Haunted by writing procrastination? Meet your ghouls. Your writing desk is crawling with them! Clever little time thieves who slip in the moment you sit down to write. And by the time you notice, they’ve drained your writing hours dry. That’s why adding more time never works. Because if youContinue Reading
For those who are Type A personalities like myself, it can be difficult to shut off and relax. When you’re a Type A personality and a writer, you often feel like downtime is wasted time. Any time that I’m not at work or sleeping is time that should be spentContinue Reading
For most writers, finding productive writing time is a challenge. But you may be surprised to learn that if you’re an organized person, it might be even harder for you. Why? Two reasons: busywork and organization. What is Busywork and What Does it Have to do with Productive Writing Time?Continue Reading
When life interferes with writing, it’s frustrating. You want to get the writing done, but you don’t know how. Everything is crazy. You’re super busy. Things seem to be in chaos. How can you possibly write? Try these five approaches. They can help you get some writing in, which forContinue Reading
by Noelle Sterne We writers often puzzle (or obsess) over this question: For writing productivity, should I count words or track my time? Successful authors’ self-imposed word count quotas vary greatly, as lists show. A daily word count can be doable (Hemingway 500) or ghastly (Michael Crichton 10,000). Many articlesContinue Reading
Do you have gremlins messing up your writing process? Back when the COVID-19 was in full swing, I was visiting my parents. There were no new releases at the movie theater, but the small local theater was playing an old favorite: Gremlins. My mom and I hadn’t seen it forContinue Reading
Are you struggling with an unfinished writing project? Ask yourself this: Have you developed the one skill you must have to succeed as a writer? To find out, look at the following list, and see if any of these statements sound familiar: I’ve been working on this book for years,Continue Reading
Do you have a to-do list? As writers, we spend a lot of time learning what “to do” in terms of plot, characterization, setting, pacing, and more. We also try to learn what to do when it comes to social media, marketing, publishing, and other parts of the business sideContinue Reading
Do you have a creative writing sweet spot? You get to choose what to work on, when to work on it, and where and how. With all that freedom, you’d think that finding your creative sweet spot would be easy. Unfortunately, it often isn’t. As ancient Greek philosopher Thales ofContinue Reading
Most writers these days are advised to keep their day jobs. The odds of earning a full-time living from writing alone are just too great to risk going without, and no one wants to worry about how they’re going to pay their bills while they’re trying to put together theirContinue Reading
Most writers, no matter their level of success, want to improve. When you think about your next story, you probably want it to be better than the last. To make that happen, you may hire an editor, take your story to a writing group, or study up on things likeContinue Reading
Do you find that even though you have a scheduled daily writing time, it’s often interrupted? Jennifer had the perfect situation for a while. She wrote while the kids were in school and her husband was at work, which worked out beautifully until summer break came. Then she was constantlyContinue Reading