While there’s something to be said for “Judge not lest ye be judged” on a personal level, if you want to quickly gain an understanding of how to improve your writing, take advantage of opportunities to play judge. When you teach a skill, you reinforce the learning for yourself. When you judge a skill, you […]
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How Energy Rituals Can Help You Write: Going Beyond the Standard Butt-in-Chair Advice
Writers have long been told to create rituals around writing. Sit your butt in the chair at 9am daily and the muse will eventually show up. Commit to a specific wordcount per day, no more, no less. Before you begin to write, visualize your book on the bookstore shelf. There’s nothing wrong with that advice. […]
Freshen Your Eyes; It’s Time to Revise
I have a confession: I am a lazy poet. I’ve been writing poetry for many years, taking class after class, workshop after workshop. Sometimes all that learning shows up in my poems, but recently I’ve become lazy. I blurt something onto the page, make a few changes, and call it done. My poems have become […]
Three Great Things about Print-on-Demand (POD)
Originally published May 6, 2016; updated March 1, 2022. Print-on-demand (POD) technology is one of the wonders of the modern world (along with crunchy Cheetos and Netflix). Rather than having to print thousands of copies of a book to achieve any efficiency of scale, POD allows authors and publishers to use digital technology to print […]
You don’t have to write THE book, just A book: Change your mindset so you can start
Many people who competently write articles, blogs, and marketing copy, and who claim extraordinary expertise in their field, find themselves paralyzed when they contemplate writing a book. The problem is, they think they have to write THE book. What does THE book mean? Generally, it means some variation on “It has to be perfect.” It […]