I’m too old, I’m too tired, I can’t write for hours anymore… But something won’t let me quit writing! Is there a solution? Through a lot of trial and error, I found the solution for me: the 5-Minute Life. It didn’t just revolutionize my writing. You can also break a bad habit, or start a […]
energy
Want a 40% Increase in Your Writing Energy NOW?
Lately, I’ve been short on energy, even when I had enough time to write. Like most “modern” writers, I take short (unproductive, but frequent) breaks to check email or social media posts. In a word, I multitask. Multitasking: the Energy Drain Yes, I’d heard that multitasking was bad, but I figured I must be the […]
Mastering Mood-Dependent Writing Stages
Several days this week I was tired and headache-y, yet I needed to get some writing done. I don’t know about you, but I find writing a grueling challenge on the rare days I feel rotten. That’s why I found one particular chapter in The Write Type by Karen E. Peterson very encouraging. The author […]
Beware! Burnout Ahead
“Writing is not everything,” says Lisa Shearin in Writer Magazine. “And if you want longevity in this business, play isn’t just important–it’s critical. We get so intensely focused on having achieved the dream and working so hard to keep the dream going, that we’re blind to the signs that if we keep going down that […]
How the Chunky Method Saved My Life
A couple of months ago, after being sick and traveling and meeting two book deadlines, I stalled when given some unwelcome health news which required tests and more tests. I got really, really behind on an adult mystery, and for hours I would struggle to write, only to throw it all out at the end […]
Writers Running on Adrenaline
What fuel are you running on? Many writers these days are frantically running from place to place, working too many hours, volunteering for too many projects, working nights and weekends hoping for approval. On top of that, in order to write, they are fueled by sugar, caffeine, cigarettes and adrenaline to keep going. Long-Term Damage […]
Lions, and Tigers, and Bears…oh my!
Deadlines, and funerals, and a computer virus…oh my! It’s been one of those weeks! (Photo courtesy of http://the-english-spot.blogspot.com/2009/11/cartoon-idiom-to-be-swamped.html) A Few Days Later It’s the weekend, and I’m more tired than I’ve been in a good long while. And with the holidays coming, I’ve plotted my deadlines and weekly/daily writing “must do” lists on a giant […]
Drains in Disguise
I was wrong–again. For twenty years, I’ve told students and wannabe writers that you have to put the writing first! Do it before other things take over your day. Fight the impulse to clean your kitchen first, or straighten your office, or clean up the mess the kids made before leaving for school. “But I […]
Writer Diagnosis: Failure to Thrive
“Psychologists have begun to speak of what is perhaps the largest mental health problem in our day. It is not depression or anxiety, at least not at clinical levels. It is languishing—a failure to thrive.” ~~John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be We usually associate this languishing “failure to thrive” with newborns. But we […]
Boundaries and Energy Management
If you don’t manage your energy, it won’t matter how well you manage your time. That point was brought home to me again this weekend when I was re-reading a great book called The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.. Most of us realize that we have to balance our energy […]