Emotional Craft of Fiction – book and workshop (you can attend the next one in Irvine, CA in Jan 2018!) My back going out on me kept me from one day of the three in this workshop, but the other two were attended propped up in a wheelchair among friends and relatively pain-free with the help of modern medicine. Not… Read More
No STRESS, just FOCUS
This is my new motto. Also, read this: CLICK HERE TO GET IT “The signs of mental fatigue, such as a drop in effectiveness and a rise in distractedness and irritability, signify that the mental effort needed to sustain focus has depleted the glucose that feeds neural energy….The antidote to attention fatigue is the same as for the physical kind:… Read More
Community, Isolation, and Time Alone With One’s Thoughts
In our hyper-connected society, the art of being alone seems almost scandalous. And yet, there are studies which show people are even more isolated than ever before. Paradoxes—our world is built on them. For writers, isolation can be a serious issue. At the same time that you’re struggling with the emotional demands of writing well, the solitary nature of the… Read More
CONNECTION
An essential human need. Babies wither without it. Adults blossom with it. Just now, I witnessed the most adorable thing at the Panera. An older woman—at least 70—and a 20-something man embraced after an effusive “Good morning!” They both have Panera aprons on. All smiles, they set to work, doing the things Panera employees do. How delightful. And these two… Read More
On Reading as a Writer
The Initial Love Affair My relationship with reading is lifelong and fraught with drama. I was madly in love in my youth and early adulthood, mostly SF but also philosophical tracts. Just as I was beginning to want more from books—more romance, more emotional content, more sweeping dramas where humanity was tested at its worst and brought to its best—SF… Read More
KEYS FOR SUCCESS IN INDIE PUBLISHING*
*including bonus swears 1 – DO YOUR HOMEWORK – read my books, study the bestsellers, invest the time and money it takes to do that. To REALLY do that, not a five minute glance at the bestseller charts and assuming you know what they’re saying. Construct your own graduate-level Indie Publishing course and get a damn A in that class…. Read More
Living Every Moment: Keys To A Creative Life
“Once we realize that the boundaries between work and play are artificial, we can take matters in hand and begin the difficult task of making life more livable.”—Daniel Pink, DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Work is play. Play can be made into work. This applies up and down the spectrum. Cleaning out the garage (as I did… Read More
The Group is Closing but the Blog/Newsletter Live On!
I’m watching everyone process the closing of the FLOM FB group… and I couldn’t be more proud of how we’re making this transition. People are sad, but grateful. They’re processing it and finding that it’s opening new opportunities to recommit to the sanctity of their own writing time, spend less time on FB, and connect in new, smaller groups dedicated… Read More
IF YOU HAVE A CHILD WHO WRITES… (advice on navigating that in the age of indie publishing)
My best advice on how to encourage and support a child writer in the age of self-publishing… THE OLYMPIC APPROACH A friend asked me this morning about hiring a promo company for her friend’s Middle Grade book (h/t to JA Belfield for looking out for her friend). After dispensing my normal advice about MG being a For Love Only field of publishing… Read More
MEDITATION AND WRITING
So, already I feel like a fraud just typing those words. Because who am I to talk about meditation? Or mindfulness? I use both in my writing – I *believe* in the power of both – but it’s not like I’m a Tibetan monk or a Mindfulness Guru. (^^the crazy that plays in my head sometimes^^) The following is my… Read More
ON MAKING MONEY
I DON’T JUDGE YOU BY HOW MUCH MONEY YOU MAKE Given that I wrote a book that has “money” in the title (For Love or Money), I feel like I need to make that very clear. Also, the fact that we get constant (and I mean CONSTANT) messaging that money is a measure of the worth of someone (or of… Read More
ON BEING YOUR OWN GENIUS
I often have people who want my advice. Sometimes, they want it before they read the books. Sometimes, they want it *after* they’ve read the books. Sometimes, they’re willing to PAY me for it, just to have it sooner/faster or because they’re stuck and can’t see how to move forward on their own. Universally, people think I have secret knowledge… Read More
It Will Always Be Hard – The Struggle of Art
“When does it start to get easier?” the newbie author asks me. “Never. It will always be hard,” I say. I feel like the Harsh Mistress of Author Truths in that moment. But it’s better to slay that expectation in the crib than let it grow into a monster that will cripple that new author. Example: I’ve written a lot… Read More
ACHIEVING THE FLOW STATE
“A composer of music, for instance, may know that he wishes to write a song, or a flute concerto, but other than that, his goals are usually quite vague. And how does he know whether the notes he is writing down are “right” or “wrong”? The same situation holds true for the artist painting a picture, and for all activities… Read More
SELL THE EBOOK FIRST
I’ve said for a long time that everything flows from ebook sales – audiobook sales, paperback sales, foreign rights deals, agents, print-only deals – all the “markers of success” that authors often seek. If you sell enough ebooks, the rest will come (not always – a lot of the world is crazy random, especially when tradpub is involved). You’re not… Read More
FINISHED NOT PERFECT
This video focuses on art, but is just as appropriate for the author. I think of the years I spent writing but never finishing my stories because they weren’t perfect. I still struggle with this, but I’ve finally found that place where I can accept the fact that my stories will never be perfect, but at least they’re finished.
BEING OBJECTIVE ABOUT YOUR WORK
By popular request, I’m reposting this from my “Ask Me Anything” thread. Harlow Cyan Fallon had a SPECTACULAR question. Here it is along with my response. Harlow Cyan Fallon: “Is there a way to recognize whether your own writing is good or not? It seems I don’t have the capacity to discern it myself. I may write a story or a novel… Read More
RESISTANCE: How to Overcome It
I’ve just lost two days to battling Resistance. I’m telling you this to 1- let you know that this still happens to writers who have been writing for years and have many novels under their belts and who consider themselves Highly Trained Resistance Fighters (TM pending), and 2 – to give you some insight into how I do battle. KEY… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing – Part 4 – OUTWARD MARKERS OF SUCCESS
DRIVE by Daniel Pink is all about internal motivation and how autonomy, mastery, and serving a higher purpose are things that fulfill us. I’ve always been very internally motivated. I’ve also always been driven. These are two separate things – you can have ambition but be motivated by external rewards, or you can have internal motivation but no ambition that’s… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing, Part 3 – 10% Time
The idea of 10% time is letting your employees spend 10% of their hours (or one day a quarter – whatever) working on any project they want. The idea is to spur innovation. Now, this doesn’t naturally appear to apply to writers. I mean, we’re on 10% Time ALL THE TIME, right? Well… not really. In a global sense, yes…. Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing, Part 2 – Turning Work into Play and Play into Work
“Once we realize that the boundaries between work and play are artificial, we can take matters in hand and begin the difficult task of making life more livable.” – DRIVE by Daniel Pink I write full-time, which I often call “playing full-time” but in reality, I have three teen boys and a husband and home and a life, and it’s… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing – Part 1 – Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
I have many thoughts about Daniel Pink’s book DRIVE and how its theories of motivation intersect with indie publishing. MANY THOUGHTS. So many I have to break this into parts. A PRIMER DRIVE is about Motivation 3.0 – the autonomy, mastery, and purpose that drives our intrinsic motivation to work, play, live, and create. Motivation 2.0 is your typical carrots-and-sticks… Read More
“All in, all the time.”
“All in, all the time.” “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” “The only easy day was yesterday.” –Navy SEAL slogans that apply to writing and publishing We want to hedge. We want to be “smart” by playing it safe. We want to minimize the chance of failure. I’m here to tell you that if you’re not MAXIMIZING your chance of failure, you… Read More