10 Steps to Prepare for a Long Writing Sprint
Although the official NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) no longer exists, you may be preparing for a long writing sprint to close out the end of the year. For some people, adding the pressure of completing X number of words (the traditional 50,000 or some other number) feels like too much pressure to put on what is often the busiest time of year. For others, it’s the perfect time to think of pushing to complete a major project.
TED Secrets for Writers
I’ve been re-reading Carmine Gallo’s book, Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds. In it, he goes through 9 guidelines that great TED speakers use to structure their talks in ways that make them memorable. They can be applied not only to public speaking, but to writing as well.
Your Fall 2025 Writing Plan
It’s that time of year again – back to school energy, the turning of the seasons into a cooler, crisper fall... and therefore time to think about what I’d like to accomplish, writing-wise.
Mokuso – The Gentle Art of Preparing Your Mind
There is a practice that originated in the martial arts in Japan called mokuso. It roughly means “silent” or “still” (moku) + “thinking” (so).
In karate, for example, students do it before class begins. You spend a few minutes meditating, deeply focusing the mind before starting practice.
Why Your Novel Needs a Clear Theme
One of the first questions I ask my coaching clients is, “What is the Point?” In other words, the theme of your book. What do you want the reader to take away? It can be very simple, like “Good triumphs over evil” or “Love conquers all” - in fact, the simpler the better, even if it’s a cliche. A million stories have been written around these cliched themes, and nobody has gotten sick of them yet.
“Short Time, Many Times”
I’ve begun following the teachings of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He has a wonderfully clear and approachable teaching style, with a gentle sense of humor.
His teaching on meditation practice is simply, “short time, many times.” We might think true meditation is about sitting for hours, but in reality a) few of us have those long periods to practice; b) we’re probably not prepared to focus for that long anyway; and c) we have to learn to meditate “anytime, anywhere” - to bring meditation into daily life, not just keep our practice on the cushion.
How Many Point of View Should You Have in a Novel?
This post was inspired by a question from my 100 Day Writing Challenge group. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, though. It’s a tricky question. Some will say there are “rules” around it (like, no more than three POV characters per novel) but as with most “rules” of writing, you’ll find those rule-breakers everywhere. I’m sure you can think of a few!
My answer is: It depends.
Mid-Year Check-In + Best Books of 2025 I’ve Read So Far
Time for a mid-year check-in! Are you on track with your writing goals? Now is the time to think about your goals, and recalibrate them if necessary. No shame – you are where you are. Doing the 100 Day Writing Challenge with my fabulous group of writers has been a blessing in this regard. It’s kept me going on those days when I otherwise would have been tempted to avoid writing because I was tired, or faced a difficult scene, or would have preferred to watch tv.
Omniscient vs. Deep 3rd Person Point of View: How to Write for Maximum Impact
Recently I saw a post in an online forum by a writer who had completed an entire novel, and sent it out to agents with the usual high hopes of representation. The thing is, she wrote it entirely in omniscient point of view.
How to Handle Fear of Rejection
I’ve been working on a story recently that I’m diving back into after months away. It can be good to take a break from a piece of work, of course; you need that distance to be able to see its good points and weak points more clearly.
But it hit me that I really meant to finish this thing last year.
Spring Writing Refresh
My affirmation of the day is “I am fueled by the energy of spring to renew my efforts toward my goals.”* It’s May first, officially the day when the golden Snowball Award is called here in New York (Syracuse won, with 115 inches this winter). Nope, we don’t think spring around here until the last possibility of snow is over.
More Risk=More Meaning=More Fun
Well, I seem to have gone an entire month without a blog post! Not on purpose. I’ve been involved in a fun project, writing the true story of three orphaned mountain lion cubs who were miraculously saved by the joint efforts of residents of a local community and wildlife biologists and rangers.
From Spark to Story: Generating, Capturing, and Using Ideas
You know the feeling – you're in the shower, or on a walk, or just waking from dreamland, and suddenly -THE IDEA.
I mean, THE idea. The ONE. You scramble for a piece of paper, or your phone, some way to get it down. Or maybe you think you’ll remember, and will get it down later (almost always a mistake, but we try to convince ourselves otherwise).
Compassionate Resolutions for the New Year
It’s that time again, when we set our goals, plans, resolutions, intentions – whatever you want to call them – for the new year.
It’s not a bad thing to take advantage of the new year energy to get started – and remember that energy in motion tends to stay in motion. Getting started is often the hardest part.
The Final Push: How to Stick with Your Writing Goals During the Busiest Month of the Year
December already! If you’re like me, you’re wondering where the heck the past 11 months went.
If you haven’t quite accomplished everything you wanted to, writing-wise – well, you still have the month of December to go.
If you did bomb through all your writing goals, congratulations! You can take it a little easier this month. You may even want to start planning for next year.
Going Deep: Writing Scenes with Emotional Impact
“If you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while you're at it? Go ahead. Nothing's off limits. But the endless possibility of the genre is a trap. It's easy to get distracted by the glittering props available to you and forget what you're supposed to be doing: telling a good story. Don't get me wrong, magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly, it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.”
― Patrick Rothfuss
A 3-Step Process to Help if You’re Blocked
Before I discuss the topic of this week’s post, I want to circle back to the “4 Burners” post from a couple weeks ago: Burned Out? The 4 Burners Theory of Energy. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to rebalance my life, and make the time I do spend more meaningful. Which means that, at least for now, I’ll be greatly curtailing my blog posts and newsletters – from once a week to once a month. I may post more frequently over on my Substack – or I may give that up, because honestly, as much as I want to cultivate a community there, it is yet another burner that I don’t have the time to fully devote my attention to.
How to Use Interviews to Spice Up Your Novel Research
Last week I had the opportunity to interview someone who has the same profession as a character in a novel I’m working on. I hadn’t planned on it, but I realized it would be a great way to learn about something I’d been sort of winging in the first draft.
Your Writing Group May Not Be the Best Thing for Your Writing
Support. Camaraderie. Feedback. Connections. When we think of our ideal writing group, these spring to mind. We’d love to have some forum for sharing our work and commiserating the challenges and celebrating the wins. A good writing group can give us all of these things.
Your 6-Step Fall Writing Plan
I had my first pumpkin spice oat milk latte today (homemade) so it must be... Fall! Actually we’re in that sweet spot where the mornings are cool (even a bit chilly) and the days are warm and sunny and not humid. But still, it feels like we’ve turned a corner. Kids are back to school, most vacations are over, time to get back to work.