Creativity coach, writing and creative process instructor, speaker, author of Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Write the Way You Want (Penguin/Tarcher 2012) and Dancing in the Dragon's Den (Red Wheel Weiser), Teaching Artist at the Loft Literary Center.
How much attention your readers can bring to reading depends on whether they’re reading your work onscreen or from a traditional paper book or magazine. I’m about to encourage you to link to an essay about this, but before you go, I ask you to notice, if you can, how the ability to link to … More Which Brain Do You Want Your Readers to Use?
How’s that New Year’s Resolution working for you? Or did you, like me, resolve to not make resolutions? Either way, you can increase your chances of writing success by examining why resolutions often fail. Failure: Fuzzy Resolutions Most New Year’s Resolutions are vague. “I’ll write more.” “I’ll eat better and get fit.” “I’ll travel to … More What Writers Can Learn from Failed New Year’s Resolutions
I hope you’ve found “writing life hacks” or as I call them “banes to writing resistance” here. How many of the top ten most viewed posts do you recall? Hopefully you’ll agree that they all bear a second look. #1 Neurology of Resistance: Limbic System vs. Cerebral Cortex Originally published in May 2009, this classic … More 2015 Top Ten Banes of Your Writing Resistance
In the previous post, you inventoried your writing habits and your resisting habits. To transform resisting habits into writing habits, it helps to know just a bit about how habits work in your brain. When you think a certain thought or take a particular action, a series of neurons fire in sequence along a neural … More Do Bad Habits Detour Your Writing?
It’s “gift list” time again. Magazines, talk shows and the internet are replete with lists of perfect gifts for women, men, teens, kids, athletes, introverts, travelers, health nuts, foodies, book lovers, and even writers. Forget the lists for writers. Forget the gimmicky games that include “plot twist spinners.” Forget the stylish pens and blank notebooks. … More The One Gift Writers Truly Need
At the Loft Pitch Conference in November, the two agents I pitched to invited me to send pages. (Woo-hoo!) I told the agent who wanted 100 pages that I’d just finished a major rewrite and wanted to polish the first 100 pages before sending them to her. She said “Of course. Take the time you … More New Book Update: Back Off Author, Characters Need to Do It Themselves
One of the biggest benefits of consistently, habitually showing up for fifteen minutes of Product Time is the momentum you build. Since the time is so short, just fifteen minutes, you don’t have to fret about finishing a writing project or doing the best work you’ve ever done. Just show up and do something small, … More Momentum Beats Writer’s Block Every Day
Why on earth would we thank our Saboteur, that self-destructive impulse that interferes with our writing? All of the five forms of the Saboteur want to freeze your creativity. The Attacker undermines your confidence; the Enticer tempts you to sacrifice the habits that sustain your writing; the Innocent is anything but; the Protector doesn’t protect … More What You Can Thank Your Saboteur For
When I refer to the Saboteur in these posts, I do so with the hope that you’re familiar with the term from one of my classes or reading Around the Writer’s Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer’s Resistance. But if you aren’t or if it’s been awhile since you were in class or read … More Don’t Let the Saboteur Push You Into Writer’s Block
When I refer to the Saboteur in these posts, I do so with the hope that you’re familiar with the term from one of my classes or reading Around the Writer’s Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer’s Resistance. But if you aren’t or if it’s been awhile since you were in class or read … More Does Your Saboteur Push You into Writer’s Block?
Bane of Your Resistance 