There are times when the words just won’t come. The idea is to big or the story too long and it seems impossible to even get started. You try a lead and then another and then another and nothing seems interesting enough. Or worse, you can’t even find a place to start and you’re starting to wonder why you thought you could write in the first place....
Read MoreMy typical technique when it comes to writing is to slam through a story pushing on until I’m done and then going back to fix it. A few years back, however, I had the privilege of working with a colleague who happens to be a great writer and employs a much different style that I have come to greatly appreciate. She took a very methodical approach that can be...
Read MoreThere are times when you have to sit down and slam out your copy all at once. You have a tight deadline or you just have so much to say that you have to get it all out at once and quickly. If you have the time, there’s another trick to working past the writer’s block. I call it setting the stage. If I’m working on a non-fiction story, I try to do...
Read MoreIt is much easier to say that writers write than it is for writers to write. A blank page is overwhelming and sometimes the ideas are so unwieldy that the refuse to be corralled long enough to be put on paper (or computer screen). That’s when a writer needs tricks to get things moving along. All good writers have their a few to trot out as they get stuck....
Read MoreThe most obvious piece of advice that successful writers give to wannabe writers is that if you want to be a writer, you have to write. It seems that is something that go without saying. And yet, I know from personal experience, that it doesn’t happen. People get intimidated about putting things down. It has to be grand. It has to be mind-boggling. It has to...
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