My 4 Favourite Blog Posts This Week

I've decided to make this a regular Friday feature at Thoughts From Botswana. The number you can see is flexible depending on what I've read during the week.

This week I read, as always, all sorts of interesting things on the Internet. I saw haunting photos like those at Selma in the City of the terrible dust storms in Australia that she had to live through. I watched some hilarious videos and some touching ones. It's been a good week in blog land. And now my favourite posts for this week, though I am cheating a bit because one is not from an actual blog but rather a web site, but I've decided not to be too too strict

1. I have never actually understood "show don't tell" I always think I almost have it and then it slips away when someone advises me to stop telling and show the reader. I think agent Branford made a good attempt at explaining it here.

2. This is not officially a blog but I can't not mention this one. It is hilarious! I have become a big fan of The Rumpus mostly because occasionally one of the authors I'm currently stalking- Peter Orner- writes beautiful things there on the rare occasion. (Why oh why are you so stingy with your writing Mr. Orner??) This post though is written by Ted Wilson who has been tasked to review the world and has started by reviewing his body. For any of you who are aging (which is all of us -right?) this ought to get you laughing.

3. The second to last blog post that really touched me with week was at Elizabeth Bradley's blog. Her friend, artist Janice Lowry, recently passed away and she linked to a very inspiring video in which Janice describes her work and her many years of journals that were accepted by the Smithsonian Institute. I found the video very inspiring. Mostly I thought Janice spoke to me about my own creativity and how sometimes I feel that I am just a conduit. I finish a bit of writing and read it over and it is like I'm seeing it for the first time, as if it did not originate with me and, in some cases, I think it doesn't. Janice let her creativity drive her, it dictated the direction of things. Being the controlling Capricorn that I am I found her way invigorating and new. Very, very inspiring. Don't miss it. Her words are a still resonating within me.

4. The last post is from Helen Ginger's blog Straight from Hel. I think most writers read book reviews, but probably to either see how their book has done or in search of books they'd like to read. But who has thought of reading book reviews to get advice on writing? Well Helen Ginger has. Read this interesting post. I'll be reading book reviews with a writer's eye for now on!

Enjoy and have a lovely weekend!