When It’s Hard to Enjoy Writing How do you write an engaging story?  The same way you eat an elephant.  One bite at a time.  One word at a time. One idea at a time.  We live in a society … Continue reading →

Writing can be Manageable Here’s what writing is like: cleaning out a closet.  And you know how much fun that is, right? 🙂 Bear with me: our heads are stuffed full of ideas—some terrific, some garbage, some that just don’t fit … Continue reading →

The Power of (Imaginary) Friends When I was young, I had an imaginary friend. Only, she didn’t spring from my imagination; she came from the mind of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne Shirley, who first appeared in Anne of Green Gables, embodied everything … Continue reading →

Writing Reward Misery loves company, right? Well, let me assure you, that if you are, or have been or expect to be miserable in your writing life (as I assure you, you will be), then you and I are joined at the … Continue reading →

Respect Your Own Journey Not long after we graduated from university, my friend Jeremy, a brilliant writer, got his first book published. Then he moved to Paris and lived in the iconic Shakespeare and Company bookstore. He founded an independent literary magazine, … Continue reading →

Accepting Success Congratulations to client and friend Cathey Nickell on landing a literary agent for her middle-grade novel A Night Without Light! It’s a huge, well-deserved milestone on Cathey’s writing path. Yay, Cathey! It also got me thinking about how … Continue reading →

There is No “Should” The 1997 movie Amistad is based on a real-life story of an 1839 rebellion aboard a slave ship. The Africans, illegally abducted into slavery (not that any abductions should have been “legal”) were put on trial. Their lawyer, Roger Baldwin enlisted … Continue reading →

You Determine Who You Are I grew up in a liberal Christian church and, especially during dark moments in my teens, my faith sustained me. Then, in university, I asked a church friend to become my roommate. It was a … Continue reading →

The Writing World’s Dirty Little Secret Rejection sucks. It’s the dirty little secret of the writing world. Oh yes, it is, despite the fact that everyone knows rejection is a horrible, frustrating, inevitable part of the writing life.  Because the secret is … Continue reading →

When You Feel Like a Fraud “Imposter Syndrome” is a persistent sense of profound doubt in one’s abilities and a chronic fear that one will easily be exposed as a fraud. Sound familiar? I haven’t met one writer yet who … Continue reading →