How Do I Know if My Writing is Any Good?
I’ve had a few clients lately who have asked me this question. Some are relatively new writers, who are realizing that this writing thing isn’t quite as easy as it looks. Some are more experienced, who have been working for a while and not seeing the kind of success they envisioned at the beginning.
The Secret Weapon of Motivation: Coaching, Communities, and Writing With Others
The craft of writing can be learned. What often makes the difference between a writer and a non-writer are the ways in which they deal with the challenges of actually getting to the writing itself.
Creative Habits: Positive Energy from Shared Commitment
I was a lonely kid a lot of the time. Because of that background, it’s perhaps even more meaningful to me in adulthood when I find myself in a group that shares and enhances my own interests. It’s a stereotype that writers are curmudgeonly loners. I’m not convinced of that. And even if writers need to isolate in order to make the time to create, I find time and again that writers also treasure a sense of community. This can show up in many ways.
Finding Your Flow – What Do You Need to Break Through Resistance?
I’m not a believer in astrology, but as I glanced over this week’s newsletter from the Omega Institute, I found this February horoscope for Virgos:
5 Things Holding You Back from Writing
It’s the end of January; how are you doing so far on your writing goals? Still going strong? Or is your commitment starting to waver a little bit?
What Stage Are You At in Your Writing Process?
Whether you’re writing a short piece or a full-length book, knowing the answer to this question - and what it means for your writing – is crucial. Most of the below advice is aimed at people writing something book-length, but can also be used by people writing essays or other short pieces.
How to Find Time to Write
I’ve been really enjoying my Zoom “write ins.” Since I’m the host, no matter what, I have to show up and start the meeting at 8:00 every Monday through Friday. It clarifies my morning: everything I need to do before I start writing has to be done by 8:00. And I have an hour set aside. Somehow it’s easier to not get distracted when I’m in the meeting, even though our cameras and mics are off. Some days it’s just me, and that’s okay. I’m there, and I’m fulfilling a commitment to myself to show up.
This weekend was a different story.
Setting Your Schedule – Motivation & Accountability for 2022
This week I started something new. I wanted more accountability for my writing time, since by the end of last year it seemed that whatever time I set aside for writing got taken up by something else. Another task or project always crept in, and it was easier to do that than sit down to write.
So this week, I decided to make myself publicly accountable.
New Year Planning Part II - Prepare Your Time, Your Space, and Your Mind for Success
Did you work on your overall writing goals for 2022 last week? Hopefully you’ve given it some thought, because this week we’re going to tackle what it will take to ensure sure you succeed. To do this, we’ll think about five areas:
New Year Planning Part I – What Are Your Writing Goals?
I know, right about now, you’re probably like, can I just finish this year and then worry about next year? And you can – of course you can. You can (and should) do your planning throughout the year, in fact, recalibrating your goals as needed. What you think will work next year right now, may need some tweaks as you go.
But now is the perfect time to take stock, assess what you did this year, and plan for next.
My Annual List of Gifts for Writers, 2021 Edition
Here we go! This is a list of some of the most fun and/or useful stuff I’ve found this year. Hopefully it will inspire some gift ideas – for a writer in your life, or for yourself!
Breaking Through Blocks Part III: The Revision Process
So far in this series, we’ve looked at Strategies You Can Use to Break Through Blocks Any Time and Strategies for Starting and Finishing a First Draft.
But as any good writer knows, the magic is not in the writing, but the rewriting. You have a draft? Great! Now the real work begins.
Breaking Through Writer’s Block, Part II: Starting (and Finishing!) Your First Draft
Last week I discussed the fact that so-called “blocks” can take many forms, and come at any stage of writing. They have different root causes, many based in fear and uncertainty. Since our minds shy away from discomfort, we find it easier, in some ways, to simply not write – until the pain of not writing becomes great enough to propel us into action for a little while, at least.
Breaking Through Writer’s Block Part I: Strategies for Any Stage
Writers can feel blocked at any stage of a writing project:
Before you even start, you can feel paralyzed about where to begin, or even what to write.
In the middle, you can feel blocked over how it’s going, or what to write next.
At the end of the first draft (or the tenth) when revision looms, you may feel overwhelmed with the daunting task ahead to make your book something people will actually want to read.
For the rest of November, I’m going to focus on block-busting.
7 Lessons for Writers from Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings
I just finished re-reading this book, the first in The Lymond Chronicles, a series of historical novels about, loosely speaking, the adventures of an extraordinary young Scottish nobleman, Francis Crawford of Lymond, in 16th-century Europe. I started my Lymond journey at age fourteen, when I foraged The Game of Kings from a used bookstore somewhere in Georgia while traveling with my father.
It’s National Book Month! What Are the Books that “Made” You as a Writer?
This week, write down at least ten of your favorite books of all time. Then think about why you love them. Don’t just list books you’ve enjoyed as an adult. Reach back into childhood and think about the books that influenced you, that made you want to become a writer.
Let’s Do the Mash! Genre Mashups and How they Can Work for You
It’s that season again, where monsters start to take up space in stores, on porches - and in our imaginations. But did you ever realize that, like Dr. Frankenstein, we can keep putting our writing monsters together out of various parts all year?
How to Prepare for Pitch Wars
Q: What is Pitch Wars?
A: It’s a short-term (about 3 months) mentorship program for writers of Middle-grade, YA, and adult fiction. It only opens for a brief period in the early fall. This year, it opens for submissions 9/26/21 and closes 9/30/21. If you are accepted, a mentor-writer will work with you for the 3 months leading up to an Agent Showcase, where you can have your work seen by agents actively looking for manuscripts.