“Is the flu a good reason to break your habit? That’s what happened to me and I still feel bad about it.” – Tamara, comment on the About this Blog page When you have the flu (or other illness/injury/crisis), you’re suffering enough. There’s no need to make yourself feel worse by berating yourself for breaking … More Real Writers Power thru the Flu, Right? Wrong!
Writers, like any intelligent human being, do our best to avoid unnecessary discomfort. However, creativity requires a certain level of discomfort. Okay, full disclosure: what I really mean by “certain level of discomfort” is “a variable amount, that more often than not, is high, always higher than we wish, and usually equivalent to the joy … More Thriving in Discomfort: Guest Post by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew
What’s your point? What’s your purpose as a writer? Why do you write? You don’t have to be able to rattle off your “artist’s statement” for someone else. You don’t even need to be able to clearly articulate it for yourself. But you do need a sense of why you write that will sustain you … More What’s the Point of Writing?
The New Year promises a fresh start, but only if we truly bring the current year to a close. If you don’t resolve the physical and emotional “incompletes” in your life, January 1 will look remarkably like December 31, with the possible minor difference of needing to clean up after the party. One of the … More Prepare for a Writer’s New Year
While there is a bit of debate about Albus Dumbledore’s claimed regret that “People will insist on giving me books” instead of socks, the truth is, books are not a bad gift. Especially not for writers. In fact, many of us have trained family and friends to give us books. (If you’ve trained complete strangers … More Writers: If People Insist on Giving You Books… Get the Good Ones!
“One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Of course books are outstanding gifts, but like Albus Dumbledore, I do think other gift options are underutilized. … More Kid-tested, Writer-approved, Surprising Gifts to Boost Imagination
Thank you to the Loft Literary Center for offering and to agent Kelly Van Sant for teaching the online Query Comprehensive class where I revised (and revised again and again) my query letter. I wasn’t sure I needed a comprehensive class; after all, I knew the basics. But the timing was ideal — I had … More New Book Update: The Gift of Being Rejected
It’s day 10 of NaNoWriMo or November 10 for those of us not doing NaNoWriMo. So it seems like a good time to revisit this, my most popular post. Even if you aren’t doing NaNoWriMo, you can still play with the Random Scene Generator. Random Scene Generator It takes about a half-hour to create your … More Random Scene Generator: 10 Steps to Solve the “I don’t know what to write” Problem
When you don’t have a clue what to write about, let yourself be inspired by whatever National Day is coming up. Since National Donut Day is right around the corner, let’s use donuts. No, not by eating them. All right, go ahead and eat one, then consider other ways you can use be inspired by … More When You Don’t Know What to Write…
(NOTE: Not even considering NaNoWriMo? Keep reading; this stuff applies to any writer.) Of course, knowing who your characters are, what they want, what they need and what stands in their way is important, but if your habenula isn’t firing right, NaNoWriMo is going to be a month-long lesson in frustration. To be precise, I … More Forget Plot Outlines! Is Your Habenula NaNoWriMo Ready?
Bane of Your Resistance 