There’s a phrase I use a lot when I’m talking to people who want to be writers: “If what you are doing isn’t working, try something else!” Recently it has been borne in on me that a lot of those folks have nodded enthusiastically… and then they
Read more →This morning, I woke up to a good 3” or more of wet snow in my driveway. I shrugged and gave myself an extra ten minutes to get to they gym for my workout. I didn’t bother to shovel; I just backed out onto the street (which
Read more →Most people I know think of career paths as a series of jobs that ideally involve increasing levels of skills, responsibilities, pay, and status – something that’s applicable chiefly in terms of climbing the corporate ladder. But entrepreneurs and freelancers have career paths, too; they’re just a
Read more →Working with plots is a balancing act. And it’s not a teeter-totter balance, where one side goes up when the other goes down and you just have to get the weight exactly right on both ends to make it level and steady. No, plots have to balance
Read more →In the last two posts, I’ve talked about six of the reasons writers get stuck. These are the last couple I can currently think of: External factors. Sometimes, these are relatively minor things, like an addiction to a TV series or a deep desire to spend the
Read more →Last week, I talked about the three most common reasons for a writer getting stuck: first, that it’s actually part of their normal process, second, the fear of some stretchy or tricky bit that comes next, and third, that they’ve actually made a mistake and their backbrain
Read more →First, thanks for all the well-wishes. I really appreciate them. I’m not quite back to full power just yet, but much better, hence this delayed but still present blog post. “Writer’s block” is a term that gets used for everything from the pathological inability to produce a
Read more →One of my writer-friends, back when she had several toddlers and a day job to fit writing around, used to say that no one else will defend your time for you. You have to do it yourself. Which means you have to make writing one of your
Read more →The hero’s journey If you’ve read much how-to-write advice in the past forty years, you’ve probably seen much talk of “The Hero’s Journey,” which is supposed to be the fundamental template or structure that lies underneath all great stories. It’s generally attributed to Joseph Campbell…but really,
Read more →Last week, I kept stumbling across stories about the different responses people have to feedback. The first couple came in the form of two versions of the old story about the violin maestro. He was approached by a young student who wanted the maestro’s judgement on his
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