Fear is an unhealthy self-awareness where you’re so in your head, while simultaneously so minutely observing yourself from an external perspective, that you freeze up and shut down. If we don't try we can't fail. If we don't push ourselves, we will never fall short. For authors that may mean staring at a blank page in paralysis; abandoning a story because you worry you can’t finish or can’t do it justice or aren’t good enough; never submitting or sharing your work because you’re afr...| FoxPrint Editorial
Knowing what you want in this business is one of the most important factors in creating a writing career that is meaningful to you, where you are the one at the helm of the ship, not just perpetually waiting to be chosen or desperately trying to follow the market and fit into it. In a business where authors have little control over many factors, this is where we have complete control, and exercising it is the foundation of creating a writing career that’s successful in the most important wa...| FoxPrint Editorial
It’s always a little surprising when we hear that people we admire, or who have achieved success by standard metrics, experience many of the same doubts and fears and demons that we all do—I always think perhaps creatives most of all. Artists tap into the most naked and vulnera| FoxPrint Editorial
Hi SEers! Denise here to discuss the scare factor in a story, as Halloween is just around the corner. This is an updated version with a new event from a previous scary post. We’ve all had that terr…| Story Empire
Discover productivity tips from editor and coach Kirsten Donaghey who specializes in helping writers, creatives and ADHDers with projects and daily life. Check out two amazing prizes you can win at the bottom of this post. As an ADHD Coach who works with a lot of writers, one of the most common questions I get […] The post What Really Keeps An ADHD Writer Coming Back to the Desk? Hint- It’s Not Routine appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.| WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®
Happy 2025! We have made it. A blank canvas before us, fresh mercies, unknown journeys, and numerous adventures ahead. I love the start of a new year. There is something thrilling about a new number on that calendar and untold possibilities of the next 365 days. Something so freeing about a fresh start, new beginnings. […]| Christine Smith
Whether it’s at writing events with other authors, or you’re pitching your work to agents and editors, or talking about it with readers at events, or even in daily encounters—if you’re writing and you plan to share your writing then at some point you’re going to have to talk to people about it. People you don’t know and who don’t know you. It can be fairly terrifying. If you happen to be a writer who is more prone to introversion than extroversion—which seems rather common in ...| FoxPrint Editorial
In almost every movie or show featuring writers, you’ll see it—that one scene with the awkward pause as their fingers hover over the keyboard. A cursor ominously blinks onscreen, its on-and-off motion magnifying the intense whiteness of the blank page....Read More| Black Fox Literary Magazine
A book with no reviews is dead. I recently read that statement in a blog post by an indie author about the scarcity of reviews. The blogger also expressed the opinion that a book with no reviews is invisible to the ever-busy algorithms that govern the internet, and is therefore invisible to readers. I’m not … … Continue reading →| Story Empire
You wouldn’t think a productive writer would have to worry about monsters. But sometimes, just when you’ve cleared your schedule, opened your laptop, and promised yourself you’ll finally get that chapter (or email or video) done, something cold and invisible slinks up behind you. Suddenly, you’re scrolling instead of writing, reorganizing your Scrivener folders, and […] The post What Kind of Writing Monster Is Lurking in Your Brain? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.| WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®
I’ve lost count of the poems I’ve written. I’ll say many, still not as many as I’d like to. Someday, perhaps. … More Someday, Perhaps| Void Thoughts
If you’d like to receive my blog in your in-box each week, click here. This morning I received an email from an author I’ve been working with on a multiple-pass edit wanting to cancel the rest of our contract, saying that she’d lost faith in her story and her ability to write it and had to...| FoxPrint Editorial
By Michele Cantos Garcia When I was still a new writer searching for my voice at writing workshops, I was overcome with a conviction that I should apply to artist retreats and fellowships. Earning …| The Brevity Blog
Yesterday was such a long day that I couldn’t publish anything. I sat down to write at night and almost finished a piece of fiction. I was happy to have penned something in my book, but... … More One Day at a Time| Void Thoughts
Discover why all stories are myth at their core—and how recognizing archetypal patterns can transform your writing, your characters, and the reader’s psyche.| Helping Writers Become Authors
If you’d like to receive my blog in your in-box each week, click here. Over dinner with friends the other night, I commented in conversation that I had recently deleted all the social media apps off my phone. Their eyes got big. “Wow,” one said. “Good for you,” the other ch| FoxPrint Editorial
I was elated when I received an acceptance for my short story “Casey.” But seeing the critique that followed, I was horrified to learn this story housed an entire menagerie of unwanted editorial pets—words, phrases, and grammatical constructions. | Black Fox Literary Magazine
Every member of my book club has decided to list our top 25 novels of all time, and in the spirit of that disclosure, I decided to make mine public here at Bookfox. A list of the most important books is like a horoscope reading of your soul. Give me someone’s list, and I’ll tell […] The post My Favorite 25 Novels of All Time appeared first on Bookfox.| Bookfox
I did not read as many books as I would have liked this year, but I still read 70. That’s a dip from last year’s total of 100, but in my defense, I did midwife a number of books of other authors through developmental editing and publishing. I also finished editing my own novel, which […] The post Year in Reading (2023) appeared first on Bookfox.| Bookfox
I’ve been feeling it for a while now—that dull, uninspired thud when the credits roll on modern storytelling. More and more, movies in particular leave me feeling unmoved and oddly detached. Bored, really. Once upon a time, I’d walk out of the theater buzzing. I’d carry that story around with me for days, sometimes weeks. […] The post What’s Happened to Modern Storytelling? (+ 6 Ways Storytelling Can Find Its Soul Again) appeared first on Helping Writers Become Authors.| Helping Writers Become Authors
