I’m too old, I’m too tired, I can’t write for hours anymore… But something won’t let me quit writing! Is there a solution? Through a lot of trial and error, I found the solution for me: the 5-Minute Life. It didn’t just revolutionize my writing. You can also break a bad habit, or start a […]
strategy
Mind the Gap!
I love the ringing sound of “Mind the Gap!” when British train doors slide open at a station platform. “Mind the Gap!” is an audible (or visual) warning. It’s issued to rail passengers to take caution while crossing the space between the train door and the station platform. “Mind the Gap!” The phrase was first […]
Mastering Mood-Dependent Writing Stages
Several days this week I was tired and headache-y, yet I needed to get some writing done. I don’t know about you, but I find writing a grueling challenge on the rare days I feel rotten. That’s why I found one particular chapter in The Write Type by Karen E. Peterson very encouraging. The author […]
Getting Unstuck after 2020
After losing two family members in the pandemic, I had a month-long severe reaction this spring to my second Covid shot. When I resurfaced, feeling practically comatose, I was behind on one Christmas mystery book deadline and a novel (set in 1850s England.) None of my decades-old “get started” techniques worked, which induced a near […]
Blasting Off: Reclaiming a Daily Writing Habit
I launched my writing rocket 35 years ago. With a daily writing habit, it took off and kept my career orbiting, despite getting off-course sometimes and necessitating a re-calculation. In theory, a re-launch would never be required. But the last couple of years have wreaked havoc with my writing routine. Breaking my left wrist in […]
Climbing Out of a Writing Hole
“How does a project get a year behind schedule? One day at a time.” ~~Fred Brooks (IBM computer software developer) While I’m not behind a whole year on my current writing project, this question has been ricocheting around in my mind lately. I have writing deadlines stacked up for many months, for which I am truly […]
The Gift of Time
It isn’t my birthday or Christmas or Mother’s Day, but it feels like it today. Why? Because I’ve decided to give myself a wonderful gift now. The gift of time. I’ve been writing and publishing since my kids were babies. They’re in their thirties now, with their own children ranging from toddlers to teenagers. During […]
How the Chunky Method Saved My Life
A couple of months ago, after being sick and traveling and meeting two book deadlines, I stalled when given some unwelcome health news which required tests and more tests. I got really, really behind on an adult mystery, and for hours I would struggle to write, only to throw it all out at the end […]
The Completion Stage
The past two weeks, I’ve talked about the stages we go through in our writing projects, including the challenges at each stage and ways to keep from derailing. After we have prepared the work-in-progress, let it germinate, worked on it, then deepened and shaped it, we are ready to complete the work. “There is a completion […]
The Deepening and Shaping Stages
In this series we’re discussing the seven specific stages you go through from beginning to end with a writing project. There is potential for both growth and failure at each stage. (First read about the preparation stage, the germination stage, and the working stage.) Deepening and Shaping At the beginning of the deepening stage, you’ve […]