Reading time: Less than 5 minutes Do you find music helps you to write or are the sounds of silence more golden to your ears? Here’s what science has to say about background music while writing…. When I was a child, my mother strictly limited our television viewing. In the […]
Are the sounds of silence helpful or harmful to writers? Read More »
Do you spend too much time planning? Or not enough? It can be tricky to master the ‘planning-to-writing ratio’ so it works just right for you. Here’s how I tell the difference: Over-planners (and I sometimes consider myself to be one of these people) are usually aware of the problem in themselves. They are obsessed
What’s the right amount of time to spend planning? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 1 minute Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: shura… I enjoyed Amy Waldman’s remarkable first novel, Submission, so much that I asked for a copy of her second book, A
What does ‘shura’ mean? Read More »
Reading time: Less than 5 minutes Do you work at beating bad writing habits? Don’t just ignore them! Instead, deal with them promptly — before they become deeply engrained… I was sitting on a bus last week —one of those long painful rides that seemed to be taking almost a
Is a frozen shoulder killing your writing? Read More »
Today’s subject is “How do you know that you’ve written enough? That is, how do you decide when you’re finished?” Thanks so much to Joan Rush for suggesting this excellent topic. I want to begin by quoting Priscilla Long who is a fabulous writer and teacher — she’s based in Seattle — and if you’re
How do you know when you’ve finished writing? Read More »
Reading time: About 5 minutes Have you ever read a book that had an all-out-of-proportion impact on you? Today’s post gives you 10 books that changed my life. The New York Times last week ran an article under the headline “the book that changed my life.” The paper had asked
10 books that changed my life Read More »
So, if you want to give up your habit of procrastinating, be sure you ask yourself what you’re getting from it. (We don’t procrastinate because we’re stupid. Or lazy! We procrastinate because we usually have very logical reasons for not wanting to do something.) The best way to get to the core of the issue
Giving procrastination the old heave-ho Read More »
There’s a particularly nasty strain of flu going around this year. I know because my husband caught it two weeks before Christmas. I knew he was really sick because he took a day off work, something he’s done only three times in the 32 years we’ve been together. (When fighting a bug, he washes his
How do you deal with being sick? Read More »
Reading time: About 7 minutes In the season after Christmas, when life seems flat and winter feels cold, dark and endless, I like to settle in by the fire and wrap my fingers around a steaming cup of fine reading. Here are my 10 favourite articles or posts from last month, culled
PubCoach Top 10: January 2020 Read More »
Is your big writing project starting to make you feel OVERWHELMED? Here are seven tips that will not only help you feel better but that will also make you a more productive writer: Take a break: The biggest part of your problem may be that your “well” isn’t full enough. Just as a conventional well
How to reduce your feelings of being overwhelmed Read More »
