Don’t Live in Isolation John Donne said, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” We will do well to heed his wise words. Though many people celebrate the rugged individual, individualism is a lonely place to be. We need people. Going it alone isolates. We are emotionally and physically healthier when we connect in […]
Too many novice writers don’t invest in the craft and expect seasoned authors to give them an easy button to publication I post on this blog, send out a writing newsletter, and speak at conferences because I want to give back to the writing community, to share with others what I have learned over the […]
While a college degree in writing has value, it is not a requirement for a rewarding career Last week I talked about the appropriateness of hiring others to help us with our writing journeys. This has been a reoccurring theme in my career as a writer and my vocation as a publisher. When it comes […]
To progress as an author requires hard work and diligent focus I’ve been writing my entire adult life. In the early years, my primary goal was to write faster, but for the past decade or so, my focus was on writing better. As I attended to learning the craft of writing, my writing has steadily […]
Being in a creative environment offers writers many benefits not found elsewhere A few weeks ago I attended a writers conference, the Festival of Faith and Writing. Setting a record, there were over 2,100 attendees who invaded the campus of Calvin College. I wasn’t planning on going and then changed my mind at the last […]
There is no single path to becoming a better writer. Instead, we have a myriad of options before us. Here are some of the opportunities I encountered on my writing journey: Write Columns Early on I contributed articles to a small newsletter (back when newsletters were still mailed). Having a deadline to hit each month […]
As writers we all want more people to see what we write, right? If we have a book, we want more people to buy it, and if we blog we want more people to read it and comment, right? Be careful. Last week I heard about two bloggers whose posts went viral. The first case […]
Two weeks ago I asked the question, do you have a writing community? Although a writing community can be a haphazard hodgepodge of writing connections, an intentional solution will likely offer the best type of community. But what might a structured writing community look like and do? The answer covers a gambit of options. Here […]
November was National Novel Writing Month Alas, NaNoWriMo is no more. But the idea behind it can live forever. Here is the premise to copy or adapt. Happy writing! November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short. The goal is to write the first draft of a novel (or at least the first […]
As writers, we write alone. Even if we compose our words with people around us—such as at a coffee shop or the kitchen table—writing is a solitary effort. Often we must isolate ourselves for progress to occur; we say “no” to social activities in order to move our work forward or meet a deadline. Our […]