Tag: writing motivation

In last week’s writing class, we used The Storymatic to create a writing prompt. Our leader picked four cards, and then we wrote for fifteen minutes. The fun part of this session was that we all used the same prompt. At the end, we went around the room and...

You’ve heard me talk many times before about how important it is to practice writing. One of the best ways to do this is to do a 15 to 20 minute free write based on a prompt. It both warms you up and stretchers your writing muscles. Below is...

Let me be candid. Most days I feel like a total failure. It’s been worse lately reading about all the writing news. It feels like a very bleak market. There’s not much room for people like me to ever see my books on the shelf let alone on any...

Writing advice is never absolute. It often changes with circumstances and sometimes, like now, it’s a straight up contradiction. Of course you’re going to hide information. If the reader already knows what will happen, there’s no incentive to keep reading. Even when the reader expects the ending, like with...

I often ask myself if I should give up writing. It mostly happens in moments of feeling down, which strike at random. A wound opens up, and I ask myself, am I good enough to keep going? Is it all just a waste of time? This feeling also rears...

I first heard about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 13 years ago when I came across Chris Baty’s book “No Plot, No Problem.” I wasn’t a plotter at the time and the idea of sitting down and letting the novel flow out of me was intriguing. And the idea...

Notice in the title I used the word ‘ease’ instead of ‘overcome.’ That’s because I don’t have a crystal ball, and I haven’t overcome imposter syndrome. There are many days where I feel like I’m a big fake. As much as I’d like to get rid of it, I...

One of the first assignments I’d give as a writing teacher would be to have my students write a journal entry on why they want to be a writer. I encourage you to do this now. Remember back to when you first wanted to be a writer before you...

All of us will encounter rejection at some time in our life, some more than others. Writers fall into this often rejected category. It’s a fact of life we have to learn to deal with. I wrote a short story in January and entered it into a contest. We...