Book Review: You Are a Writer by Jeff Goins

“I am a writer.”

Each morning when I wake I whisper this sentence to myself. It’s become a mantra, a prayer. 

This new daily meditation of mine was inspired by Jeff Goins’ latest book You Are A Writer.

Goins is an accomplished writer, blogger, and speaker based in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s contributed to well-known sites like Copyblogger and Problogger and has a wildly popular blog of his own at GoinsWriter.com, which is all about writing and making a difference in the world with words.

The tagline of You Are A Writer is “So Start Acting Like One” and fortunately Goins gives his readers plenty of practical steps on how to do just that.

Sure, the book has plenty of encouraging words to help us on those days when we’re wondering if all the hard work is worth it. But Goins mostly gives us writers some tough love and reminds us it’s time to get to work. As a friend once told Goins years ago, exactly when he needed to hear it: “You are a writer. You just need to write.”

It’s time out for just thinking about writing and talking about writing, it’s time to get busy writing!

And stop writing only what you think people want to read, Goins says. Write for yourself. “Stop writing for accolades, and start writing for passion,” he advises, echoing the central message of his previous book The Writer’s Manifesto. Amazingly, what you will find, Goins says, is that “when you stop writing for readers’ affections, your work will affect more people.”

One of the points of this book that resonated with me most is the idea of choosing yourself. As writers we need to stop waiting to be picked and just pick ourselves. I sure needed to hear that. For years I’ve been waiting to be picked by my favorite magazines, newspapers, and websites and by the feminist in-crowd that I stalk follow through blogs and Twitter.

Goins says we must choose ourselves.

Goins’ book includes a very helpful and informative section on how to pitch to editors and publishers of magazines and websites, but he also gives us a formula for reaching a point in our careers where we can ditch the pitch, a point where the editors, the publishers, and the cool kids are coming to us.

To do this you’ll need three things, Goins says: a platform, a brand and channels of connection. 

Your platform is your stage, a place from which you communicate such as a blog, newspaper column, speaking career, YouTube channel, or Podcast. To build your platform you need to spend time getting good at your craft, show people you know what you’re doing, and generate buzz around your work.

Building a brand is about choosing a name (which can be as simple as the one given to you at birth or something quirky like Writeous Babe), an image (which can be a logo or just a nice headshot) and your voice (which is your writing style).

Channels of connection include email, Facebook, Twitter, conferences, meetups, etc.

None of this, however, will work without building authentic relationships. Even though Goins wants us to write for passion, not the praises of other people, this does not give us permission to be jerks. Throughout the book Goins stresses the importance of building the trust of our audience and importance of being generous. Be a resource to others, just as Jeff Goins has used his blog, his books, and his platform to be a resource to us.

Happy Saturday, babes! I've decided to start posting some of my best content from my blog GeorgiaMae.com here at The Writeous Babe Project too. Check out this post on natural hair and black beauty culture. 


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Is natural hair the end of black beauty culture? 


That's the question posed by Cassandra Jackson in a recent article she wrote for The Huffington Post. Jackson says that while she is glad to see an increasing number of black women choosing natural hair (as opposed to chemically straightened hair) she worries that the shift toward natural hair also means a shift away from the black beauty salon, which for decades has been the center of black beauty culture. 

She writes:

While many, including me, celebrate the natural hair movement's emphasis on self-discovery, I cannot help but wonder if something has also been lost with this cultural shift. For all the horrible things about hair straightening, the experiences associated with it have created a powerful thread that connects the vast majority of black women. Even if you have kinky hair now, you probably have memories of time spent with family and friends in kitchens getting your hair done by someone who loved you and who you trusted enough to wield a sizzling hot straightening comb next to your ear. You probably remember that first trip to the beauty shop where black women talked about grown folks' business, and nearly every sentence began with the endearment, "girl." It does not matter if your mother was a teacher or housekeeper, or if you were in New York or Alabama because these experiences crossed class and region. Hair straightening was a rite of passage, an entry into the world of black women.

