Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
In my post “5 Reasons Why a Writer Should Go With a Traditional Publisher,” I gave five advantages of traditional publishing. Although these reasons are compelling, there are also some downsides of traditional publishing. Consider These Five Downsides of Traditional Publishing: 1. It Takes Longer Unless a book is “fast-tracked” it will typically take eighteen […]
Personally, when it comes to finding balance, it seems something is always slipping, with the areas of writing, work, and life being in a constant state of tension. Yes, there are times where I may go a couple of days keeping everything in balance, but one little bump in the road and the whole thing […]
For years my goal was to write faster, but I made no effort to write better. Though I did improve, my progress was gradual. When I got serious about improving as a writer, I had to force myself to slow down and be more deliberate. Now after many years of focusing on the craft, my […]
Tips to Never Run Out of Ideas I write a lot and in many areas: magazine columns, newsletters, multiple blogs, nonfiction books, memoirs, and I recently added short stories. But this doesn’t sap my creativity; I still have more ideas than the time to explore them. Here’s how I fuel my writing: Keep a List […]
Choose Your Blogging Platform with Care Some people say that if you’re blogging as a hobby, wordpress.com is okay, but if you consider yourself a professional you need to go with WordPress.org (the self-hosted version). Is it possible to do a professional website with WordPress.com? Though I’ve seen some successful authors use a WordPress.com powered […]
After writing regularly, the second most valuable thing I did was to get feedback on my writing. It was scary at first (and sometimes still is). But to get feedback from our family or friends doesn’t count. They love us and will only tell us good stuff. Or even worse, they’ll say our writing is […]
Authors Should Treat Their Writing Like a Business If you write solely for the fun of it or treat writing as a mere hobby, then don’t read this post. Seriously, it will just make you mad. But if you want to succeed as a writer, regardless of how you define success, then this post should […]
Both Are Wrong With changes in publishing and advances in technology, it’s never been easier to publish a book. This isn’t to imply publishing a book is easy, just that the barriers are disappearing and the costs are dropping. This emerging reality leads to two extremes of self-publishing for do-it-yourself authors who want to publish […]
We Can Find Encouragement and Instruction in Reading Great Writing Quotes I recent asked writers to share your favorite quotes about writing. Mine was “Omit needless words.” Here are some more great writing quotes. “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” -Toni […]
Here are the actions I pursue to improve as a writer: These tips helped me to improve as a writer. May they do the same for you.