It seems I’m always trying to either keep myself in my chair or get myself out of my chair. When it’s time to put words to paper, and the words don’t come easily, I can suddenly think of a million things I need to do. Things that require me to get up out of my … Read More
Writing My Life Away
I used to complain a great deal about how little time I had to write. Okay. I still complain about it. But I complain about it a lot less than I used to. Because years ago I had an epiphany, and I no longer act like my words are something I can’t control. Here’s something … Read More
Write Hard
I’ve been reading about writing, editing, and creativity lately, and a theme that keeps popping up is the amount of time and hard work it takes to acquire natural born writing talent. We’ve all read stories of “overnight success”–talented actors, writers, musicians, who seemingly burst onto the scene out of nowhere. What we don’t hear … Read More
Ways of Writing
In my teens, I thought writing was agony. I read The Bell Jar and emptied my broken heart into reams of bad, hand-scrawled poetry about the boys who didn’t love me back. In my twenties, I thought writing was detached, hard-rock glamour. It meant jeans and a band T-shirt, dark shades to block out my … Read More
Saying No to Myself
We all know we’re supposed to say no. We’ve heard the advice ad nauseum–say no to things that aren’t serving you. Say no to things you don’t have the time or the energy for. I set out to do just that this year. I have a lot going on. I’m going to say no to … Read More
Self-Care for Writers
This morning, I gathered some resources on self-care for writers. I’m definitely a “do as I say, not as I do” sort of person, so these resources were a good reminder to me to get up from my computer once in a while. First, I’m including two videos. Below the videos, I’ve included links to … Read More
The Power of Persistence
Over the past month, I’ve been setting out the steps for turning your writing dreams into attainable goals: 1. Set your dreams down in writing (The Power of Words); 2. Create specific goals (The Power of Goals); 3. Create a plan to reach your goals (The Power of a Plan); 4. Focus on one goal … Read More
Knowing When to Quit
Author Tyler Dilts recently made an observation on social media that helped me solve a mystery: Dilts was talking about the unrealistic, overly demanding, and unkind expectations we often impose upon ourselves as writers. Like the way I throw myself into National Novel Writing Month like I’m throwing myself in front of a steamroller–I … Read More
On Structuring Your Writing Life
I used to think of structure as the enemy. I believed that, if I tried to impose any kind of structure on my writing life, it would interfere with my creativity. Writers are artists, right? Artists don’t live a boring, rigorously scheduled, 9-5 life. Artists wake up when they please, go out for coffee in … Read More
NaNoWriMo: Preparing for 50,000 Words
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) kicks off at midnight, Monday, November 1st. What Is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo is a month-long challenge for writers. The goal is to write a novel in one month, or more specifically, to write 50,000 words. 50,000 words isn’t generally enough for a novel. Depending on the genre, most novels are closer … Read More