Personally, I've never been a fan of salons. They stink, they're hot, and you're in there for what feels like half your life. So the fact that wearing my hair in its naturally curly state meant fewer trips to a beauty shop was just more reason for me to embrace my curls. But, ironically, now that I'm natural I feel more a part of black beauty culture than ever before. Black beauty culture has not died; it has simply evolved. 


One of the things I love most about being natural has very little to do with my actual hair. I love being natural because of the sense of community and camaraderie that comes with it. At least once a week I have a conversation with a complete stranger in a clothing store at a shopping mall or in the aisles of the supermarket or in an aerobics class at the gym, and those conversations are sparked because of my curls. Those conversations begin with questions like "How long have you been natural?" or "What products do you use on your hair?" 


Furthermore, some of my closest friends that I've made since I moved back to my hometown have been through local natural hair mixers organized by groups like Birmingham Natural Beauties. At these mixers conversations begin with questions like those I mentioned before, but soon the discussions move to other topics -- our careers, our hobbies, our husbands, our dreams. And soon a friendship is born. 


And thanks to natural blogs we naturalistas can forge bonds with women all across the country or even the world. Through online communities we share stories of our transition from relaxed hair, we rant about our search for a stylist who can cut curly hair, and we rave about products that keep our tresses soft. And soon even these conversations can drift to topics like exercise, as many women begin to workout more after going natural, or healthy eating, as many women begin to reconsider what they're putting in their bodies once they start to think about the products they're putting on their heads. 


So, no, many black women no longer congregate in black beauty salons as we once did, but black beauty culture is alive and well. We naturalistas may not see the black beauty shop as the safe and sacred space as our mothers did but as we gather at natural hair blogs, conferences, and meetups, we are encouraged and we are supported because we are always reminded that we are beautiful. 

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt of Pink Sherbet Photography
Image via Flickr/Creative Commons

Melissa Harris-Perry, Sloane Crosley, and Crystal Renn. A political talk TV show host, a humor writer, and a supermodel. It seems these three women have nothing in common, but they do. They are all atop my very long list of girl crushes.

I've written about some of my girl crushes before, confessing my love for the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama, pop icon Beyonce, actresses Zoe Saldana and Scarlet Johansson, and broadcast journalist Soledad O'Brien. And lately it seems the girl crush has become some sort of phenomenon, regularly popping up in the media.

In a recent article for W magazine, Thessaly la Force explored what all this girl crushing could mean. She writes:

The “girl crush” may sound ­silly, but sometimes it takes something ­unserious to get us talking about a serious subject: the ambitions of young creative women and the need for ­worthy role models. Among my own nominees for inaugural members of the Girl Crush Hall of Fame are Zadie Smith, with her daring, brilliance, and wild success; Joan ­Didion, with her cool, spare prose; Patti Smith, with her soul and wisdom; Sofia Coppola, with her chic grace and unmistakable taste; and Tina Fey, with her goofy smile and razor wit. Each of them has accomplished something the rest of us dream of doing. And because they’ve done it, we feel we can too.

She's right. We all need role models, not superheroes, but real people doing the very things we want to one day achieve. And girl crushes are exactly that. 

Harris-Perry, an educator, black feminist writer, and host of The Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC, encourages me to hold fast to my feminist beliefs, even if they're not always popular, and shows that I can and should find a way to make my voice heard.  Sloane Crosley, author of I Was Told There'd Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number, is the model I look to as I dream of publishing a collection of essays. And Crystal Renn, plus-size supermodel and author of the memoir Hungry, motivates me to learn to love my body and write about my journey to self-acceptance once I've actually achieved it. 

Furthermore, Harris-Perry and Renn both teach a lesson about the importance of platform. If you have something you believe in -- whether it's feminism, empowering racial minorities, or promoting healthy body image in women and realistic beauty standards in fashion -- build a platform and get your voice heard. And you will find there are plenty of  people out there who feel the same and were just waiting for someone to speak up. 

Girl crushes can cultivate our creativity as they push us to work toward our artistic goals. 

But, wait! There's more. 

Thessaly la Force also argues that the prevalence of girl crushes could indicate a slight narrowing of the gender gap:

I can’t help but believe our current generation’s embrace of girl crushing signifies something larger: evidence that a professional world once dominated by men has evened out—maybe not totally, but to a reassuring degree. When ­Didion first set out to become a writer, she copied the sentences of Ernest Hemingway; today, my friends and I copy hers.

