Habits become a part of our lives

Our blog entries this week focused on the writing habits that help us build our literary lives. As we've shared with you, we meet every other week and at this weeks' meeting, our discussions focused on querying, marketing, revising manuscripts, agent-author relationships and of course, blogging. As always, writers' group was the gem buried in our busy schedules. Here are our individual highlights.

Lisa
This week I watched the movie "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Fun to see a creative novel brought to life on the screen!

Amy
Tis the season for shopping and while I'm in my local independently-owned bookstore, I'm sure to introduce myself and ask about any upcoming events they may have. Not only am I genuinely interested in meeting other people who love books, I also want to know which authors will be doing readings (always support your fellow writers by attending; they'll really appreciate it!) and I want to establish a relationship with book store staff. Remember, they're the ones who hand sell your books and submit nominations to Book Sense Picks. Also, I sent a charming note to the amazing and truly gracious Tom Perrotta whom I recently met at a PEN/New England event. Yesterday, he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay for Little Children. Good luck, Tom!

Hannah
The Writers' Group was the anchor for my literary life this week! Our meeting gave me the ooph I needed to keep focused on my novel. I've written two big chunks and two small chunks since Monday.

Lynne
I worked very long days finishing edits on my nonfiction manuscript. I sent it off to my editor Wednesday. Next, following a productive workshop of my fiction from the fabulous writers in The Writers' Group, I began the edits on my novel. When I was Christmas shopping for others, I bought a copy of James Bell's Plot and Structure. I'm looking forward to reading it to get ideas for my next novel.