I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. – Henry David Thoreau * * * I’d be lying if I said there isn’t a certain appeal to stepping away from all modern things, walking into the hills, and being silent for the rest of my life. But […]
The September Silence
A good friend has dubbed it “The September Silence” — that time each year that I take a social media break in order to pretend the weather is cooler in Texas and turn my focus even more toward writing. At 11:57 p.m. on August 31, I logged out of all social media apps. And just […]
The MFA Teacher Post That’s Enraged the [Writing] Internet
So there is this, a piece of The Stranger that has enraged many writers online. Many of the writers are the same writers that tell other writers, “Grow a thick skin,” but, instead, they take part in Rage du Jour, giving the very thing they hate time online. There are political figures I cannot stomach […]
Quoting Oneself
[A bit of a disclaimer. This post was mostly meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek. It is meant to tease those who try taking an easy route toward becoming a “thought leader” or “influencer” by way of memes — not action. In short, it’s a jokey post. If you have written a book, spoken to […]
The Distracted Writer
I saw this recently — a word processor mimicking a typewriter that promises distraction-free writing. Some writers use old, manual typewriters — and not just in the pursuit of hipsterdom, but to avoid distractions. Others grab a pen and paper and write longhand manuscripts. On Sunday, I listened to this great interview with Robin Sloan […]
Year Five
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 […]
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 […]
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!) […]
E-Hermitage
With the shift to so many digital things, it seems the “e-” prefix can be attached to anything: e-book, e-commerce, e-trading, e-business, e-signature, e-etc. As 2014 approaches, I propose a new e-thing: e-hermitage! E-Hermitage I’ve written about my experiences taking a 101-day social media break. I even followed up with additional thoughts after returning. I […]
In Praise of Slow Writing
The advice goes something like this: Write as much as you can, as fast as you can. Always be “delivering.” The more you produce, the more money you will make. Speed, speed, speed!!! It works for some. If you’re writing a series, there are worse things in the world than fans wanting your next book […]
The Weight of Words
I’m not saying this is the last Lifehacker article I’ll ever read, but I find it funny that it’s the last article I read before removing Lifehacker from my blog reader. (The article is about clutter, and for me, Lifehacker in my blog reader has become clutter.) It’s not that I have anything against Lifehacker, […]
The Benefits of Sequential Content at ETCDallas
Last June, I spoke about the Benefits of Sequential Content at Emerging Tech Conference Dallas. I previously gave this presentation at the Dallas/Ft. Worth WordPress Meetup and posted a Juggling Writing entry about it here. Well, I polished it up a bit and presented it to a bigger crowd. I realize most of us don’t […]
Closing the Door to Distractions
The Telegraph recently had a good article about writers and distraction, opening with a bit about the lengths some famous authors go to in order to cut themselves off from the Internet. When well-known authors are using software created to restrict the Internet on the machines they use for writing (Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, and […]