Last week I suggested writing short stories as a way of reaffirming your love of writing, having fun, and maybe creating saleable content as a happy bonus…plus also teaching yourself to write fast, and write lots. Over at Anne R. Allen’s blog, Anne has suggested in her post “The Attention Economy: Shorter“, that indie […]
The first half of January, I find, is often a fallow season. Everyone is recovering from the frantic pace of holiday season celebrations and reflecting upon the upcoming year. Even if you don’t believe in new year’s resolutions — and growing research demonstrates that only a tiny fraction of people who set new year resolutions
The Power of Short Stories Read More »
I talk about willpower a lot on this blog — mostly indirectly, because I think that willpower on its own will never give you the discipline you want to be as productive as you want. Willpower brings to mind the idea of white-knuckling your way through chores you don’t want to do. I think writing
Willpower for Writers…and More Read More »
This is Part 1 of an informal series about Pen Names. See Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4. There are many authors who write under one pen name (only) for privacy reasons. That is not the question I am answering here today, for privacy and security are very good reasons for writing under a different name.
Should You Use Multiple Pen Names? Read More »
I was tickled pink when James Scott Bell, writing guru and suspense author, and also one of my professional heroes, wrote a post a few days ago, “What I Wish I’d Known When I Started Writing”. He starts the post with: Next year will be my 24th as a professional writer. So I knew I
I’ve mentioned more than a few times here and there how damaging it is to your impetus if you let yourself click away from your manuscript, for any reason at all. I just haven’t formalized the idea as a strategy for getting more words down until now. Interruptions are the bane of modern offices. There’s
This time next week, I will be at the airport, picking up Strine-accented relatives. My Christmas vacation, which I have been working toward for well over six months, will have begun. So this is the last of the Weekly Work Log posts for this year. I will start the posts again in January, when I
Weekly Log – December 4, 2018 – Merry Christmas! Read More »
Most writers procrastinate about writing because (most often) they don’t have a good enough handle on their story. Others doubt themselves and think their writing sucks, or fear success, and twitter away their time for those reasons. Then there are writers who have reached a point where they loathe writing. If you’ve never hated
What To Do When Writing Every Day Feels Like A Chore Read More »
I’ve been busy catching up on blog posts and emails to cover me while I’m taking my six weeks off over Christmas, plus all the production work for books which will be releasing around this period. I haven’t really slowed down — I’m still sitting at the desk for nearly 10 hours a day.
Weekly Log – November 27 – Winding Down Read More »
If you’ve lost your get-up-and-go and loathe the idea of writing, you might be tempted to self-diagnose and decide you’re suffering from burnout. Alas, this might merely be yet another creative form of resistance. I’ve seen several group discussions lately, where “burnout” is tossed around casually, as a reason why writers don’t write. But
Is It Really Burnout? Read More »
