Five years ago, I wrote the first entry for The Juggling Writer. Looking back at my earnest beginning, I hoped the blog would show people how to manage their time in order to get things done (life and writing in harmony). I know I’ve written plenty of entries focused on that very thing, but I’m […]
Archives for 2014
Why I Wake Up Early (Even on the Weekend)
I’ve written about mornings before on my main blog. It’s no secret that I like waking up early to write. But there’s a reason beyond the quiet that matters to me: if I get up early and make something I want to make before the world hisses to life and churns away, all the things […]
How to Come Up with Good Ideas
Yesterday at work, I had an idea for a blog entry. It was a great idea — at least that’s how I remember it. Because I was working, I wrote a note in a notebook (instead of putting it in Evernote), but today…I can’t find it. I hear a lot of people talk about keeping […]
Five Writing Lessons Learned from Podcast Movement
Last weekend, I attended Podcast Movement 2014, in Dallas. Over 600 podcasters from all over the world descended on the area. (If you’re interested, I wrote about it here.) If you know me, you know I tend to be shy in groups. Even around people I know well, the moment there are four or more […]
My Writing Mix Tape
My writing mix tape is blank — nothing but the sound of early morning darkness. Maybe the sound of the air conditioner or the heater, depending on the season. Sometimes it’s whatever creaking the apartment makes after settling and realizing one of its inhabitants is awake and stirring. It creaks and pops like a tired […]
Have You Written Today?
Inspired by Austin Kleon’s cool phone lock screen, I made the lock screen you see here. It’s not that I really need the reminder to write, because most days begin with writing — and those day’s that don’t…I usually write in the evening. But… Some Days I Don’t Write I will admit that there are […]
How Do You Write?
Getting from one side of a novel to the other… There comes a point in my writing process that I take over the living room for the day. Whether it’s bits and pieces of a story written on note cards, or printed sections of a manuscript color coded and spread out on the floor so […]
A Matter of Strength
I didn’t get along very well with school. It seemed there was little encouragement for the things I did well and a pile of chiding and force put into the things I didn’t do so well. My schooling seemed fixated on pushing me to put 10 times the effort toward my weaknesses, while rarely encouraging […]
Making Writing Visual
I have always admired artists. They can hold up their work and, in an instant, an audience can tell if they like it or not. I’ve talked about it before: when it comes to a properly formatted manuscript — physically — they all look the same. (Man, that’s a shoddy video! But…it’s how one learns!) […]
Looking Through an Old Lens
I follow quite a few photographers from my Google Plus account and from my Flickr account. Every so often, I see someone post images taken with an old camera that impress others. I’ve seen people modify digital cameras with old lenses. Again, people are impressed by the results. For all that can be done with […]
Inspiration from Unlikely Places
Three of my favorite books about writing are Stephen King’s On Writing, Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and Ann Patchett’s The Getaway Car. In King’s book, it’s not the actual part about writing that I love best — it’s the part about his life and becoming a writer. I […]
Year 45
I make a living with words, but words do not come easy to me. In my head, I can see it all laid out in the most perfect state. It doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or technical writing — up top, I know the potential of what I can do. Getting there is another thing… […]
Caddo Lake State Park Writing Retreat
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned a second annual writing retreat was happening. With last year’s retreat a success, there was no way a friend and I weren’t going to make it an annual thing. There are plenty of lakes with weekend cabins not too far away, and thanks to the mightiness that is the […]