Young women dreaming of  hosting their own political talk TV show no longer have to solely look to Larry King. They have women like Harris-Perry as role models too. And anyone who says women can't be funny has clearly never read one of Crosley's essays. 

Who are your girl crushes and how do they help your creativity? 

Hey, babes! Check out my latest article for Magic City Post. 


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Runner Olivia Affuso has completed a 50K North Face Endurance race, she’s an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and she has a Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Yet, even with all those accomplishments, she says one of her proudest moments is actually starting a local running club called Black Girls RUN!

According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 45 percent of African-American adults are obese. Black Girls RUN! is a grassroots effort to tackle the growing obesity epidemic in the African-American community by providing encouragement and resources to both new and veteran runners.

“My goal as a researcher has been to find ways to help individuals become more physically active and reduce their risks of developing chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease,” Affuso said. “This has been a difficult proposition in the past, but there is something about the BGR social running movement that just motivates our women to get moving.  And I think it’s group identification - seeing someone that looks like you doing something active.”

The Birmingham group is a spinoff of a larger grassroots effort which began in New York City in 2009.  Toni Carey and Ashley Hicks, the founders of the NYC group, have seen the organization spread into 29 states and the District of Columbia.  Affuso contacted them last August about starting a Birmingham chapter. 

Jeralyn Powell, an active runner since 2008, joined Affuso and together they launched the Birmingham group that same month hosting its first run on August 20.

Currently, Black Girls RUN! Birmingham has over 800 women signed up for its Facebook group and has accomplished a lot in its short lifetime. The group had eight teams participate in the Mercedes-Benz Marathon Relay and at least another five members who completed the Mercedes Half Marathon.

You can read the complete article at Magic City Post. 

100 Blog Post Ideas and My 100th Post

Try these 100 blog post ideas.  No flaking out!
Photo by Kirsty Hall/ Image via Flikr/Creative Commons

It's my 100th post here at The Writeous Babe Project!

To celebrate I thought I'd give you a gift (aren't I generous?) of 100 post ideas. That's right ONE HUNDRED.

Now, I know you're not going to sit down and read all hundred of these at once, and that's okay. Just skim it now and then bookmark it so you can revisit it the next time you're suffering from blogger's block.

If you'd like to thank me, you can do so by joining my site through Google Friend Connect. You may think that me seeing your face in a little box on the right column of my blog doesn't mean much, but it means everything.

Without further ado, 100 "writeous" post ideas:
(psst - I will add more links to this list as I try out more of these ideas myself)

1. Write your own manifesto.
2. Write a letter to your younger self.
3. Share a recipe.
4. Write a book review.
5. Show us what's in your handbag. Every blogger needs a toolkit.
6. Share a life lesson learned while doing something seemingly mundane, such as cleaning your closet.
7. Tell us how you stay healthy and fit. We can't write if we're dead.
8. Confess your girl crushes.
9. Do a Q&A with one of your favorite authors.
10. Do a Q&A with one of your favorite bloggers.
11. Attend a conference, seminar, or workshop and share what you learned.
12. Participate in a tweet chat and share what you learned.
13. Attend a writers group gathering or bloggers meetup and write about the experience.
14. Share your goals or intentions for the month.
15. Use some Instagram pics as writing prompts and share the results.
16. Share how you find time to blog.
17. Share your editorial calendar and help your readers create on of their own.
18. Tell us about your vacation. Yes, we care and, yes, we want to see lots of pictures.
19. Make a vision board and share it with your readers.
20. Tell us how you stay looking fabulous on a writer's budget.

It finally happened.

For years I’d dreamt of someone I’d never previously worked with coming to me and asking me to freelance for her publication. And last month I was approached by a local news website about being a contributing features writer.

I had imagined the editor would say, “I came across some of your work on the web and I just knew your voice was what my publication was missing.” 

Um, yeah. It didn’t quite happen that way. In actuality, the editor said she found me through LinkedIn.

Say what?!

