Ready for Stage 3? It’s about taking action. (First read The Dynamics of Change, Stage 1: Making Up Your Mind, and Stage 2: Committing to Change.) If you’ve done your homework in Stages 1 and 2, you’re probably more excited about this action phase than you would normally be. Why? You’re prepared. You’re motivated. You’ve taken […]
habits
Writers Starting Right
Happy New Year! I don’t know what it is about having a CLEAN calendar, but it gives most people the urge to begin something new. Proof is well documented, though, that new year’s goals and resolutions rarely last through January. I’m convinced that much of the cause is lack of careful thought beforehand. Doing Something Different […]
When Deadlines Meet the Holidays
I love having deadlines. I really do. It means money will be coming in for my daily writing, as long as I meet those deadlines. But when overlapping deadlines meet Thanksgiving and Christmas (and all the dinners, shopping, cards and company that go with it), I feel my internal panic button set to go off. […]
Dismount to Find Writing Time
Several years ago, when I took on a two-year writing project, I knew that something had to give. I already was spending my life constantly trying to squeeze out five more spare minutes. To make the deadline, something (or several somethings) in my schedule would have to be weeded out. “Where’s the dead wood in your […]
Building Writing Muscle
Some years ago the doctor was considering surgery on my elbow. Why? Because I had damaged the joint with a weights routine that was too heavy…way too heavy. I thought I’d make up for a late start and build up my skinny arms overnight. Instead, for a while I couldn’t lift anything as heavy as […]
Undo-It-Yourself Projects
(Due to illness, I am re-posting a popular article from a few years ago.) “A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo-it-yourself project.”~~Abigail Van Buren We all have some self-defeating behaviors, and sometimes these behaviors can cause our writing dreams to be grounded. Through my years of writing, I certainly developed some bad habits […]
No Motivation or Willpower? A Simple Solution
Motivation is a great thing to have, but note this: it’s unreliable. And because it’s unreliable, motivation is NOT a good strategy for making change in your writing life. Motivation to write comes and goes. I love when it’s there. I love that “can’t wait to get to the keyboard” feeling about telling a story. […]
"They Say…" Writing Advice
I hope you new writers question everything “they say” you have to do to succeed. That includes any advice I might give on this blog. Thirty years ago “they said” a new writer had to find a way to get to New York and meet the editors face to face if she wanted to sell […]
Five Stages of Procrastination
How is procrastination like a bridge you set on fire yourself? According to Neil Fiore in The Now Habit, it’s similar to a situation where we scare ourselves into being frozen. Fiore says to imagine a very long flat board on the ground in front of you, and then imagine walking on it to the […]
Writers: Practice What You Preach
I got home late last night from the Highlights Foundation’s “Sharing Our Hope” workshop, where I did a lot of preaching about the importance of self-care for writers and how absolutely critical it is to our writing lives. We had a marvelous time together and forged new friendships. Even so, after “giving out” for several […]