Tag: writing

Last week, I shared how going on a writer’s retreat gave me the opportunity to pause and reflect on my writing journey over the past twelve months.

I had written nearly every day during the prior year, making progress but not seeing it. I ground out words with methodical repetition, not realizing I had reasons to cheer. Yet I did have cause to celebrate, in terms of both quantity and quality.

Quantity: At last year’s retreat, I started writing a book. Just before this year’s event, I finished it. (Never mind that a book is never truly done.) That was quite an accomplishment, but until I paused to reflect, I hadn’t appreciated how far I had come.

What amazed me even more was that I started researching another book last April and just finished that one, too. I also took time to write a short e-book, How Big Is Your Tent? (download it for free). Plus, there were a couple hundred more blog posts. I also worked on my platform and published some shorter works.

Quality: Sitting at the writers retreat also reminded me of how I’ve improved over the past year. I’ve learned so much—and applied most of it. I don’t make the same basic errors I made twelve months ago. I still make mistakes, it’s just they’re more advanced ones—ones I was too green to even see last year. I’ve plugged into critique groups, attended webinars, and taken online classes. I’ve gotten better.

But instead of reveling in all this, I was tired and discouraged, Sheesh. I forgot to celebrate my accomplishments.

There’s certainly more I could have done and more I wanted to do. But I refuse to focus on what didn’t happen, instead celebrating what did.

Your journey is different from mine. You may have less time or more time to write, fewer distractions or more, a slower lifestyle or a busier one. So don’t compare yourself to me. Compare yourself to you. That’s what matters—and then celebrate what you’ve accomplished.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

A few years ago I attended a writers retreat. Aside from a chance to write in a different venue and hang out with other writers, I enjoyed an unexpected benefit: I recalled my writing journey over the past twelve months.

It’s wise to periodically look back and evaluate progress, yet we seldom do. As writers we too often go from one day to the next, plodding forward but not seeing any headway.

The opposite dilemma is sliding from one day to the next, with the implicit promise to write tomorrow. Days become weeks and weeks pile up to take months and months turn into years, all with the intent to resume writing tomorrow.

Neither perspective is good. When we don’t see the journey, we lose the opportunity to celebrate progress. Yet, if we procrastinate, we miss even taking the trip. Yes, seasons come when we can’t write or don’t write, but those should only last for a time; that’s why it’s called a season. Then we resume writing.

Take a pause today, and look at the past year. What do you see?

• If you’ve moved forward in your writing, take a moment to cheer. And then get back to work.
• If you’ve not been writing—whether for a good reason or not—don’t despair. Shrug off the guilt, remove the excuses, and stop explaining why. Forget what was and resolve to resume writing. Start today.
• What if you progressed but not as much as you hoped? Simply realize you’re normal. We seldom accomplish as much as we want or think we should; that’s life. Celebrate what you did, cast aside what you didn’t do, and pledge to keep moving forward. That’s what writers do.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

For the past few days, I’ve been fighting a cold. I cut out as much as I could from my daily activities, doing only what had to be done. I stopped exercising and skipped my morning writing routine. Though I still wrote during my illness, I only did what I could not put off: maintaining my blogging schedule and meeting deadlines for my publications.

The writing I did do, however, I fear was not my best work. But it was the best I could cobble together with a head numbed by cold remedies and a body aching to lay down. Even today, I have not yet fully exited that muddled state of being.

Though I still wrote every day while I was sick, I feel a bit guilty over not writing with intention. I covered the essentials but nothing more. I maintained the letter of the law (my law) by writing every day, but I missed the spirit of the law (my law) by not being intentional.

My intentional writing moves my books forward towards eventual publication. This is the type of writing I must do every day to succeed and grow as a writer. Intentional writing is goal-oriented.

My essential writing is an end in itself, done to meet a commitment or out of necessity. This type of writing may increase my writing speed but does little to foster increased quality. Essential writing is task-oriented.

Essential writing reminds me of mowing the lawn, doing it over and over again. Intentional writing reminds me of landscaping, more permanent and immensely satisfying. It is art and it sustains me.

To achieve writing success, I must write every day, but I must also be intentional in what I write.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

This week I pulled out something I wrote and published a decade ago. I wanted to repurpose it into a shorter, updated piece.

My old work shocked me. It was ponderous.

I used big words that no one ever wields. I constructed long sentences – the kind where you forget the beginning by the time you get to the end. I employed a passive language. It was bad, at least by my standards and skills circa 2013.

