tips for would be writers

I have no authority to write a post giving tips for would be writers.

That’s why I’m re-posting a few of Doug Wilson’s tips that I found particularly good.

1. Know something about the world, and by this I mean the world outside of books. This might require joining the Marines, or working on an oil rig, or as a hashslinger at a truck stop in Kentucky. Know what things smell like out there.

2. Read. Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write. Read until your brain creaks. Tolkien said that his ideas sprang up from the leaf mold of his mind. These are the trees where the leaves come from.

5. Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly. He was right. Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out.

I haven’t entered the world of trying to be published.  I write for my own enjoyment, for record-keeping of life, and to be helpful in a God-exalting way to others.  But these are good tips for everyone, and if ever I do endeavor to be published, I’d definitely take these to heart.

And even though I have no authority to give a tip, here’s mine anyway:

1. Be passionate about something.  Have an opinion.  Feel things strongly and let that come through.  It isn’t enough to know a lot, you have to have ideas about what you know.  For Christians this should be easy.

Sidenote: Go Sara G0!

a laundry tip and a tip for bathroom mirrors

Yes, laugh all you want.

Who blogs about laundry and bathroom mirrors?

I do, that’s who.  And probably lots of other people, too.

Plus, I am so pleased with this one discovery that I made a couple months ago that I will share it and take credit for it.

I do lots of laundry.  Don’t we all?

We buy large containers of liquid laundry detergent.  The kind that dispenses by pushing a button and holding the small plastic cup underneath, as though it were summertime and I was getting water from a big orange water cooler, only it’s thick and soapy and comes out at half the speed.

It’s a good system.  BUT, I loathe how the plastic cup gets all gooey with detergent every time.  It inevitably drips down one side and gets on my fingers, then the detergent oozes onto whatever surface the cup is left to rest on.  Or you put the cup back on the dispenser and it drips down to whatever surface is below it.

My usual remedy has been to rinse the cup with water from the washer as it fills up.  Works OK, but then my arm gets kind of wet and the cup is drippy when I’m done, so I have to dry it off.

The NEW thing I do, which works wonderfully, is I just toss the cup in the washer with the clothes after pouring the detergent in.  The cup gets washed, and, at the end of the cycle, it isn’t even wet.  Just clean and dry after a good spin, not gooey or sticky or drippy.*

It’s the little things in life.

The only other tip I have is that I’ve started dusting the tops of my bathroom mirrors before windexing them.

Thrilling, I know.

Not that I’m implying any of you would wait long enough for dust to gather on your mirrors before they get cleaned, but, just in case.  I’m amazed at how much dust gathers on the mirrors in one week!  (Not that I always clean the mirrors every week, but definitely every two.. :)

Dusting them beforehand makes the windexing much easier because you don’t have to move any dust around.

So, that’s it for now.  I’m obviously no household expert.  But when you’ve got a great tip, why not share?

How about you?  Any delightful tips you’ve picked up over the years that we all could benefit from?

*Please inform me if this is common knowledge and I’ll gladly relinquish credit to the appropriate parties.