. Her Alibi (1989) LINK
83. My Left Foot (1989) LINK
84. Beautiful Dreamers (1990) LINK
85. An Angel at My Table (1990) LINK
86. Henry and June (1990) LINK
87. Misery (1990) LINK
88. Closetland (1991) LINK
89. Impromptu (1991) LINK
90. Barton Fink (1991) LINK
91. Naked Lunch (1991) LINK
92. Hedd Wynn (1992) LINK
93. The Player (1992) LINK
94. Basic Instinct (1992) LINK
95. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) LINK
96. The Pelican Brief (1993) LINK
97. So I Married An Ax Murderer (1993) LINK
98. The Dark Half (1993) LINK
99. Shadowlands (1993) LINK
100. Poetic Justice (1993) LINK
101. The Paper (1994) LINK
102. Bullets Over Broadway (1994) LINK
103. Paperback Romance (1994) LINK
104. Tom & Viv (1994) LINK
105. Little Women (1994) LINK
106. Il Postino: The Postman (1994) LINK
107. Mrs. Parker & The Vicious Circle (1994) LINK
108. Delta of Venus (1995) LINK
109. Total Eclipse (1995) LINK
110. The Flower of My Secret (1995) LINK
111. Leaving Las Vegas (1995) LINK
112. Carrington (1995) LINK
113. Delores Claiborne (1995) LINK
114. Smoke (1995) LINK
115. The Pillow Book (1996) LINK
116. The Whole Wide World (1996) LINK
117. Mother (1996) LINK
118. Hamsun (1996) LINK
119. The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca (1996) LINK
120. Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) LINK
121. Deconstructing Harry (1997) LINK
122. Henry Fool (1997) LINK
123. Wilde (1997) LINK
124. Chasing Amy (1997) LINK
125. One True Thing (1998) LINK
126. Shakespeare In Love (1998) LINK
127. A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998) LINK
128. Eternity and a Day (1998) LINK
129. Permanent Midnight (1998) LINK
130. A Murder of Crows (1998) LINK
131. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) LINK
132. Croupier (1998) LINK
133. Slam (1998) LINK
134. Les Enfants Du Siècle / The Children of the Century (1999) LINK
135. Topsy Turvey (1999) LIST
136. The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999) LINK
137. Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) LINK
138. Never Been Kissed (1999) LINK
139. The Best Man (1999) LINK
140. The End of the Affair (1999, originally 1955) LINK
141. The Muse (1999) LINK
142. True Crime (1999) LINK
143. Bamboozled (2000) LINK
144. Almost Famous (2000) LINK
145. Before Night Falls (2000) LINK
146. Joe Gould’s Secret (2000) LINK
147. Nora (2000) LINK
148. Pandaemonium (2000) LINK
149. Wonder Boys (2000) LINK
150. Finding Forrester (2000) LINK
151. Quills (2000) LINK
152. Isn’t She Great (2000) LINK
153. Prozac Nation (2001) LINK
154. Pinero (2001) LINK
155. Iris (2001) LINK
156. Moulin Rouge (2001) LINK
157. The Shipping News (2001) LINK
158. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) LINK
159. Bridget Jones Diary (2001) LINK
160. Storytelling (2001) LINK
161. Riding in Cars with Boys (2001) LINK
162. How to Kill your Neighbor’s Dog (2001) LINK
163. Orange County (2002) LINK
164. Possession (2002) LINK
165. The Hours (2002) LINK
166. Adaptation. (2002) LINK
167. Blue Car (2002) LINK
168. I Capture the Castle (2003) LINK
169. Alex & Emma (2003) LINK
170. Shattered Glass (2003) LINK
171. American Splendor (2003) LINK
172. As Good As It Gets (2003) LINK
173. Sylvia (2003) LINK
174. Cheaper By The Dozen (2003) LINK
175. Something’s Gotta Give (2003) LINK
176. Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) LINK
177. Swimming Pool (2003) LINK
178. Veronica Guerin (2003) LINK
179. The United States of Leland (2003) LINK
180. Notre Musique (2004) LINK
181. Before Sunset (2004) LINK
182. Sideways (2004) LINK
183. The Libertine (2004) LINK
184. Finding Neverland (2004) LINK
185. Motorcycle Diaries (2004) LINK
186. Secret Window (2004) LINK
187. The Door in the Floor (2004) LINK
188. La Tigre E La Neve / Tiger and the Snow (2005) LINK
189. The Dying Gaul (2005) LINK
185. The Squid and the Whale (2005) LINK
186. Capote (2005) LINK
187. The Prize-winner of Defiance Ohio (2005) LINK
188. Factotum (2005) LINK
189. Winter Passing (2005) LINK
190. Shadows In The Sun (2005) LINK
191. The Night Listener (2006) LINK
