The following is an excerpt from On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life That Lasts, a book I coauthored with Charity Singleton Craig, published by T. S. Poetry Press. This is from Chapter 10: Plan, and explains, briefly, why I decided to be a little more intentional about having some kind of plan as a writer. In fact, that’s the subtitle of Chapter 10: I … [Read more...]
How to Generate Ideas for Writing
Writing Hurdle 4—Lack of Ideas In a recent survey, writers ranked "lack of ideas" number four on their list of biggest hurdles. Sometimes people label this writer’s block, but I’m separating writer’s block from lack of ideas. Writer’s block can occur even when a writer accumulates files full of ideas, so let’s save that hurdle for another day. Today let’s focus on … [Read more...]
The Writing Life – Episode 5: A Writing Space with a Door
(If you’re a subscriber reading this in email, please click to website to use the audio player.) In this week’s three-and-a-half minute podcast, you'll hear about the conditions and circumstances under which E. B. White wrote—and those under which Glynn Young and Ann Kroeker continue to write. I allude to a passage from Stephen King's memoir On Writing that I … [Read more...]
On Being a Writer – Surprise!
A week ago, I accompanied my dad to several appointments, muting my phone to comply with the doctors' office rules. To stay focused I left it muted all day long, so from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night I was only vaguely aware of texts and notifications. I'd glance at the phone when I was able, to identify the person and level of urgency. I let calls go to … [Read more...]
