Ready for some health tips? If you want to live longer so you can pen more masterpieces, you have to take care of your health. I hear you groaning. An hour a day of exercise. Drinking kale smoothies. Snacking on rice cakes. No. You don’t have to make those sortsContinue Reading
I sincerely believe a lot of factors are involved [in emotional wellness]. Rejection hurts and nearly every author has been rejection at some point in their career. I don’t think I’ve ever really been depressed. After all, my friends call me Queen of Denial. I think I focus on theContinue Reading
Did you know that November is National Manatee Awareness Month? Me either! Until now, of course. And I’m excited to talk about it for a couple of reasons. First, we writers could learn a lot from manatees. I’ve got four important lessons they have to teach us below. Second, manateesContinue Reading
Before I became a writer, I was a reader who enjoyed historical fiction more than other novels or non-fiction. In middle school, I enjoyed books written by Jean Plaidy, (one of Eleanor Burford Hibbert’s several pen names), because she depicted her characters as real people rather than names in aContinue Reading
Usually, when we think of writing goals, we think about setting them at the beginning of the year. But here we are nearing the end of the year, and I’m challenging you to set some goals NOW—ones that you can accomplish before the end of the year. There are severalContinue Reading
Because I am writing to provide insights and information, I have never doubted that what I was doing had worth. That’s huge! I really do think it empowers people to know about ecology, history and how systems function. How a Writer Sees Criticism The biggest emotional challenge is right-sizing feedback.Continue Reading
[Photo caption: Author Jason Offutt and his wife Kimberly Offutt on a recent vacation at Rathbun Lake, Iowa. Yes, Iowa has lakes.] There are different levels of emotional stress that come with where a writer is in their career. Early on was rejection, until I learned that EVERY writer getsContinue Reading
If you’re writing creativity has stalled a little bit, Halloween is the perfect time to jumpstart it again! Insert some fun into your writing life, and you may be surprised at what it does for your story! Writing Creativity Tip #1. Dress up as one of your characters. When IContinue Reading
by Sheree K. Nielsen I suppose my love of coffee began as a teenager. On a camping trip, rummaging through the RV’s kitchen cabinets, I searched for tea bags. “Where’s the tea?!” I demanded. “All we have is coffee”, my friend Sherry C replied. Gathered around a crackling fire, inContinue Reading
You’re probably heard that owning a dog is good for you. I’m here to tell you—it’s even better for you if you’re a writer. As some of you already know, I rescued a shelter dog—Storm—several weeks ago. (Read more about that here.) I’ve owned dogs all my life, so thisContinue Reading
by Noelle Sterne Three shelves in my library are crammed with guaranteed-to-break-your-writer’s-block books. All have a thick dust blanket, some have grown moss, and a few have put down roots. One book, though, never even got to the shelf. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way went with me everywhere and, toContinue Reading
What is the key to being a successful writer? Building an identity as a successful writer. But what does that mean? Dreaming is Not Enough Kaylie was discouraged. She’d been dreaming of a successful writing career for years. In high school, she won a contest for a short story sheContinue Reading