How much of our lives do we regard as items on our to-do list? We often speak of obligations, responsibilities, duty—all the things we have to take care of before we can allow ourselves to work on what we want to. But the truth is, as the cliché goes, the only things we have to| FoxPrint Editorial
Mood words are a controversial part of today’s writing. Used well, they can take your prose to an entirely new level.| The Write Life
By Michele Cantos Garcia “I’m 70 and single again,” the glamorous actor-turned-writer read tenderly from her notes. It was her first time in a memoir class—and my first time teaching it—but she alr…| The Brevity Blog
As creatives we are constantly facing choices—many of them in our art blessedly malleable, at least until we’ve published our stories (and even after that, if we indie publish). If you don’t like one path you’ve sent your character down, you can hit delete and let them travel a n| FoxPrint Editorial
Hello, SE’ers!!! It’s Jan here again with another deep dive into a specific color and how we can use it to show more about our characters or enhance our settings in fiction writing. Tod…| Story Empire
By Diana Friedman In 1971, my mother published her first book—a Dell Pocketbook guide to employment for female liberal arts graduates. I spent my childhood watching her hunch over her typewriter, p…| The Brevity Blog
Greetings to one and all. Beem Weeks here with you again. This month, I’m looking at the difference between inspiration and craft. Though they are not the same, both are integral parts of co…| Story Empire
Intentional storytelling means making creative choices with purpose. Here’s why that matters more than ever in an AI-driven content world.| Helping Writers Become Authors
You might not realize that if you go too long without a break, you can show signs of your writing dedication with writer's callus.| The Write Life
Your favorite introverted author would love your help (though they might not ask). Here is one way you can begin. The post 10 Ways to Help Your Favorite Introverted Author—Day 1: The Basic appeared first on Tweetspeak Poetry.| Tweetspeak Poetry
We’d love to shout these from the rooftops, but here’s how to educated your own loved ones in a less-dramatic fashion.| The Write Life
Writing starts out as pure enjoyment, but it's a skill that is far more involved and complex than it may initially seem. This past week I spoke with a writer who has literally decades of experience and is a major bestselling author. She's on her third pass of the manuscript we'| FoxPrint Editorial
Here are 8 ways researchers know creativity can be kindled. Plus, four ways T. S. Poetry makes it simple for you to do the kindling.| Tweetspeak Poetry
These organizations want to support your writing with writing grants. Yes, really! Here are the details and how to apply. Updated for 2025.| The Write Life
Love your book come edit time| A writer's journey...
You’ve finished your first draft and now it’s time to really get to work. The “play” time of creating a story and following along with your characters has ended—or has it?| A writer's journey...
Have you ever read a book and noticed that a certain| A writer's journey...
Since my last post, I attended another writing retreat (this time at Catwalk), completely restructured my novel, and started a new job as “Story Advisor” at Greenpeace International. It’s a dream position in every way. I spend my days doing conceptual narrative work, teaching storytelling to activists, and also taking part in concrete campaigning to save the...| Tsering Yangzom Lama
I’ve just returned from an artist residency in rural Oregon. Arriving at Redmond Airport, I met a fellow resident (and now friend), rented a car, and drove with her for two hours until our cell phone signals disappeared. The drive to Summer Lake featured long stretches of empty desert roads flanked by enormous mountains sweeping up to the sky.| Tsering Yangzom Lama
So often we're busy measuring our lives and our success by the lacks--what we haven't accomplished yet, our goals that we feel we've fallen short of. But what if we flip that around—look not at the empty space in our glass, but how much we've managed to fill it?| FoxPrint Editorial
Our September Come to Your Senses retreats here in Collioure are now behind us. Our writers arrived without a hitch (thank God) — rested relaxed, opened their minds and senses, enjoyed spectacular food, and viewed their writing through a fresh lens. Because even in a magic village in France, life is still life, there were a few glitches. Someone lost her luggage (or rather, KLM did), someone got lost in the vineyards (yes, we found her) and more than one person survived an impressively larg...| Karbohemia
Looking forward to a life-changing experience? One that transforms your writing as well as your sense of yourself as a writer? That’s fun and relaxing, but also meaningful and soul-stirring? That puts your merciless day-to-day slog on hold so you can take a breath? That lowers your cortisol levels, boosts your immune system, improves your well-being, and upgrades your Instagram feed? (Serious, you should see the light here.)| Karbohemia
We just put the last retreat participants in a taxi, headed to the train station in Perpignan. Our 2021 Come to Your Senses writers could not have been a more lovely group of humans. They could not have written with more courage, sensitivity, and humor. They wrote about: growing up in the Caribbean; attending a “scream-camp” in Germany; the disappointment of receiving an “Infant of Prague” baby Jesus statue for Christmas as a child; their troubled mothers, their ridiculous fathers, th...| Karbohemia
Before I moved to France in May 2019, everyone said, “In a year you’ll be fluent!” It is now August 2021, and I’m not talking pretty yet. I have good days, when I’m able to string together three or four sentences, and I can say “Beh oui!” and shrug and roll out my lip comme un pro, but I’m not even fluent-adjacent. You could say I’m conversational, if the conversation is with a friendly dog.| Karbohemia
No one knows how to vacation better than the French. Unlike the Spanish and the Italians, who are sort of always half-vacationing, the French work hard during non-holiday/non-vacation times. They would never admit this. If you were dangling a Frenchman over a cliff by his ankles, demanding in your high-school French that he fess up to working as hard as any American, he would rather take his chances, counting on his beret to cushion his fall. (I jest: no French person I know wears a beret, no...| Karbohemia
