Many writing teachers and coaches offer all manner of rules for optimum writing. Do this; don’t do that. Always include this one element; never use another. These rules make my head spin and threaten to paralyze my writing. Is it possible to compose even one sentence that doesn’t violate some critical principle? Though I’ve given […]
Tag: writing
As writers, we all have strengths and weaknesses. One person’s forte may be another person’s nemesis. It’s wise to know where we excel as writers and what trips us up. For myself, I’m good at editing for length and ensuring a piece flows, something I do every day at work. I’m good at spotting needless […]
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Every Author Needs a Bio
Your book is going to need an author bio. The best time to write your bio is before you need it. That means you should start now. (See “Why You Should Write Your Author Bio Now.”) For a short piece, writing our own bio (that is, a concise autobiography) can be confoundingly frustrating. One challenge […]
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Finding a Place to Write
A month ago in my post, “The Rhythm of Writing,” I shared that my wife and I moving would interrupt my writing. My blog posts for the past three Saturdays reflected this, as I provided the starting point and gave you the opportunity to finish my posts by 1) promoting your blog, 2) working on […]
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The Rhythm of Writing
To be a successful writer, we’re encouraged to do many things: The list goes on, and it overwhelms me. Though I do well at writing every day and blogging, I struggle to do the other items on a consistent basis. And this is when the rest of my life is in order. When something disrupts […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Consider this: “ABC Company, a strategic provider of advanced business technology applications to facilitate organizational utilization of gamechanging convergent networks, announced today the release of its unprecedented Widgetiser solution, which is guaranteed to revolutionize existing technological infrastructures overnight.” This is a fictitious example of an all too common press release. […]
Most jobs include vacation time, usually starting at two weeks a year and going up from there. Though I’ve never been a fan of taking a two-week trip, I used to look forward to those vacation days off from work to have a break, catch up on personal projects, and make shorter vacation-like excursions. However, […]
The opinion of some writing instructors is to only write what you know. Is this good advice or bad? Is it wise or limiting? Actually, these are trick questions. Let me explain by turning this one phrase into two pieces of advice: This covers everything. Of course, as soon as we learn something we don’t […]
In past posts, I’ve encouraged writers to write every day and write with intention. So if we should write with intention every day, does this mean we can’t take breaks? Although we shouldn’t stray from our planned writing schedule too often, it’s equally unwise to stick to our plan with unwavering commitment. Just as most […]
This week at our writer’s group, one of our newer members wondered if she was really a writer. “I read my piece one day and thought it was good, and the next day it seemed rotten.” We all nodded. Not that we thought her piece wasn’t any good but because we knew those feelings all […]