I’ve been reading several articles recently on one of my favourite writing topics, Outlining verses Pantsing.
I’m a fan of Dean Wesley Smith’s book, Writing Into The Dark. He himself is a pantser through and through and thinks nothing of starting to write a book with nothing more than an idea for a character and a setting.
Why do you want to write?
That seems like such a basic question so it should be easy to answer. Right? Wrong.
Writing is the same with anything in life. If you don’t know why you’re doing it, you won’t do it.
A few weeks ago I bought a ticket in a prize home. It was only $2 a ticket so I bought $10 worth. Then someone said, “Why do you want to win it?” And you know what? I had no idea.
All my life I’ve always liked to keep everything neat and tidy, which is why I have a clean and minimal home.
I keep a well-stocked pantry and freezer, make nearly all my meals from scratch, and I have a clean car (although it’s actually a van).
I write lists for everything I need to buy and everything I need to do, and I adhere to a strict grocery shopping budget.
“How can I earn more money from my writing?”
This is one of THE most asked questions about being a writer.
Yet there is a simple answer that most writers (and wanna-be writers) miss, even though it’s blatantly obvious, and they probably already know it.
Not only that, but even when they’re told the so-called ‘secret’ about earning more money from writing, they don’t want to know it and won’t do it.
So what is it? What makes some writers mega successful?
To me there seems to be two different types of writers in the world.
There are those who are prolific writers and seem incapable of stopping, and those who only dabble at being a writer.
The dabblers either make an initial, heroic attempt at being a writer and then give up, or they never go into it whole-heartedly, so never have any real success, or none at all.
While at the same time, their prolific counterparts are still writing thousands of words a day.
I wanted to tell You about a writer I had an encounter with who was extremely unprofessional and she wasted my time so much (and so disrespectfully) that I blocked her.
On my website I do allow other writers to send me articles about writing that I publish on my site. Continue reading…
I recently re-read a book by Dr Wayne Dyer. It’s a book I’ve had for years and I’ve read it before. For whatever reason I decided to read it again, and suddenly I ‘got it.’ I understood the message within those pages. The information was brilliant, and I thought, “Why didn’t I understand it before?” I think it’s because sometimes we’re just not ready to receive the message. Continue reading…
Procrastination is something that everyone suffers from, especially writers.
We’ve all been there; you want to sit down and write. You’ve probably even scheduled writing into your daily to-do list. Yet you still don’t sit down and write because there’s all those other things that you just have to get done first. Continue reading…
I’m writing this in January which is why I’m currently focused on 12 months of writing, but it doesn’t matter what month it is when you read this because 12 months is 12 months no matter when it starts.
What’s important is what you plan to do during the next 12 months. Continue reading…
I’m writing this on the 2nd January 2024.
Every New Year brings with it new goals and ambitions and personal challenges for just about everyone. And I’m no different. Continue reading…