It’s a tricky business, writing. A writer wants, and needs, to write. If only life were that simple. These days, a writer has to be so much more…editor, formatter, agent, marketer, webmaster, publicist, and many times a publisher. The days of writing a story and handing it off (so you can get started on the next one) are pretty much a thing of the past. How can one person keep it all going? It’s not easy, but perhaps there’s a … Read More »

The writer’s group to which I belong recently instituted a new practice, which doesn’t replace but enhances our reading of our works in progress. At every meeting, one of us provides the group with a prompt—an image, a few words—and we all create some short work inspired by it to submit for critique at the next meeting. The variety of “takes” on the prompt is always stunning. Some are serious, some are lighthearted. This person may submit a poem, another … Read More »

Whether you’re stressed about the quarantine, the state of the world, or you’re exhausted from home schooling small children, it’s hard finding the time to sit down and indulge your artistic side. Maybe you recently lost your job or had your hours cut at work, so now you feel guilty about dedicating a few hours a day to your writing. Instead, you feel compelled to apply for jobs or find new ways to make money. The truth is you aren’t … Read More »

It’s October, that time of year where our fears come out to play. It’s also the perfect time to face our fears as writers. How do I know what your fears as a writer are? Let me begin with a story. During my first few years as a professor, I was lamenting with a colleague up north about the job. Rather, it wasn’t the job that was the source of my anxieties, but my own feelings of inadequacy and fears … Read More »

If you’re a writer, it’s bound to happen. You’re in one of those treasured sweet spots where your story is all but writing itself! Then, without warning, it’s over, and you’re up against it. Now what? There is a way forward, a way to emerge victorious and keep your characters doing what they need to do. Leave, But Don’t Stop This might be a good time to leave whatever mode you’re writing in and give your mind a change of … Read More »

If there’s one piece of writing advice I hear more than anything else, it’s that to become the best writer you can be, you have to write every day. To improve your work, you have to buckle down, focus, drown out distractions, put your butt in the chair, and just write — every single day. Do whatever you can do to keep yourself accountable. But what happens when you hit a block? Not just a small hurdle in what to … Read More »