I often hear from writers who have a vague idea of their message and who they want to serve, but they struggle to nail it all down. They don’t have clarity about how to position themselves, what to write about, and who exactly
I published my first blog post back in August 2012, nearly six years ago. I have warm memories of waking up at 5am to go down to Common Ground Coffee House to do my art. Eventually I wrote a manifesto, Do
When my son was in preschool, he came downstairs with a concerned look on his face. “I don’t think I can go to school today,” he told his mom and me. He generally liked school, so this was a little
I’ve been re-reading Stephen King’s On Writing, and as I come to the end of it one thing stands out to me above the rest. That’s significant because it’s a very good book, and many things stand out to me
What’s your deepest fear?” That’s the question I asked in a recent survey of writers and other creatives, and following were some of the responses: “That people will see the real me and discover it’s not all that great.” “That
You’ve just stepped into a confession booth, but don’t worry: I’m not a priest, and you don’t have to share your sins with me. This is a different kind of confession. I want to know your deepest fears and greatest
Recently we had to send out the dreaded “OP” letter again. It goes something like this: Dear Author and Agent: We are writing to inform you that due to low marketplace demand for your book, we have decided to discontinue
First of all, thanks so much for your willingness to fill out my “Writers and Music” survey. (If you haven’t yet and you’re willing to help writers everywhere with two minutes of your time, click here.) This survey and blog
“We all want progress,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
Think of a drummer in a rock band. Somehow she manages to keep that bass drum going while rat-a-tat-tatting on all the snares and cymbals above. That’s what we want to do with our blogs and books. We want to
Few videos are more mesmerizing to me than those that feature people who go from not being able to do something to suddenly doing it. In the following video, for example, an older colorblind man puts on special glasses and
The one thing all good writers have in common is the ability to tell stories. Stories draw us in. And when we read good stories from a particular author, we want to go back when that author tells more stories.