Title Image: Writing is a Sport

Writing Is a Sport

Do you feel battered and bruised after a writing session? Does your mind and body ache? That’s because writing is a sport. You must commit to it, train for it, and love it even when you hate it.  All athletes start at the same place. They find a sport they love and work towards improving… Read more »

Title Image: Revitalize your writing resolve

Revitalize Your Writing Resolve

Well, it’s August, and that means we’ve passed the halfway mark for the year of 2021, and boy, am I looking for ways to revitalize my practice after losing writing steam. Those new year’s goals are far behind me, plenty laying littered and broken along my yearly writing journey. I’d love to say my passion… Read more »

Celebrating Perseverance

Celebrating Perseverance

My dear Speculators, the Perseverance Rover, AKA “Percy,” landed on February 18th. I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate perseverance and all the awesome that this innovation in automated extraterrestrial exploration has to offer writers of speculative fiction. NASA intends for Percy to determine some key information about Mars, including whether there is evidence… Read more »

Melanie Marttila

Mythic Storytelling: Tarot for Writers, Part 3

Greetings, my lovely Speculators! I hope you’re keeping safe and well in these remarkable times. I also hope you’ve enjoyed this miniseries on the tarot for writers so far. To recap, in Part 1, I offered a brief introduction to the tarot, in Part 2, I reviewed five books on the tarot for writers, and… Read more »

#5OnFri: Five of Winter’s Gifts to Every Writer

Sometimes inspiration is hard to come by for us as writers.  Everyday living distracts and tires our imagination and focus. Why do you think there are so many memes and books written about writers getting on with the writing?  We know that getting to the writing is the hardest part of the effort.  (I see… Read more »

#5OnFri: Five Curiosities for Writing Inspiration

  Like many writers, I got the idea for my book, A Keeper’s Truth, in a dream, that four am buzz that had me giddy, watching the scene play out in excruciating detail, the characters as real as life, voices clear and strong in my head. Jotting the scene on paper wasn’t a conscious choice, but a necessity…. Read more »

So, You Want to Be a Writer?

April is poetry month and today I read So, You Want to Be a Writer? by Charles Bukowski. This might just be my favorite poem of all time about writing. Except maybe for this one and this other one. (But I digress.) Anyway hop on over and read the Bukowski poem right now. It’s OK, I’ll wait. Great, you’re back. Why did… Read more »