Tweet I got the idea for this post while “meditating” so it might sound a tad overzealous. But it came out of a recent laborious task of finding work in Hawaii. Every corner like an inkling of opportunity seemed to land not at an open door, but another wall. How do you keep your cool in a desert of opportunities? Here’s what you don’t do: Don’t show your cards. Don’t react from a place of emptiness. The desperation has a tendency to attract more desperation and less opportunities. Don’t confide in the cynics and the pessimists. They’ll give you more…
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Tweet What’s one of the hardest battles you’ll fight as a writer? The battle within yourself. Working on an article recently, I found myself on the front lines defending my creative prose with an ardent editor. Unforgiving and rigid, she was on task to cut away my unnecessary words and fluffy copy for something more streamlined. It was a hard battle lost my friends. All the more so because that editor was me. Every writer has two sides of their brain that battles for attention. My right brain is the more feisty one relentlessly slipping in creative allegories for fun.…
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Tweet Fabulous careers in creative fields (like you writers) deserve a little more attention, motivation and flexibility than other fields. You need to roll with the punches, get your tough going (when the going gets rough) and be willing to go for the ride. [Definitely met my “trite phrases quota” for the day.] Part of that is getting used to the up and down roller coaster ride of both inspiration and writing gigs. That means sometimes there will be lulls, sometimes there will be speed bumps. And when I’m on a high, I need to remember to stop myself from…
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Tweet What do you do when fear and procrastination threaten to derail your writing? Writer and coach Cynthia Morris has been writing since 1994, coaching writers since 1999 and published several articles and two books: a historical novel called Chasing Sylvia Beach and Create Your Writer’s Life: A Guide to Writing with Joy and Ease. What has helped her persist is a unique combination of yoga and what she calls, “juju.” Read on to find out how they may be able to help you jump start your own writing: “I think both my writing practice and my yoga practice made me this…
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Tweet Fellow writer Daylin Van Zandt sent me a message over Facebook today that inspired me. He decided to quit his full-time job to fulfill a dream. I’m so excited for him! One of his dreams is to start a community magazine. While he has the networks and the know-how to get started, he wanted some tips, advice, suggestions on what steps to take to get cracking on this latest endeavor. I asked Daylin if I could post his question on my blog in the hopes that you generous and wise readers could help out. His message is below. Please leave a…
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Tweet One of my favorite blogs Young House Love wrote an honest and helpful post on Dealing With Criticism the other day. While I’m one of their long time loyal fans, I found this last one so inspiring simply because of how applicable their post was to not just blogging, or even writing, but life itself. How often do you crumble to the ground when you receive negative feedback? Being a writer takes guts. It takes courage to write your thoughts on paper and then an extraordinary amount of resilience to brace yourself when the crap comes. Because it will.…
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Tweet This post came at a perfect time! After just spilling my guts about how I sometimes fake it as a writer, I received the post below from author and editor Sarah Nagel who I’ve been following on Twitter. It gives practical advice to overcome the self-doubt that writers and all creatives face. I’m so grateful to have her here. You’re going to gain a lot from this post. by: guest blogger The first time I saw my name in print, I was ridiculously excited. I yelped and called my sister over to the magazine rack to show her the…
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Tweet A lot of writers I’ve talked to and read about say that no matter how much they’ve written, published, or even obtained awards for, they still feel like a fake. And I’m one of them. I sometimes wonder what it would take for me to feel validated as in the words of one writer friend, “a real writer.” As if, there was such a thing. Although I enthusiastically try to point out all the reasons he is a writer: the fact that he actually writes (writing a novel, in fact) and has a tremendous passion for it, I can hardly…
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Tweet I went to Arizona for a little over a week. And while I still believe that trip was life-changing, I returned also feeling extremely disappointed. As if a weight I had been hoping to release off my shoulders became even heavier. Not only did I fail to work on my work-in-progress, but I came back with this: {and no I wasn’t trying to delete my husband from the photo.} It disturbed me on many, many levels. (In fact, I’m still not ready to talk about it and when I am, I’ll probably discuss it on my inspiring blog.) But…
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Tweet Ever notice on the days you hem and haw over an article, your head suffers and your writing suffers too? And the pieces you don’t sweat to pieces are your best ones? Weird how that works isn’t it? I find it amazing that the weather is less consistent than this extraordinary fact. I could spend hours, days, weeks pouring out my soul to molding ideas into words and words into a story. I put it aside. Unhappy with it, I rework again. And again. And again. And when it’s finished I’m shaking silly, drained, brainless. Then I offer it on…