Inspiration and imagination fuel every story we write. The events and characters flow through our minds and fingers with ease on the best days. On the days when your idea pipe clogs, here are some creativity exercises for writers to pop your brain and get the stories flowing again! Add a Goblin Goblins are little… Read more »
Writers deal with ambiguity regularly. Every time we submit a piece to a publication, it exists in both states: published and unpublished. Until the acceptance or rejection slides into our inboxes, the piece remains in limbo. Maybe we decide to send it out to several places at a time. The anxiety heightens. What if two… Read more »
I call my first draft a “pile of words.” The first draft of anything is just about getting the words on the page, and those words don’t have to make a lot of sense. Between the time I shove that pile of words out of my brain and deliver a finished piece to an editor,… Read more »
Have you ever looked at a computer screen and wanted to bang your head against it? A time when the words seem less than what you were hoping? Or maybe nothing makes sense anymore? Yep. Me too. What a fun club to join! Want a t-shirt? We also have coffee mugs. At this point, I’m… Read more »
Do you need a break? A lot of people recommend pressing forward through exhaustion, hard choices, and those moments that make you want to give up. And I want to be perfectly clear. I am not asking you to give up. I am asking you to take a break before you push through to the… Read more »
Have you ever considered becoming a stalker? Not a creepy stalker. A curiosity stalker. You see, not every inspiration appears like a magical bunny out of a hat. In fact, most of those inspiration bunnies spend their time hopping across your lawn, sneaking into your garden to nibble up your lettuce before something else catches… Read more »
We all have those days when our best intentions and dedication to our writing get derailed. We oversleep, feel sick, have to get the trash out, and the cat throws up in the middle of everything, and the dog gets out and barks at a deer and our writing time gets spent corralling him back… Read more »
A pink glow from the sunrise diffused the harsh light from the fixture above. I glanced at the clock. 6:59 AM. I smiled as I typed my final letters and did a quick word count. 102 words in fifteen minutes. “YES!” My earworm of the morning, “Dancing Queen” by ABBA, filled my brain as I… Read more »
How many times have you attempted to shoehorn a new habit into your life? Did you start a diet that ignores the camaraderie of pizza night, begin a yoga class that meets at an inconvenient time, and set up a cleaning schedule that includes dusting the baseboards? Many new habits fail because we try to… Read more »
Once you have a clear goal in mind, the next moment can be perilous. You might hear a small voice telling you to start with a small step, but often our enthusiasm overwhelms us. All of the ways that you can make your goal happen crowd into your brain like partygoers stuffed into a small… Read more »
