Power Writing began as a weekly newsletter in April 2006. Its purpose? To give tips and advice about writing, to tell interesting stories and to help writers everywhere work faster, better. I distribute the newsletter by email to thousands of readers around the world every week and, since March 2012, it has become the Tuesday entry of my blog.
You can read many Power Writing entries here – I back-entered all columns until the beginning of 2009, and a handful of ones that were earlier than that. But I hope you’ll consider subscribing, too. Just enter your name and email in the box next to my photo on the home page of my website. If you do that, you’ll not only receive Power Writing by email each week, you’ll also automatically get access to a 10-minute video on how to unblock your writing.
Each week I go through a Halloween grab bag of more than 100 blogs about writing, publishing and psychology, pulling out the Crunchie bars and Smarties I especially like. Here’s my take on the 10 most interesting pieces I’ve read or seen during the last month (each headline is linked to the piece I’ve highlighted): […]
PubCoach Top 10: November 2019 Read More »
Reading time: About 3 minutes Wouldn’t it make writing easier if you knew you were not required to complete the work? I was listening to a 2005 radio interview last week with the late Harold Bloom who died Oct 14 at the age of 89. A famous American literary critic, Yale University professor and prolific
Why you’re not required to complete the work Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes A whispered word, NaNoWriMo stirs equal measures of fear and interest in many writers. Why? And is the program a good idea? Do you want to write a book quickly? Say, in 100 days? Nothing strikes me as a crazier idea, although I’ve recently seen a number of posts promoting the
Is NaNoWriMo for you? Read More »
Reading time: About 6 minutes Are you considering self-publishing a book? Here are the mistakes I made when producing Your Happy First Draft. Some 30 years ago, when I was an editor for a large metropolitan daily newspaper, I had a terrible boss. But I was lucky enough to qualify for some management coaching. And
Mistakes I made with my book Read More »
Reading time: Just over 5 mins. Clients often ask me how they can nurture their creative sparks. Here’s what I learned about creativity when producing my latest book. My new book, Your Happy First Draft, required a lot of creative sparks before it was published. But in today’s post, I’m going to talk about
How to turn your creative sparks into a bonfire Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes My new book has generated lots of extra traffic for my blog and newsletter. I thought I’d take this chance to explain my own rules for blogging…. Although I didn’t start this iteration of my website until 2007, I’ve blogged since 2006. That’s almost 14 years. If you’ve read
My counterintuitive rules for blogging Read More »
Reading time: Just over 4 minutes If you’ve ever wanted to be a happier writer, my new book will give you encouraging, practical support…. At last, it’s sales day. My latest book Your Happy First Draft is available today. Finally! Even if you’re not interested in buying, I hope you’ll take 60 seconds to watch the book’s
Your Happy First Draft is here! Read More »
Reading time: Just over 3 minutes The real problem with writing is not spelling or grammar. It’s persuading yourself to put enough words on the page…. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the internet reading what others have to say about writing. Too many of them sound like Julie McGuire who wrote in
The REAL problem with writing Read More »
Reading time: Less than 5 minutes What writing lessons do you need to learn? Here are five I picked up when writing my soon-to-be published book…. My second book, Your Happy First Draft, went to the printers in September 2019. That month also marked another important occasion: The 700th issue of Power Writing, this weekly newsletter/blog that
Five writing lessons I learned from ‘Your Happy First Draft’ Read More »
Reading time: Less than 4 minutes Do you want to write a book? It may help you to realize that a book is the natural result of a writing habit…. I read an article in the New York Times recently, exploring the relationship between swimming and happiness. I don’t swim much myself (except when it’s
How to write a book as a side effect Read More »