To my dismay, my words didn’t serve my reader but strained to elevate myself. I hadn’t written to help others but to call attention to my writing. The subtext of my ungainly message was to parade my vocabulary, intellectual ponderings, and academic style – not to educate, entertain, or enlighten.

It was painful to read.

I could have felt the sting of embarrassment over my novice ways and immature style. I did not. First, I couldn’t change what I wrote. The printed page doesn’t allow edits or do-overs.

As they quip in school, it was part of my permanent record. Second, even though it makes me shudder now, some people did like what I wrote then. They enjoyed my style; they appreciated my insights; they found value in my prose.

Instead of dismay, I celebrate what I read from my former self. My decade-old words prove, without doubt, that my writing has improved. I’ve grown as a wordsmith. My style is coalescing into something worth reading, words that are honest and real. I’m comfortable with where I am now and glad for the progress of my journey.

The only way I might have mourned my past writing would be if I hadn’t improved at all if I was no better today than I was back then.

In another ten years, I hope to read this piece and shudder again, realizing it was not nearly as good as my writing will be circa 2023.

May it be so.

May we always strive to improve our writing.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

I’ve been writing for more years than I care to admit. My journey falls into three segments and in each one, I accidentally discovered a key to becoming a better writer.

Increase Your Speed: For most of my life, the writing was something I did as an adjunct to something else. It was part of my job, representing a task to complete or a means to a goal. Therefore, I desired to write with greater efficiency, to produce the desired output in a shorter time. Speed mattered. This phase was the longest, spanning a couple of decades. Over time, I learned to write faster, to produce decent content quickly. Writing became easier.

Increase Your Quantity: I started blogging in 2008, requiring that I write more frequently. No longer was it just a monthly column to create, a report to generate, or a project to complete. My writing output increased. I wrote when I felt like it, and I wrote when I didn’t. Eventually blogging inspired book ideas, and I began writing every day.

Increase Your Quality: I was writing quickly and frequently. Because of this, the quality of my output slowly improved. But this was not enough. I changed my focus. I studied the craft, I read books about writing, and I joined critique groups. With each new discovery, the quality of my work improved. Though this reduced my speed at first, it was a tradeoff worth making. As I became more confident in my writing knowledge, my speed returned and then surpassed my prior level.

Though I will never fully arrive, my writing is in a good place and improving every day.

Had I to do it again, had I been intentional, I’d have reversed the order. I’d have first focused on quality and then mixed in quantity. Last, I’d have pursued speed, while maintaining the first two. But regardless of the order pursued, a good writer must possess all three traits: quality, quantity, and speed.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

Last week in “How to Fuel Your Writing,” I advised maintaining a file of book concepts and ideas. I learned this lesson the hard way.

A few years ago, while doing some non-fiction research, I desired for a creative way to share my conclusions. I toyed with the idea of using narrative, of unveiling my findings in the form of a fiction book.

The concept fired my imagination. Soon I had mentally outlined the path my story would take. I developed characters, imagining the appearance and traits of each. I devised scenes and placed them into chapters. I worked through transitions to ensure a smooth flow, stirring in intrigue to keep readers engaged.

Through it all, my protagonist would discover what I discovered, only instead of reading books and conducting online research, he would follow clues and talk to real people. He had a mystery to solve, a journey that would educate readers while entertaining them.

I planned that as soon as I finished my research and formally published my findings, I would dive into the narrative version. Until then, I would store my marvelous story in my mind.

Sadly, other projects preempted this one and eventually my grand ideas faded from memory. Though I can conjure up smatterings of content, they represent nothing more than disjointed vignettes of no value. All I can recall is the book’s opening sentence and the general story arc. I even forgot the name of my beloved protagonist.

I never want to lose another idea. That’s why I now write down each one before it wanders off.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

Last week, in “Four Steps to Becoming a Writer,” I mentioned the guy who said, “All my life I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I wasn’t writing.”

My story’s the opposite. All my life I was writing, but I only recently knew I wanted to be a writer. So I went to work to become one:

• I started blogging.
• I read books about writing.
• I attended writers’ conferences.
• I followed blogs about writing.
• I joined a critique group.
• I became friends with other writers.

But none of these made me feel like a writer, so I started acting like one.

• I wrote every day.
• I developed a professional website.
• I started this blog about writing.
• I had a professional headshot taken.
• I spoke about writing.
• I ordered business cards.
• I staked my claim on social media sites.

But the turning point came when I started calling myself a writer. At that moment a switch flipped in my brain. All these steps aided in my journey, but it wasn’t until I said it aloud that I actually believed it.

“Hi, I’m Peter, and I’m a writer. How about you?”

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.