The Surprising Reason You’re Already Failing at Your New Year’s Resolutions
How’s it going with those New Year’s resolutions? Are you still working on them? Odds are, you aren’t—or it won’t be long before you forget about them. A study from the University of Scranton reported...
View ArticleOvercome the Writing Blahs: 7 Ways to Make Yourself Irresistible to the Muse
Do you feel blocked lately, sapped of ideas, or like your project has stalled? When you sit down to work, do you sigh deeply and resort to eating chocolates until your writing time is over? In other...
View ArticleIf You’re an Unhappy Writer, Should You Quit?
Ask most writers what they really want, what they dream about, and you’ll probably get some variation of the SWD—Standard Writer’s Dream. It usually includes a book on the bestseller’s list, an...
View ArticleWhy Writers Need to Think Big
Are you thinking too small? Are you cheating yourself out of your dreams because you’ve become too accustomed to things as they are? We all get into our lives and our routines. With so much going on,...
View Article10 Ways to Kick Writer’s Guilt to the Curb
Writers are at war. We fight the battle every day between writing and the rest of our lives. Sometimes writing wins. Sometimes life wins. Either way, we feel guilty. The emotion is so common in the...
View ArticleGet Out of the “Serious Writer” Trap with 10 Ways to Laugh
My mom has a great sense of humor. She can find a laugh in just about every situation. Rarely do I spend a day with her, or even have a conversation with her, that she doesn’t get me laughing about one...
View ArticleWhy Writers Need to Fail on a Regular Basis
My older brother and I really enjoyed roller-skating when we were young kids (around seven to ten). We were lucky enough to have a nice rink in our town, and a mom who was willing to invest in...
View ArticleBattling Creative Exhaustion—How to Refill the Well
I had the great pleasure of meeting award-winning author Hannah Tinti at the Aspen Summer Words Conference in July. I heard her speak on the final panel of the week, and then got a chance to have her...
View ArticleHow to Weather the Ups and Downs of the Writing Life
While spending some time with my family recently, I had the pleasure of watching again the great movie, “Miss Potter,” about the life and writing career of children’s book author Beatrice Potter. I...
View ArticleWhen Things Go Wrong: How to Soothe the Negative Beast
A Personal Story Funny thing happened to me this past weekend. I had planned a 10-day writing retreat by the ocean to pound out the edits for my literary novel that’s coming out next April. (Read more...
View ArticleCan Ambitious Writers Be Happy, Too?
My mom raises goats. She enjoys most parts of the process, but there are a few things that get her frustrated. One of the biggest ones is when one of her goats gets out of the field. This doesn’t...
View ArticleHow a Writer Can Save Her Sanity Even in the Worst of Times
Rejection. Ack! Poor review. Help! Lackluster sales. Eek! Writer’s block. Ugh! What’s the cure for all these writer afflictions? Appropos for this time of year: Gratitude. Practicing an attitude of...
View ArticleHow Writing Your Truth Can Help You Heal
By Mindy Halleck As an author and cancer survivor I believe writing aids us in understanding life’s challenges, and that through understanding we become better writers. When we translate painful or...
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