Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve been skeptical for a while about Kristin Lamb.
I haven’t read her book, We Are Not Alone – The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. The growing obsession with social media “experts” turns my stomach, even when I recognize I could probably use some more of that expertise around the spillway. The #MyWANA community on Twitter, a sort of group-therapy session and navel-gazing exercise for writers, has both drawn me in and turned me off more than once with its promise of positive, passionate interactions and internal dissonance and apparent frequent redefinitions.
But I’m more than willing to change my mind on someone, especially when it’s for the better. Kristin has sold me on her get-real approach to talent and productivity.
In her latest blog post, Kristin invokes Stephen King’s quotation “Talent is cheaper than table salt” to launch a skewering discussion about how and why people procrastinate. It’s a call for self-awareness in writers, and for those who love them to stop enabling their procrastination.
So. No excuses, call people on their BS, and she did it while quoting King (the author of my favourite work of fiction of all time, The Stand)? Well played, Kristin. I think I get you now.
Go read Writing Tip #3–Talent is Cheaper than Table Salt « Kristen Lamb’s Blog. You won’t be disappointed.
Paddle your own canoe, folks.
Trevor
