I always encourage writers to write every day. That’s what I do. Slow and steady wins the race. I learned that as a kid from the turtle in Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The turtle is wise. The turtle embodies discipline. The turtle has focus. I applied turtle thinking to my writing because […]
Platform building gurus recommend monetizing our author websites—that is, to sell ads and place affiliate links. They also say to start sooner rather than later. They suggest this for two reasons. First, selling ads will generate some revenue. Maybe it’s only enough to pay for hosting, but every bit helps. Second, at some point, we […]
For the first couple of decades, I had one goal as a writer: to write faster. Over time I wrote with increased speed and could crank out articles and blog posts quickly. For longer works, I simply broke them into bite-sized chunks and knocked them off one at a time. Easy peasy. The problem was […]
If you are reading this blog, it’s likely because you are a writer (or at least are moving in that direction). Why do you write? What motivates you? What causes you to put in the work when other people or pursuits beckon? If the answer is fame, money, or easy work, you hold unrealistic expectations. […]
Have you ever said or thought any of the following? While these may appear as cautious statements to protect us from disappointment, they are really lies that conspire to hold us back from embracing the writer within. While we are all writers to one degree or another, if we’ve ever been the least bit intentional […]
I thought it might be fun to start the New Year by sharing our writing accomplishments from last year. I’d go first, and you could add yours in the comment section. Just as quickly I realized that was a bad idea. We are all at different points with our writing, having different goals and expectations, […]
As a magazine publisher, I deal with submission deadlines all the time. Without deadlines, nothing would ever happen; writers would invariably ask for additional time or, more likely, they’d never make time to write in the first place. I don’t set submission deadlines to frustrate people; deadlines are necessary to move towards publication. Deadlines are […]
Although I do not make New Year’s resolutions, I do set annual goals. (The two are different, but I won’t go into that here.) I set personal goals, spiritual goals, financial goals, and writing goals. Not only do I form new goals, but I also review last year’s goals. Last year, I made four writing […]
Last year, I posted my writing goals for 2012. They were: How did I do? My dissertation was finished and approved and my website was completely overhauled. I did complete the draft of one book (though not the one I intended) and started book two. Though I have had some informal interaction with agents, I […]
It’s important to set goals, both for our work and for our self. Goals move us forward Without goals, it’s easy to drift from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year—and nothing really changes. One of my goals is to attend two writing conferences each year. This helps grow […]