In one of my recent office hours, someone told me they were struggling to find time to write. Life had gotten chaotic and unpredictable and they were feeling overwhelmed by the thought of abandoning their story in the middle. This question really hit home for me because recently—over the past two weeks—I’ve had to  … Read more

National Novel Writing Month (known as NaNoWriMo) is coming up! In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a challenge to write 50,000 words of a new novel in 30 days (during the month of November). Writers from around the world join in and track their progress on the official website, NaNoWriMo.org. But what if  … Read more

Today’s writing hack is something I’ve been doing for years (maybe even all of my career) and I didn’t even realize it was a hack. I just assumed everyone did this. But the more I shared it with other writers, the more I heard a similar response, “I’ve never done this before and it helps  … Read more

It’s a new year and a new you! Which means it might be time for a new writing routine, too? Is your old writing routine failing you or just non-existent? Are you struggling to sit down to write every day? Or are you just looking for a way to jump start your writing this year?  … Read more

Can you smell it in the air? No, it’s not the smell of pine trees and gingerbread. It’s the smell of your regular writing routine wafting out the window and getting buried under ten feet of snow. The holidays are great fun but they can also be a difficult time for writers. Relatives descend, the  … Read more

Human beings are creatures of habit. We are hard-wired to thrive in routine and rituals. That’s why so many Olympic and professional athletes have rituals for when they train or compete. Tennis players bounce the ball the same amount of times before serving, basketball players do the same thing at the free-throw line. Swimmers will  … Read more

You can’t become a concert pianist practicing only once a week. Just like you can’t become a proficient writer writing only once a week.   Those of you who have taken my online Productivity Hacks course know that I’m a big fan of setting up a writing routine. If there’s one piece of writing advice that  … Read more

Inspiration is a wonderful, magical, coveted thing. Don’t we all wish that we could wake up every morning feeling inspired to write? Don’t we wish that every time we sat down in front of our computers, we had to fight to keep up with the words flowing out of us? But we all know that’s  … Read more

I know, I know. I’m the queen of the writing routine. You’ve probably heard me say more than once, “Write every day!” “Write even when you’re not inspired!” “Get your butt in the chair and get something down on the page!” And while I still firmly believe that writing every day is the fastest way  … Read more

I don’t know about you but I’m a perfectionist, especially when it comes to my writing. I lie in bed at night thinking about all the ways I can improve what I wrote that day. This is the natural state of the writer. Always wanting to make it better. Always wanting to go back and  … Read more

Woo hoo! It’s almost NaNoWriMo time! For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s a great event that happens every November where novelists around the world take on the challenge of writing a novel (equivalent to 50,000 words or more) in one month. As someone who writes four  … Read more

I’m currently reading and absolutely loving BIG MAGIC by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m always dazzled by her books, but this one especially is resonating with me. I love the way she demystifies the mysteries of the creative process while at the same time paying homage to them and embracing the fact that sometimes the art of  … Read more

What do you picture when I say the word, “Writer?” More often than not I think people picture an unkempt little man sitting at an empty-coffee-mug-littered desk, literally pulling his hair out in giant, unwashed clumps, cursing the absent muses, while a tiny cartoon thought bubble hovers over his head that reads, “GAH! I have  … Read more

We’ve all been there. You sit down at your computer. You’ve got your favorite mug full of your favorite beverage. Your favorite writing music is melodically humming through the speakers. There are no distractions. No kids. No texts. No barking dogs. It’s just you and the story. You place your fingers on the keys. This is  … Read more

I used to be one of those writers who could only write at home. Shut up in my office, lights low, door closed, windows shut—a make-shift cocoon. Because I required complete silence and isolation. But I became frustrated that I couldn’t be one of those cool writers you see in coffee shops and cafes, sitting  … Read more

Writers are very good at coming up with clever ways to procrastinate. Ask any writer and they’ll immediately recite off the top of their head five useless things that they can easily do every morning before tackling that looming daily word count. Which is why I’m always trying to come up with new ways to  … Read more