192. Stranger Than Fiction (2006) LINK
193. Scoop (2006) LINK
194. The TV Set (2006) LINK
195. The Hoax (2006) LINK
196. Infamous (2006) LINK
197. Half Light (2006) LINK
198. Miss Potter (2006) LINK
199. Ask the Dust (2006) LINK
200. Reprise (2006) LINK
201. The Lives Of Others (2006) LINK
202. Running with Scissors (2006) LINK
203. Love and other Disasters (2006) LINK
204. A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints LINK
205. Starting Out in the Evening (2007) LINK
206. Martian Child (2007) LINK
207. Slipstream (2007) LINK
208. Freedom Writers (2007) LINK
209. Becoming Jane (2007) LINK
210. A Mighty Heart (2007) LINK
211. Dan in Real Life (2007) LINK
212. Purple Violets (2007) LINK
213. Moliere (2007) LINK
214. In the Land of Women (2007) LINK
215. Zodiac (2007) LINK
216. Music and Lyrics (2007) LINK
217. 1408 (2007) LINK
218. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) LINK
219. Atonement (2007) LINK
220. 27 Dresses (2007) LINK
221. Roman De Gare (2007) LINK
222. Angel (2007) LINK
223. Resurrecting The Champ (2007) LINK
224. Sleuth (2007) LINK
225. The Kite Runner (2007) LINK
226. Margot At The Wedding (2007) LINK
227. Nim’s Island (2008) LINK
228. Marley & Me (2008) LINK
229. The Edge of Love (2008) LINK
230. The Stoning of Soroya M. (2008) LINK
231. Me and Orson Welles (2008) LINK
232. Burn After Reading (2008) LINK
233. Sex & The City: The Movie (2008) LINK
234. Good (2008) LINK
235. Funny People (2009) LINK
236. 500 Days of Summer (2009) LINK
237. Julie & Julia (2009) LINK
238. Gentleman Broncos (2009) LINK
239. Bright Star (2009) LINK
240. The Answer Man (2009) LINK
241. 2012 (2009) LINK
242. Motherhood (2009) LINK
243. Broken Embraces (2009) LINK
244. The Soloist (2009) LINK
245. World’s Greatest Dad (2009) LINK
246. The Last Station (2009) LINK
247. Cole (2009) LINK
248. The Boys are Back (2009) LINK
249. Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) LINK
250. Spoken Word (2009) LINK
251. Tetro (2009) LINK
252. State of Play (2009) LINK
253. Nine (2009) LINK
254. The City of Your Final Destination (2009) LINK
255. Certified Copy (2010) LINK
256. The Rum Diary (2010) LINK
257. The Ghost Writer (2010) LINK
258. Howl (2010) LINK
259. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) LINK
260. Sex & The City 2 (2010) LINK
261. Eat, Pray, Love (2010) LINK
262. A Closed Book (2010) LINK
263. Peep World (2010) LINK
264. Midnight in Paris (2011) LINK
265. One Day (2011) LINK
266. Limitless (2011) LINK
267. Young Adult (2011) LINK
268. The Help (2011) LINK
269. Twixt (2011) LINK
270. Anonymous (2011) LINK
271. Ruby Sparks (2012) LINK
272. The Words (2012) LINK
273. Writers (2012) LINK
274. Being Flynn (2012) LINK
275. Stuck In Love (2012) LINK
276. Sinister (2012) LINK
277. On The Road (2012) LINK
278. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012) LINK
279. The Raven (2012) LINK
280. The Master (2012) LINK
281. The Best Bar In America (2013) LINK
282. Before Midnight (2013) LINK
283. Saving Mr. Banks (2013) LINK
284. Her (2013) LINK
285. Kill Your Darlings (2013) LINK
286. White Lie (2013) LINK
287. Adult World (2013) LINK
288. Violete (2013) LINK
289. Authors Anonymous (2014) LINK
290. The Fault In Our Stars (2014) LINK
291. Wild (2014) LINK
292. The Theory Of Everything (2014) LINK

My husband and I have worked long and hard to curate this list and I hope you enjoy it. Looking forward to cracking the 300-mark with your help!

Did you know that words don’t teach?

Actions lead to experience and experience is the way writers actually learn.

That’s why my courses are set up to get you doing tasks, not just watching me or others doing them.

My new writing and publishing school is always open, is always accepting new students, and is always creating results for motivated writers. I hope you will join us!

Thanks for reading! And thanks for sharing this post with fellow writers! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer Newsletter for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to start learning.

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