You are born with nothing but your body, so anything in addition to that is a gift, something to be thankful for. And anything you lose, isn’t really lost because it’s not really something that was yours to begin with. Sometimes it helps when I think of that and it does make me a more […]
Okay, so you’ve finished a book. You’ve poured sweat, blood, and a lot of coffee into it and it’s now marginally presentable. Great. Don’t slip into a temporary coma just yet! CELEBRATE your hard work, the victory over writer’s block, the battle with the muse. It may not be clear what your option are, or […]
We all want to be productive when it comes to our writing. The sooner we get published, the better. But first we must have the stories and in order to have those, we must sit down and WRITE. My previous post was about the guilt of not writing and this post provides some quick and also […]
We’ve all been there, right? The days zoom by and before you know it, the only thing you’ve written in that time is a grocery list. And you didn’t even get to use metaphors, except for that one cheese. Inevitably, a sense of dread sets in. How could it not? We have goals and need […]
It’s November and that means different things to different people. For non-writers it means that it’s nearing Christmas. For writers it means mayhem, panic, dehydration, and the slow descent of madness. Many aspiring authors see this as the perfect opportunity to force a first draft from their bleeding fingers within one month. Every writer is […]
Many people dream of a life as a writer. Better yet, to make a living scribbling those words on paper and making pretend people come alive. There are many notions attached to this dream life. Since it’s a dream, they’re usually also far from the truth. Now, you may not think that every time a […]
Whether or not you’re a Plotterhead or a Wing-it Person, at one point, some form of plotting is handy. Especially, if like me, you write mysteries. Most of the time I still surprise myself, but before I start it’s handy to know in which direction I want to go. Much like a road trip where […]
Papercuts aren’t the writer’s only enemy. There are plenty of terrors that a writer has to face during the struggle to put pen to paper. As if writing itself isn’t challenging enough, we still do it. We persevere and survive our struggles with the characters, plot, and our pens that spill ink all over us. […]
One of the main things people say when I tell them I’m a writer is that they too have toyed with the idea. Like it’s something that you just do for a moment because it’s fun. I mean, it IS fun. But that’s not all it is and I know it’s not something I could […]
Being a writer means you’re the boss of your own work. This can have benefits as well as downsides. It’s nice when (at least at first) nobody is looking over your shoulder, but it also means you’re the only person who can assess your own progress. And just like you have evaluations at ‘normal’ jobs, […]