There are times I look back on my writing progress in recent years and feel like I haven’t done enough. I can come up with excuses; some of them are even valid: I spent a couple years caring for my big sister before she died from cancer in 2003. I’ve spent most of my recent […]
The 50,000-Word Race
NaNoWriMo begins at 12:00 a.m. on November 1st. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, over 100,000 people take a vow to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Less than 20% succeed. Fifty thousand words in one month is a challenge for even fulltime writers, let alone writers who are […]
The Takeoff Roll
Last year, I read a friend’s first novel. He critiqued some of my writing in the past, and it was nice returning the favor. He’s getting ready to submit the novel to an agent who reads his writing, and he asked me if I felt the novel was tight enough to submit. He asked me […]
10 Ways to Keep Writing While Traveling for Work
Traveling for work (the day job), can cut into a writing schedule. Here are 10 tips to help you keep writing, or at least focus on writing-related things, while on the road. 1. Make a Writing Schedule Before You Leave Making a writing schedule before you leave for a business trip ensures that you’ll actually […]
The Best Critique I Ever Received
This week — Monday through Friday — I’m talking about criticism. Monday: The Benefits of Criticism Tuesday: 5 Ways to Handle Criticism Wednesday: 5 Ways to Give Good Critiques Yesterday: Criticism — It’s Not an Editor’s Job Today: The Best Critique I Ever Received I had somebody in development at a major film studio interested […]
Criticism — It’s Not an Editor’s Job
This week — Monday through Friday — I’m talking about criticism. Monday: The Benefits of Criticism Tuesday: 5 Ways to Handle Criticism Yesterday: 5 Ways to Give Good Critiques Today: Criticism — It’s Not an Editor’s Job Friday: The Best Critique I Ever Received A few of the things I’ve heard people say before submitting […]
5 Ways to Give Good Critiques
This week — Monday through Friday — I’m talking about criticism. Monday: The Benefits of Criticism Tuesday: 5 Ways to Handle Criticism Today: 5 Ways to Give Good Critiques Thursday: Criticism — It’s Not an Editor’s Job Friday: The Best Critique I Ever Received 1. Take the Time. If you agree to read somebody’s work […]
5 Ways to Handle Criticism
This week — Monday through Friday — I’m talking about criticism. Yesterday: The Benefits of Criticism. Today: 5 Ways to Handle Criticism Wednesday: 5 Ways to Give Good Critiques Thursday: Criticism — It’s Not an Editor’s Job Friday: The Best Critique I Ever Received Normal people don’t like being told that something they put their […]
The Benefits of Criticism
This week — Monday through Friday — I’m talking about criticism. Today: The Benefits of Criticism. Tuesday: 5 Ways to Handle Criticism Wednesday: 5 Ways to Give Good Critiques Thursday: Criticism — It’s Not an Editor’s Job Friday: The Best Critique I Ever Received The Benefits of Criticism Learning to deal with criticism is one […]
Cut It Out: Eliminate These 5 Things for More Writing Time
It’s been over a year since the day my wife and I were watching TV and it went out. It made a little clicking noise, and then it went black. Kaput! The TV had died. There was a moment of panic: “What will we do?! Civilization will crumble without TV; this is clearly the beginning […]
5 Ways to Deal with Writer’s Block
You sit down to write and the words don’t flow. You get frustrated and maybe check e-mail. You pace; you might even do some cleaning or watch TV. You tell yourself that you’ll get back to writing after your writer’s block goes away. Hours, days, months, even years later, it’s still there. Writer’s block is […]
Dropping Things
There was a period of time, during an illness with a close relative and during an illness of my own, that I didn’t write or juggle as much as I once did. I felt bad that I wasn’t productive. Even though nobody would fault me for taking care of a sick sibling for two years […]
5 Writing Lessons Learned from Street Performing
Before I ever made money writing, I made money juggling. When I started writing, I realized many of the lessons learned from street performing applied to writing. The first time I juggled for money, I was given permission to juggle in the plaza in front of Dallas’ West End Marketplace. I went to Dallas by […]