Generally, I’m a flip pages, hard-bound in hand kind of girl, but I’ve recently discovered the joys of reading e-books. My idle down time is now spent chipping away at my reading list instead of playing iPhone games. I have a Nook Color and use the Kindle app on my phone so all my e-reading bases are covered.
I devoured a few e-books in the the past couple weeks using the read-while-your-waiting-for-anything and read-while-your-crossing-the-street methods. I thought two, in particular, were worth passing along. I happened to score both of mine for free at one time or another, but e-books are generally inexpensive (and offered for free quite often!).
E-Books Worth Reading
Finding The Core of Your Story by Jordan Smith
I’ve heard of taglines, but until I read Jordan’s entertaining book, I had never heard of a logline. Loglines are one-sentence summaries used to explain the essence of a movie or novel. In one sentence you can introduce the hook and key ingredients of a story and succinctly leave people wanting more.
Jordan has a screen-writing/fiction perspective on loglines, but the ability to give an elevator (short enough for an elevator ride) description of whatever project you’re working on is a valuable skill to learn. It also gives your writing focus and purpose.
Though I write non-fiction, I love the elevator speech concept and plan on applying Jordan’s logline principles to keep blog posts on point and develop a confident reply when people ask what Primitive Roads is all about.
You can get an overview on crafting loglines from a blog series Jordan wrote.
Community Wins: 21 Thoughts on Building a Thriving Online Tribe by Bryan Allain
Bryan’s book was the exact kick-in-the-blogging-community-pants I needed. I read it once through and was overloaded (in a good way) with ways to grow a healthy community. I’m looking forward to the re-read so I can make good on his suggested action steps.
His approach to building a community – around your writing, your art, your message, your anything – relies on the ability to push past perfectionism which happens to be one of my bigest obstacles Time wasted is progress lost forever. Bryan is honest about the ups and downs of this process, but it’s like he was whispering in my ear, “That book won’t write itself, Emily,” and that’s just the message I needed to hear.
I especially liked his “love/like” time management system:
The key is to avoid spending downtime on things you merely like so you CAN spend it on the things you love and still be productive. [Kindle Locations 610-611]
If you’re wanting to be more intentional about supporting and growing your community, Community Wins is a great place to start. Bryan’s personal experience, combined with practical exercises, will get you well on your way to building that thriving online tribe.
Emily C Gardner 