Some distractions are good while others get in the way. Today has not been a good writing day. I’ve been distracted by a bad distraction – but one that’s wholly outside of my control. The loud tenants living in the apartment above us moved out. Today, however, the management company for our complex has contractors…
I get stuck sometimes – but that’s not writer’s block. Lots of people have heard of writer’s block. It’s an unfortunate occurrence when a writer can’t write. No ideas are coming, the story isn’t working, or they just have lost passion for their art. I’m not entirely sure I believe in writer’s block. While I’ve…
All self-published authors are up against a few pitfalls. To my knowledge, the advantage to getting published traditionally (in addition to them doing marketing) comes down to polish. They hone the story, handle formatting, and make sure what they put out is so polished that it positively glitters. As a self-published author, I do my…
Just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it. Despite primarily reading and writing sci-fi and fantasy, my all-time favorite work of fiction is Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. If you are not familiar with this book, I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a great story, well-written, and has an impactful and positive life…
I had no concept of how writing from a plan would be this fulfilling. Last year, I started a new goal. As a professional writer, I determined I needed to do more writing. Among other goals I set for myself – I set out to write a minimum of 1500 words of fiction Monday-Friday. That…
Make the art, create the recipe, write the book, pursue the creativity – do it for you. Sometimes I doubt myself. I began writing fiction – mostly sci-fi and fantasy – when I was nine. In fits and starts, I continued to write over the years. Then, not long ago, I started to write full-time….
If you have a story in your head – go ahead and tell it. I have come across many people who’ve talked about sharing a story. Some of the stories they want to share are fiction; others are very real yet seemingly fictional; some are allegorical; others are less about the story and more character-driven….
There is more to me than being a creative. Sometimes I need to remind myself. I love being a writer. This is the thing I have always believed I was meant to do in this world. But being a writer – like any other job – is not the whole picture. There is far more…
Even in fiction, a little knowledge helps make connections. Have you ever read a book, watched a TV show or movie, and come across something so implausible that it ruined the story? Lots of fantasy and sci-fi are built on largely impossible things. Superheroes aren’t real, faster-than-light travel violates current physics, most people can’t do…
Any word choice you make will impact your work. Whatever you are writing – words matter. The English language is messy. Someone I know described English as the language that takes other languages into back-alleys and shakes them down for loose grammar. Because English is how it is, many different words can be applied to…
