I'm tired of people telling me what to do. I'm tired of people telling me how to eat. (Don't eat dairy! No grains! No eggs! And puh-leeze, no sugar!) I'm tired of people telling me to exercise. (Walk. No, walking isn't enough. Run. No, running is bad for your knees, interval training. No, you have […]
Last week, in at least most of the United States, we set our clocks back one hour in order to return from Daylight Savings time to standard time, which means that it gets darker earlier (I personally love this) in the evening and lighter earlier in the morning (sort of). It also means, on the […]
Yeah, so, that headline is a clever attempt to tie this post into Halloween. In case my efforts are obtuse, mask=costume=Halloween. I know, I know, a bit labored. Except that writing voice is an important subject. (Along the same Halloween theme, last week I wrote about Fear and Focus.) And writing voice is a topic […]
We don't always think of fear and focus at the same time, but there's very good reason to pair them. Focus. It's what we all desire, what gets the writing done. Because the words don't go on the page without it. Fear. It's often what keeps us from focusing. The kinds of fears we writers […]
Priming the pump–an old cliche, right? Yet sometimes cliches have things to teach us. I've been thinking about priming the writing pump lately because I've had a successful experience of it. My idea of priming the pump is doing a bit of pre-work to get a flow going. But I decided to look up the […]
What does it take for you, the writer, to be happy? This is a question much on my mind lately. What does it take for me to be happy? Does having my novel about to be published make me happy? Yes, very. Does not having time to work on my next novel as I finish […]
I wanted to write a blog post this morning, but my mind was empty of ideas. This is an unusual situation for me. Usually my brain is brimming with thoughts to share on writing. Not today. Was it because I just returned home from Nashville last week? Because I'd finished the greater part of a […]
Do you feel supported as a writer? Do you have a writing buddy you can contact after you receive a rejection? Someone you can talk to (or write to) when the novel just isn't going the way it should? Do you know other writers with whom you can talk shop? If not, you're missing out. […]
This is a paid book review for the BlogHer Book Club, but the opinions expressed are mine. What is vulnerability? If you are like most people, you probably answered weakness. But shame researcher Brene Brown argues in her new book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent […]
I've been writing in my journal regularly again and I love it because I come up with all kinds of brilliance epiphanies. (You can read my most recent journaling epiphany here.) Yesterday, the thought occurred to me that there are two kinds of journalers: –Those who basically dissect the past in their diaries –Those who […]
