In a recent post, J. Leigh talked about reasons why we distract ourselves from our work — why do we waste time when we know we should be productive? The root of self-distraction tends to be fear: fear of failure, fear of criticism, fear period. Sometimes, self-distraction happens because we’re overwhelmed and we just don’t …
Category: Writing
Jul 16
Why We Waste Time
This is a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately while I’ve, well, been wasting time. I feel like I haven’t done any significant writing for almost a year. (Heck, I haven’t even been blogging!) Some of that was unavoidable — personal issues to deal with, classes and a full time job that …
Mar 19
Empathy – The Key to Writing Deep Emotion
A reader recently sent me this question, after reading The Madness Project: I find that it’s difficult to convey strong emotion or culminate events without being drippy…How were you able to stay deep and involved without going overly sentimental? The question took me a bit by surprise. I’d never really thought about it before…although I can …
Feb 19
Failing Gracefully as a Writer
No one wants to talk about failure. Writing bloggers and how-to authors everywhere make their livings by promising success — follow this strategy, take these classes, Tweet this many times/day, Facebook with your fans…and you’ll sell thousands of books and readers will love you. The strategies are as numerous as there are bloggers…or would-be writers. …
Feb 13
5 Ways to Travel for Inspiration
If you’re like me, you love to travel…but probably don’t get to as often as you’d like. Maybe it’s the time, maybe it’s the money…or maybe it’s both. There’s that day job that you actually have to go to (you know, to pay the bills). Or there are the kids or the pets (or both) …
Jan 30
Using Pinterest for Setting Research
One of the coolest things about thriller writer J.F. Penn’s website is the photos section. She travels a lot as part of the research she does for her novels — it’s a writer’s dream! J. Leigh is going to talk about her trip to Iceland last year and how it has played a huge role in her …
Jan 10
Inspiration Isn’t Action
I love the New Year. It’s invigorating and inspiring to be starting over, getting a fresh take on things, and recommitting to goals and dreams that maybe didn’t quite see their fruition last year. I’m big on office supplies, so one of my favorite ways to kick off the new year is with a new …
May 30
Writing Creative Nonfiction
In my prior life as a university English professor, all I did was nonfiction writing. I taught it. I wrote it. I lived it. And I discovered something in the process: there is a strong tendency to want to divorce creativity from nonfiction writing. When you take a “creative writing” class in school, no one …