Writing

General posts about writing (sometimes my own, but not always)

How Can I Get Inspired To Write?

Contributed Post Credit: Whether you’re a blogger, novelist, or screenwriter, getting into the writing mood is often the hardest step of all. Every writer goes through stages where they feel uninspired or lacking in motivation, and it can result in very real problems. Lacking inspiration is different to having writer’s block, which I believe is just an excuse not to work. Rather than struggling for ideas, you simply cannot be bothered to get started on them. This can occur for many reasons. Whatever the source of those troubles might be, finding a way out of the slump is vital. Once you get into the meat of the project, you’ll have no problems racing towards the finishing line of that important first draft. Of course, reviews…
Read more

Going Back To Basics To Make You A Better Writer

Contributed Post Whether you write creatively, write for business or just write for fun – it never hurts to brush up on your skills. All writers should assess their writing from time to time to see if it could be better. Just like a chef uses ingredients to make a dish – your ingredients might all be there, but the method could need some work. Going back to basics is a great way to refresh your skills and help make you a better writer. Read on for some great tips on how to improve your writing. Read more If you want to become better at something, you should study it. That’s why writers should also be readers. Stephen King, in one of his many useful…
Read more

The Perfect Pitch

In our current world, it seems like independent, hard work is rewarded. If you want to do something yourself, how do you do it? If you’re willing to pursue a passion project yourself, you’ll find success if you can nail your idea down, plan the project out well and carry it out to specification.  However, creation is only one (rather small, in fact) aspect of independent work. No matter if your project is a comic book, a business, a book or a service – you’ll need to do a lot of hard work after you’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears into the creation of something – whatever that something is. It could be a podcast, a piece of journalism – anything. Think about it;…
Read more

Writing Has A Super Power: It Can Heal You

Image source Writing is a lot of things to a lot of people. It is an escape, it is a purpose, a hobby, a job and a passion, a way of life. It is the single greatest invention in the history of time because it changed the world; it took what people had been forced to remember and made it tangible. Agriculture, recordkeeping, recipes, ideas and inventions; all of these were made possible thanks to the written word. But above all of this, above all of these reasons to write, writing can heal. Stress, worry, anxiety, the black mist and a messy mind; these are all things that we all have to deal with, and writing can help that no end, which is why we…
Read more

How I first got published, part 6 – all that other stuff

The following is an encore from 2009, presented here in the hopes that the info will be helpful for aspiring authors. I’ve authored or coauthored five books since, and self-published another four, and most of this still applies. So enjoy. Hope it helps! There is a lot of stuff they don’t tell you about getting a book published. You hear about the process of writing, and crafting cover letters, and how to approach agents and publishers, and on and on and on, but what about all the stuff the happens after you secure a deal? No one tells you about that. By this point I had done a pretty good job of educating myself on The Process. Thanks to loads of reading — books, articles, and blogs…
Read more