17 Surprising Ways to Find Your Writing Muse
If you've ever sat in front of your computer screen staring at the empty white canvas of a blank document, then you know all about the pain and frustration of writer's block. Sometimes, it can strike even when you have a killer idea just chomping to be set free from...
Trust Your Intuition to Avoid Paralysis by Analysis — Quick Writing Tip
A lot of what passes for writing advice, and much of what I’ve written in this series, falls squarely into the category of planning. And that’s for good reason. You won’t get very far in life or in your writing career without a plan of some sort. And, unless your...
Daily Writing Prompt #18
You're home alone one night and see a man standing outside the window. You reach for the phone to call the police and then notice that your dog is outside, too. He barks, and your spine tingles as you realize that he is in the room behind you. You're seeing...
Optimize to Make the Best Techniques Better — Quick Writing Tip
There is probably at least one area in life where you would consider yourself an expert. For example, hopefully, you see yourself as an expert in some aspect of your chosen career field. Maybe you’re really good at computer programming or project management or driving...
Write Something Insanely Bad to Overcome Perfectionism — Quick Writing Tip
We all want to be the best we can be. I mean, no one sets out to mediocre, right? But that drive to be the best can lead us down the rabbit hole of perfectionism. Never Good Enough ... for You Have you ever fiddled around with the ordering of words in a sentence for...
Daily Writing Prompt #17
After a night of heavy rain, you step outside your home to find several sets of boot tracks. You follow them to a tree right outside your bedroom window and find an empty pair of muddy boots, a gun scope, and a picture of you.
Randomize Writing Priorities for Renewed Enthusiasm — Quick Writing Tip
Having a “To-Do” list is great and can be a boon to productivity if you nurture it. You have to prioritize, and then re-prioritize daily. You have to be ruthless in saying “No” to requests that have no business on your plate and in pruning your list when a task...
21 Non-Writing Hacks to Becoming a Better Author
The world is full of advice about how to improve your writing. Heck, this site exists to help people with careers outside of writing make the most of their limited time and become better authors. But if you've spent much time reading articles and books about writing,...
Avoid Context Switching to Boost Writing Productivity — Quick Writing Tip
How many email messages to you receive in a day? Some estimates put the average number of emails at around 140 per day, per person. Some of those you can delete without ever opening, some of them you never open and just leave in your inbox (though you shouldn’t), some...
Daily Writing Prompt #16
You visit a car maker's museum housed in one of their old factories. Your tour guide is a young man of about 30 who seems to have an uncanny knowledge of how the cars were made and how the factory operated, even though the vehicles had been obsolete for decades. At...