By DiAnn Mills Writers value deadlines. Well, maybe not. But the looming dates do help to keep us focused, on task, and writing, our favorite activity on the planet. Sometimes though we think those deadlines are out to kill us. What’s the balance? How can we end the love/hate relationship and turn our writing process into a positive one? The …
Have We Slept Through a Harvest?
by Terri Gillespie Have we slept through a harvest? He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. Proverbs 10:5, TLV Crops and harvests. Commitments. Follow-through. Seeing a writing project through to completion. Sowing into our craft and reaping success in publishing. When we live these guidelines we are …
Deadlines: One of the Best Kept Secrets in Writing
by Kathy Harris A goal is a dream with a deadline. – Napoleon Hill Want to know a secret? I love deadlines! And I think you should too. Search online for the quote above, and you’ll find it, or one like it, attributed to a number of different people. I first heard it from one of my early writing mentors, multi-published author Kaye Dacus. Despite …
How to End 2018 with Success
By Beth K. Vogt “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” — Estee Lauder (1908-2004), American businesswoman I came across the quote by businesswoman Estee Lauder while working on several different blog posts. Her words encompasses a truth I believe: Living the dream – any dream – means doing the work. If you’re reading this blog post, odds …
Writing on the Move
By Rondi Bauer Olson I have lived close to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for twenty-five years, but, despite being an avid backpacker, I had never hiked the forty-mile trail in the park that follows the coast of Lake Superior. Determined to check this goal off my bucket list, I set aside four days last month to tackle the trek. There …
Deadlines: Friend or Foe?
By Jan Drexler Whether self-imposed or contracted, deadlines are a real part of writing. And real writers need to know how to handle deadlines in the way that works best for them. Last fall, I had a tight deadline. I buckled down to work on it and was making good progress…until a family crisis intervened. I don’t know about you, …
5 Tips for Weary Writers in the Christmas Season
by DiAnn Mills No other time of the year can be more difficult to write than at Christmas. We writers are simply distracted with all the fun and excitement this time of the year brings. The season involves creativity, and we simply can’t resist the urge to simply BE in the moment. My excuses race from one exciting activity to …
5 Tips for Weary Writers in the Christmas Season
by DiAnn Mills No other time of the year can be more difficult to write than at Christmas. We writers are simply distracted with all the fun and excitement this time of the year brings. The season involves creativity, and we simply can’t resist the urge to simply BE in the moment. My excuses race from one exciting activity to …
First Chapters Syndrome
By Rondi Bauer Olson Last year my nebulous-but-fantastic-sounding goal was to “write every day.” I did a pretty good job. Five or six days a week I opened my laptop and typed a few hundred to a few thousand words. After twelve months, my word count was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, my useful output wasn’t. The first project I started working …
Keeping the Writing Going When Your Life is in Chaos
By Allie Pleiter As I’ve been finishing my 2017 non-fiction How to WRITE When Everything Goes WRONG, I’ve been talking with a lot of authors about how they tackle the challenge of meeting a deadline under far less than ideal circumstances. The answer, as you might think, is as individual as every writer, but there have been some universal tactics …
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