Recent Articles
How Many Drafts Does it Take to Equal a Finished Book?
When I visit kids at schools, someone usually asks me if I just write my book and that’s that. It’s a humorous question to me; a book is hardly ever finished the first time it comes out on paper (there is, of course, the very, very rare exception). But students are...
How to Fight Off Burnout
I’m a very task-oriented person. I make my goals, I make my list of tasks to support those goals, I work myself every hour I have and don’t quit until the clock says my work day is officially done. This means that while I accomplish a ridiculous amount of tasks during...
On Believing in Yourself: an Examination
One of the most difficult and yet important pieces of the writer life is believing in yourself and believing in your work. I have a book that just launched into the world (two days ago, to be exact). This is my first traditionally published book (but certainly not my...
The Importance of Research: a Short Examination
I once heard a writer say that she could usually finish all the research she needed to do for a story in about a week. Meanwhile, this was my research stack for the summer. It could be because I’m a former journalist, but one of the biggest challenges for me is...
How to Organize Your Ideas: Try Some Photo Boxes
Last month I talked about the importance of capturing your ideas in some way or another. I use index cards to jot down every idea that visits me, and that has worked well for me. It’s up to you how to capture them; it’s only necessary that you do. But what happens to...
The Best Practice that will Speed Up Your Writing
The most frequent concern I hear from most writers is that they don’t have adequate time to write a book. It’s hard to find the time, when you work full-time or you’re a full-time parent. There are so many demands on us every single day that it often feels like there...
A Simple Practice that Will Guarantee Better Story Ideas
One of the most common problems for writers, whether they write fiction or nonfiction, is coming up with story ideas. I meet a lot of writers who have the beginnings of a story premise, but they abandon it halfway through because they don’t really like it anymore....
Write a GREAT Book Even When Your Time is Limited
