Fiction Writer. Copyeditor. Blogger.
Have you read Jeff Goins’ book, You Are a Writer, yet? It’s the most helpful book for writers I’ve read so far. In the first part of the book, Goins gives you the intervention you so desperately need. He gives you the beat down in an honest, almost urgent way. The reasons you have given [...]
Do you struggle to find the time to write? Do you wish you could make substantial progress on your WIP but find the weeks flashing by without writing a single word? You’re not the only one. My plan was to make significant progress on my current WIP over the summer. What happened? I participated in [...]
Ideas are everywhere. You just have to be aware of them. But I think ideas strike the most when you’re not writing. How many times have you sat down in your writing chair at your writing desk only to not be able to write? Sometimes it pays to step away from the computer and work [...]
Are you the kind of writer that struggles for every measly idea? Do you wonder what you’re doing wrong when other writers share that they can hardly keep up with the multitude of ideas that strike them daily? You can be one of those writers. Because ideas are a lot closer than you think. In [...]
When was the last time you got stuck on what to write about next? Or (if you’re like me) stayed up until the wee hours of the morning with your fingers frozen on the keyboard because you’re supposed to have a blog post up in a matter of hours and you’ve got nothing? This was me [...]
Being a writer eats up a lot of time. There’s growing your platform, marketing your books, reading about writing, and interacting with other writers online and off. Not to mention the actual writing itself. And outlining, research, revision, editing, and getting ready to publish. One could spend endless hours each day working on these things [...]
You made a commitment to be a writer last week in How to Take the Plunge and Be a Writer (Part 1). That’s great. The question now is: What do you need to do specifically to reach your dream of being a writer? In other words, how can you be a writer every day? Here’s [...]
I think we’ve all heard it before. “I’ve wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember.” But how many people actually follow up on that dream? How many people take the time to write down the goals they need to reach their writing dream? How many people map out the actual steps [...]
I write in secret. Shhh. I can count the people who know I’m a writer on one hand and still have a few fingers left over. In other words, a total of two people know my ultimate dream and goal is to become a full-time writer. Only one (my fiance) really knows that I am [...]
A few weeks ago, I read Stephen King’s On Writing. Overall, it was a great and informing read. Definitely a book I will be reading time and again. I highly recommend it. However, I must admit that at times I wanted to skip the autobiography part and move on to the writing advice part. But [...]
It’s probably the most common writing advice: read, read, read. But if you don’t even have time to write, how the heck are you going to find time to read? You make time, that’s how. Just like you make (or should make) time to write. (Did you write today?) There are lots of ways to [...]
Writers (me included) tend to be a bit obsessive about word count. Too much. Too little. Daily, Hourly. Weekly. Yearly. I have always thought that a good way to reach your long-term writing goals was to set word counts. And it is. But it’s not the only way. It’s actually harder for me to get [...]
Nano ’11 was the year I made it through Nano and won. On previous attempts I had crashed and burned only days (even hours) into the challenge. Last year, about seven months pregnant, I was determined to finally write my first novel. I knew I had to write it before Andrea was born or it [...]
I just vastly updated the Writing Resources page. It just went from a handful of things to a huge list of all kinds of writing resources. You’ll find sites for everything from tips to technology to connecting with writers to critiques to self-publishing… You’ll want to check these out. Enjoy. TweetBuffer
Every writer should have a writer’s journal, at least to keep track of random ideas or thoughts. A good writer’s journal can do so much more, though. Here are some ideas on what can go into one and how you can keep it organized. Project Notebooks or Journals You can keep several journals or notebooks [...]
