I originally wrote this post for my Coach’s Corner Column over at Speculative Chic. It’s a fantastic blog covering all things Speculative! In Part 1 of this series on when life sucks you back in, I talked about freeing ourselves when family and friends pull us away from our writing. There is a greater force that life uses […]
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When Life Sucks You Back In – Part 1
I originally wrote this post for my Coach’s Corner Column over at Speculative Chic. It’s a fantastic blog covering all things Speculative! Never has there been a quote more apt for writers than the one by Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part III: “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.” No, […]
Workable Workspace
How do you like my work space? Pretty nice, don’t you think? Clear desk top, awesome computer, I’d have added in the view of the Red River I have, but it’s snowing right now (April 5 and it’s snowing) and I can’t bear to look at it at the moment. The snow is […]
Checking In
We’ve been pursuing our writing goals, our writing dreams, for three months now, and it’s time for a check-in. What goals did you set for yourself at the beginning of January? How close are you to achieving them? What is working for you? What are you struggling with? Until now, we’ve been looking at things […]
Let it go
“It was a bad writing day yesterday. Today isn’t going to be any better.” “You didn’t write yesterday. Don’t bother writing today.” If I were a betting person, I’d wager you’ve thought those above statements plenty of times before. They are two of the favourite things our Inner Saboteur likes to say to us. The […]
What’s Your Drug of Choice?
Writing is my heroin. I am unquestionably a happier more productive human being when I write regularly. I didn’t know this about myself for a long time. I remember distinctly, having a series of very bad days. I was constantly grumpy, everything seemed to be going wrong, the world was falling apart around me, and […]
We’re Not Worthy
For the last couple of months I’ve been blogging about setting goals and making choices and making changes to achieve those goals. I’ve blogged about embracing our fears, and putting ourselves and our writing first. Last week I talked about ways to make our deadlines matter so we wouldn’t disappoint ourselves. One of the ways […]
Creating Deadlines that Matter
Unless you’re one of the lucky ones with a publishing contract, or in a writing course with submission deadlines that if missed will cost you money, it can be difficult to set and stick to deadlines. Why? Because we don’t really have anything really at stake. Perhaps a pitch session at a conference/convention you’re attending […]
Just Watch Me
I’m stubborn. If someone makes a suggestion to me or asks something of me, often my first response is “No.” On the positive side, my stubbornness is called persistence. I refuse to quit. I won’t give up, or give in. There’s a saying something like persistence is more important than talent. So I figure I’ll keep submitting […]
Putting Yourself First
In Martha Stout’s book “The Sociopath Next Door“, she opens up her introduction with the following: “Imagine–if you can–not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members.” I remember reading […]