Day 7: Not Reinventing the Wheel

Hi everybody, sorry I'm late. A traffic jam at the one major intersection between my house and the coffee shop held me up. Being late is better than not arriving, though. That was the result for one driver. She was killed and so was the mail carrier who was sorting mail at the back of his mail truck when one of the cars plowed into him. Please drive carefully. We all want to be here to celebrate the holidays that are just around the corner.

OK, that was not the most cheerful way to start my post, so let's talk about something else. Today, I want to welcome two new writers to our table. The first is Wendy Love. Wendy maintains two blogs, but she is actively writing only on Dipsy Doodling Around Depression . She and her husband live in Ontario, Canada. Welcome, Wendy!

The newest member at our table is Lindsey Martin. Lindsey blogs at Keep Your Eyes on the Son . She is in college in the beautiful state of Arkansas. Welcome, Lindsey! Both Wendy and Lindsey are eligible for the drawing for the second edition of An Introduction to Christian Writing.

Part of brainstorming is to decide what NOT to do in our community. If this blog works only as a place to explore other resources for writers of nonfiction books, then I will consider it a success. Thanks to a suggestion Wendy made, I have an entry for a new category of links: Wheels Not Invented Here. In the business world, some companies find it difficult to use ideas that do not originate inside their own company. See the Wikipedia explanation: Not Invented Here. Our community, on the other hand, wants to find the best the Internet has to offer to writers of nonfiction books and provide links to them.

Wendy pointed me in the direction of ProBlogger.(Thanks, Wendy!) This site is for serious bloggers, but beginners can find information of value, too. If you join the forums ($1.95/month) you can ask questions and receive plenty of answers. Blogging is an important tool in building a platform and in practicing your writing skills. Doing it well increases the potential for delivering your words to a satisfied audience of readers.

After I set up the category, I immediately thought of several other sites I wanted to add: Rachelle Gardner's blog Rants and Ramblings for all things about agents and publishing etiquette, Writer Beware Blogs! for wary writers who want to keep a whole skin and protect their wallet and Terry Whalin's Right-Writing for interesting reading on many nonfiction writing topics.

Finally, I am adding a site inappropriate for nonfiction writers, the NaNoWriMo link. In case you are unfamiliar with this site – as I was until Wendy got me interested – NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is the tenth year where writers try to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. While the focus is fiction, no one reads what you write. No prizes are given; you could even write the same word 50,000 times and no one would be the wiser. This led me to the idea to write 50,000 nonfiction words on a book I have outlined. I would follow all the rules, which are few, and enjoy the challenge. What do you think? Could you write around 1,700 words a day for a month? Check it out and get back to me.