Advice for Writing, Editing, Reading, and Life.
New posts on Mondays (for non-fiction) or Fridays (for fiction)
Ten Original Prompts to Get You Writing
As a rule of thumb, if you struggle with writer’s block, the worst possible solution is to stop writing and wait for inspiration. The only way to overcome writer’s block is to ignore it and push through. However, if you truly have no idea how to press on in a project, it can be really helpful to take a break from that project and write something totally different as a sort of “palate cleanser.”
With that in mind, here are five wildly different prompts to help you get writing again.
Random Tips to Write With More Confidence and Authority
When I lost my job and my book deal along with it, it was a huge blow to my confidence, and it greatly exacerbated my case of imposter syndrome. Part of the reason I began this blog in the first place was to share what I do know about writing, however little it may be, and give other writers and editors the tools they need to stop feeling like a fraud.
Five Questions to Guide Your Worldbuilding Process
Not all fiction is set in a fantastical world, distant planet, or alternate timeline, but all fiction requires some level of worldbuilding. Even a novel written to be a realistic drama set in a real, modern-day city needs internal consistency to ensure the parts that are fiction don’t clash with the parts that are not.
How to Receive Feedback Well
Writing with the intent to distribute is a beautiful paradox; it’s at once intensely personal and intimate, and highly collaborative and public. Asking for feedback can be terrifying, but it’s also very often thrilling and always necessary.
How to Give Feedback Well
Every bit of feedback you provide should be helpful above all else. When you work with another writer, you’re a collaborator, not a competitor. The more good writing that makes it into the world, the better off we all are.
Five Qualities Writers Should Strive to Exhibit
Some traits are pretty universally useful in basically any career context. However, every career path will require certain characteristics more than others, or require them to manifest in different ways. Here are five traits that I think are of particular importance for writers.