I remember talking to someone after a networking meeting, oh YEARS ago, and she said with a laugh, “People either love you or hate you.” It was not a generalization about all people; she was talking specifically about me. I was like, “What? Wait? People hate me?” (Like I know, what’s not to love?) In…
The words AI and selling out are bouncing all over the Internet right now. Writers (and artists) are freaking out. Should they be? As I do when I find a book that really resonates with me, I am re-reading Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, this time with highlighters in hand and sticky…
Would you like to play a game? So, yes, the sky is falling according to authors and artists. AI chat and art apps are changing the playing field and many people are freaked out. What do you mean a computer is going to replace me? Let’s not think about how wonderful life would be if…
Or How to Pull the Kicker Out of Your Ass I won’t lie: My articles and blog posts tend to ramble. They are filled with humorous (to me) asides (see what I did there?) and I have no objection to going down a rabbit hole or two if I think they are interesting and add…
Part of the job of being a writer, freelance in particular, is setting up your routines and then being disciplined enough to follow through on them. I am VERY good at the former, not so much at the latter. Because I write for private clients as well as myself, I have to make sure I…
A transcript is not even a first draft. #SorryNotSorry Back in the day, before I started writing course manuals for a living, I bought a bundle of three courses from a real estate guru. Each course had 12 CDs and a “course manual.” The manual turned out to be a straight transcript of the audio…
I don’t often struggle with writers’ block. I like to say the cure for writers’ block is a hard deadline. But last week I had several (not one, not two, but SEVERAL) free days to just work on my own stuff. It was the equivalent of being taken to Baskin Robbins and told you could…
If you’re struggling to put all your knowledge into one book, ask yourself if your book might be two books. In this post, I’ll discuss several ways to determine if you’ve got one book or the start of a series. But first… Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. That means if…
Seriously? How do you NOT find something to write about? Someone posted this question in a nonfiction writers’ group and I can’t even. I mean, yeah, I can see maybe asking that in a fiction group—they may be wondering what genres are hot right now or what a good place is to start as a…
It’s a common question: How do you know your book is finished? I’m going to give you the answer right here and right now, but you’re not going to like it. A book is never finished. There’s always one more tweak, something that could have been written a bit more smoothly. A new development that…