Category: How To and Tips
Does a Writer Really Need a Professional Development Plan?
I spent years in organization development before writing my first novel. By definition every profession has a set of core competencies, and writers are no exception. Professionals in the traditional work world are told that they need an Individual Development Plan (IDP), which details what the person is willing to do to meet her personal […]
Eight Tips for Seeing Your Novel with “Fresh Eyes”
Reaching the end of a draft always feels like cause for celebration. A trip away or simply a punch in the air Breakfast Club style…however we get our kicks, we need to make the most of them. Because soon enough it’ll be time for the next draft and that can be a tough nut to […]
From Desk Job to Dream Job: A true story of leaving the cubicle for Cuba
What I’m about to share may seem like fiction, but I’m disclosing it to convince you that by taking risks, being adventurous, and believing in serendipity dreams can come true. Six years ago, I would daydream from my cubicle about travel. It didn’t matter where. I would escape my cluttered desk of press releases and […]
Journaling Power Heals The Writer’s Soul
Before I started on my incredible healing journey, I was a left-brained businesswoman and I treated myself as if I was a machine. My approach to life was strictly practical, logical, and rational. I drove my body day and night as if it was an automobile, with my foot hard on the accelerator. I also […]
Some Thoughts On Writing A Novel
I could tell you it took me a quick six months to write my first novel. It’s true — but also a lie. Sure, that’s how long it took from the first typed word to the last revised one. But the truth of the matter is, it took thirty years. It’s sort of like that […]
What’s Your Story About?
This question used to make me sweat. I’m not talking about a bit of perspiration on my brow or trickling down my back. No. Way. The sweat I’m talking about was an Albert-Brooks-news-anchoring flood like in the movie Broadcast News. It was the kind of perspiration tsunami where a shower and a fresh change of […]
Write it Forward: Five Ways to Stay Positive
“Unfortunately, your project is not quite right for us.” This was perhaps my fiftieth rejection from an agent for my first novel, which remains unpublished. I keep my favorite rejection slips in a file folder to show aspiring writers when I give a workshop. We’ve all received rejections and bad reviews. There’s no way around […]
Promotion Is Pay, Pay, Pay as You Go
When you’re a published author, whether self-published, with a small publisher, or with one of the big boys, you find out pretty quickly that promotion, for the most part, falls on your shoulders—and stealthily slips its sticky fingers into your wallet. Business cards, bookmarks, Facebook ads, magazine ads, Website ads, Kirkus Reviews, BookBub, any number […]
Writing Comedy
Humour, Comedy, Being Funny, Banter, Mirth, Being tickled Pink: as I’m writing about Comedy, it seems perhaps sensible to start this piece with some attempt to define Humour, particularly as what one person may find rib-ticklingly hilarious can leave another stone-cold dead. In the same way I am convinced one cannot possibly write a novel […]
Coincidences Or Not?
Coincidences – a dirty word for us novelists, particularly amongst those ‘who know’, i.e. the more experienced writers, and even more so, those who publish books on How to Write and How to Get Published. Accusations of resorting to outlandish coincidences instead of ‘proper’ plotting cause fiction writers’ hearts and souls to cringe. We are […]
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