Tweet Ever since I transitioned into a fiction writer, I’ve run into these insane walls. It’s the kind of blocks that make you doubt your abilities as a writer. You question whether this story’s dead-end is a sign it’s time to burn it. Maybe this story isn’t meant to be, you think to yourself. Maybe you don’t have the chops to be a fiction writer. It’s not like this didn’t happen when writing nonfiction. But I was able to research might way out of it. And I had an editor with a deadline, which are good incentives. But as I’ve…
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Tweet If you’re reading this, you want to be published. You want to become an author or be published in a mainstream magazine. Congratulations on acknowledging this HUGE first step! As someone who has walked this path from absolutely no writing experience aside from an internship to working full-time as a copywriter to eventually getting published in newspapers and magazines, I know how simply COURAGEOUS it is to just admit your dream. And I know how difficult it is to want to share it with others who end up telling you why being a writer is a dismal job with…
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Tweet It’s the top of the new year. While you’re still returning gifts and spending those gift cards, I bet writing’s in the back of your mind. And here’s what it’s saying. You shouldn’t write because: You’re not a “real” writer. This could mean different things depending on your triggers. You may equate real writer, for example, with paid or published writer. Maybe it means being an author or a traditionally published author. You have nothing to write about. Sometimes the belief that we have to write something profound and award-winning can make us feel like what we have to…
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Tweet I was interviewing another writer who shared the same insight that I had this year. That with everything else that has combusted in 2020 (vacation plans, truth in government, belief in humanity) one thing stood out as being the lone win. For once in my writing life, the whining insecure I’m not a real writer was shot, and a real-er more likable writer took her place. Somehow while everything else went down the drain, my self-esteem came out intact. Not only that, but I gained the balls to query places and apply to opportunities that I would no way…
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Tweet It happens to the best of us. Sometimes creative blocks last a few hours after a walk or shower. Sometimes they drag on for months, even years. It’s during these times that we’re likely to give up. That brilliant premise that got us to our feet every morning now seems like a distant dream or worse a terrible idea. Yet we hear of writers who became authors after years, a decade even, after slogging through a single manuscript. If we give up, the buck stops there. But what if there were ways can we reignite that flame of passion for…
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Tweet I haven’t been blogging here lately because I’ve been in a whirlwind of writing. I realized while lying in bed that there is madness to my process. I can drum up ideas quite quickly and when I do, there are a few steps that fuel my inspiration through the hard, stuck, I-can’t-write-another-thing parts. I steal moments to write. Before I had kids, I had all kinds of time to write. But I spent it mostly pretending to write while I lavishly devoured the hours because there were so many of them. These days, I’m usually giving a kid a…
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Tweet I used to struggle with what came out of me onto a fresh page. It was never as beautiful or brilliant as it was in my mind. In my mind, I was an eccentric, quirky, and stunning writer. One the world had yet to seen. In reality, my words were mediocre at best. It kind of depressed me. Thus, began the slog of my writing career. Every time I wrote, I suffered a little on the inside. Why was I doing it? Why was I torturing myself when my writing sucked? I would never be an award winning writer.…
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Tweet Hurray for daydreaming! It’s the thing you loved to do in school, but what you were most likely to get punished for. Well now there’s legitimate reason to zone off when bored. Yes, according to author Jonah Lehrer’s book Imagine: How Creativity Works, it’s those moments when you’re dazing out the window that your getting the most work done. Perhaps all of us writers knew this intuitively. But Lehrer’s book provides actual research to back that statement up. In it, he describes the work of psychologist Jonathan Schooler and his research on daydreams and their benefits. And what…
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Tweet A few weekends ago, I headed out to my first ever writing retreat class. It was great to gab with writers and nosh on good eats while taking in the view of the breathtaking mountains on the Windward side of Oahu. Besides all of that, I got a lot of practical tips to get the writing flowing. I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned with you. Inspiration from Music The first one’s pretty fun. Just turn on something instrumental, grab a notebook and a writing utensil, close your eyes and let the music direct your pen. The…
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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…