Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Ah, Black Friday. While all those around you are going shoulder to shoulder, standing in line, credit cards at the ready, or watching football, or cleaning up what was left of yesterday’s festivities, take a moment away from the maddening crowd to focus on how in the world you are going to keep that writing …
Continue reading “Where Do I Find Time To Write?”
We all have ideas rambling around about writing projects that never get written. We pick things up from time to time and file them away for future recall as something strikes us and the need to get it out is overwhelming. This happened to me yesterday as I was reading one of my writing magazines. …
Continue reading “Write What You Know? Bah.”
Writing is a relatively new game to me, so I’m learning lessons I probably should have learned earlier. Here’s one I picked up recently: “Finish one project before you start another or you’ll get confused. You’ll lose control. It won’t make sense if you jump around. Stay on top of it. Push, push, push. Go A …
Continue reading “Rebel Writer – Good Girl Gone Bad”
I couldn’t sleep, so I stood outside last night on the deck and watched the stars and an occasional airplane glide through against the dark sky. Then I saw a shooting star. Oh, my. A shooting star. If I had blinked, I would have missed it. I captured it in my brain, full of wonder …
Continue reading “Finding Conflict in Fleeting Moments”
So, we have crisp fall nights. We have costumes. We have buckets and pillowcases brimming with treats. We have pumpkins grinning and flashights swinging. We have screams, haunted houses, whisps of dry ice floating around ruby red slippers, cowboy boots, and superhero tights. We have arrived at All Hallows’ Eve. Bwahaha. I’m not a big …
Continue reading “Halloween Treat – Edgar Allan Poe”
Microsoft Word or Pages works well for a manuscript – you have all the features you need and you know the program. Fair enough. But…if you want something you can manipulate faster, keep track of, highlight on a sidebar to investigate later, plan like index cards on a corkboard, and be able to bring …
Continue reading “Why I Love Scrivener”
Personally, I don’t believe in Writer’s Block. There is no such thing in my book. Yes, there are days you just can’t get moving, but completely blocked? Nah. That’s an excuse. You have to push through, like Roto Rootering your pipes. Most of the time this occurs during the saggy middle (which the Sisters …
Continue reading “Clearing the Writer’s Clogged Pipes”
As a business coach, I recently had occasion to research what makes people successful, and I found this great article that I’m going to steal and talk about writing – success is success no matter what business you are in, and, believe it or not, writing is a business. I’ve used his headings, but changed it …
Continue reading “Five Attitudes Toward Success”
Sister Sharon’s post about NaNoWriMo got me thinking. Writers have different ways to get productive – the output varies, but the method usually stays the same for each of us. Like superstitious sportsmen, we follow a pattern that seems to work for us. I have my own preparation method, but I’ve heard of others who do …
Continue reading “NaNoWriMo and the Night of Writing Dangerously.”
Emotional Writing One of our WOS sisters here just suffered the loss of her mother. I can’t imagine, although I know it’s coming. The woman who gave you life cannot and should not outlive yours. But it must be devastating. I once had a critique partner tell me to “go deeper.” That she could tell …
Continue reading “Emotional Writing – Going Deep”