My first thought was, “Wait. I have a LinkedIn account?”

I admit I’m not a huge fan of the social networking site LinkedIn. It’s like Facebook for grownups and even though I’m 31 I still feel like I’m 16 (except when I’m paying bills and when my back and knees ache). I prefer the bells, whistles, and complete nonsense of Mark Zuckerburg’s evil, yet oh-so-entertaining creation.

And perhaps you feel the same way, but it seems as if we writers need to give our LinkedIn profiles a little more TLC. I can’t help but wonder how many other editors visited my LinkedIn profile and chose to pass me by.

For help I turned to Samantha Collier’s Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Cheat Sheet. She recommends that you do the following. 

Use a professional profile picture, one you wouldn’t be ashamed to show your grandma or mother-in-law. Here’s mine:

I kind of hate that picture, but it should pass for professional. I have on a blazer and everything!

Create a keyword rich headline that focuses on your specialty. My headline reads “blogger, freelance writer, founder of See Jane Write Birmingham.” It could probably stand to be a bit more specific, but I suppose that will do for now. Check out Collier’s article for more tips on this. 

Update your status. Ugh. I’ll try. This will be tough for me, but I’m going to try to update my LinkedIn status at least once a day. She recommends you comment on the status updates of others too, you know, like on Facebook.

Claim your vanity URL. Mine reads http://www.linkedin.com/in/javaciaharrisbowser. 

Personalize your website URLs.  You can customize your links by editing your profile, clicking edit on your website links, and selecting “Other” in the drop-down menu to customize the anchor text. I have links for this blog and the See Jane Write blog. 

Add your Twitter account information. I have links to both my personal Twitter account and the Twitter account for See Jane Write.

Check out Samantha Collier’s Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Cheat Sheet for more detailed instructions on how to build the best profile. 

image via

Afros, braids, curls, and kinky coils – I am surrounded by hundreds of beautiful brown women sporting natural hair styles at the 2^nd Magic City Natural Hair Meetup.

The increasing number of African American women who are choosing natural hair as opposed to chemically straightened hair has sparked what some call a revolution because for many of these women the choice has less to do with a hairstyle change and is more about a lifestyle change. The shift to natural hair has inspired, in many women, a shift to healthy eating, regular exercise, self-acceptance, and even improved relationships. These are the kinds of stories being told at this and other natural hair meetups that happen all across the country.

Surprisingly, a closer look at the natural hair movement also reveals some valuable lessons for writers, all writers, regardless of race or how you wear your hair. As women were making the transition from chemically straightened to natural hair some of them began to take to the Internet starting blogs about their beauty trials and triumphs. Soon these beauty bloggers became experts and their sites became the spaces to which women flocked as they sought information and support. Today natural hair blogs are some of the most successful blogs on the web. So let’s look at what they did right.

Know your niche. Blogs need focus and good natural hair bloggers know this. They stay focused on tress talk and even if they write about something other than their curly coif those posts will still be somehow related to natural hair – such as posts about those lifestyle changes that natural hair can spark. So feel free to get creative with how you approach your topic -- otherwise you’ll get bored and so will your readers -- but stay centered on your niche and research it like crazy so you can write with authority. 

Cultivate community. Sure, writers should write for themselves and for the love of the craft, but helping someone along the way wouldn’t be so bad either. Most natural hair blogs were created to help other naturalistas struggling to find the right products and styles for their hair and struggling with serious issues like “Will my boss think my natural hair looks unprofessional?” and “Will my partner find me less attractive with natural hair?” Good natural hair bloggers cultivate community by encouraging readers to comment on posts and interacting with those who do. Some natural hair bloggers like Nikki Walton of CurlyNikki.com also encourage readers to submit guest posts so that her site will feel like their forum, platform, and safe space.

Mix and mingle. This may be tough for introverted artists, but eventually you have to step away from the computer and go out and socialize. Some of the most successful natural hair bloggers have taken cultivating community to higher heights by hosting mixers that allow them to meet their readers IRL. So maybe it’s time for you to throw a shindig for your blog. I hope I’m invited. 

What lessons have you learned from your favorite niche bloggers?