I’m pulling on a thread of a story that could be resolved two different ways. Harsh or comforting. Hard truths or held punches. Grief or healing. Reflection or escape. Both paths can work. Both have power. My stories are often quite chatty, telling me what they want to be, what they’re meant to be. But […]
So there I was, scrolling through social media, when an ad popped up on my feed. “Write blog posts 10X faster with robots!” it said. O-kay, I thought. Sure. What could possibly go wrong? A bit of googling later, I’d fallen down the rabbit hole of AI content generation—sites that promise to take the pesky
I’m a messy writer. I jump in, with little more than a character or an idea, a few sentences or a scrap of voice, and I just start writing. I don’t know where the story is going. I don’t know where it will end. Or maybe I think I know these things now, but I’ll
Doing the “you” things—honoring our (highly individual) writing processes Read More »
“We love the things we love for what they are.” That’s from Robert Frost’s “Hyla Brook.” Variations on the line had been bouncing around in my head for a while before my husband and fellow writer, Larry Hammer, reminded me where it came from. I’d been thinking about Frost (without knowing it was Frost I was
Love and Perfection Read More »
Bones of Faerie, the first book of my Bones of Faerie trilogy, is about uncontrolled growth: plants that bloom in every season, crops that fight their harvesters, trees that seek human blood and bone to root in. Faerie Winter, the second book of the trilogy, tells the opposite story. It’s about endless winter, failure to
“Do you believe that spring will come?” Read More »
Doing What You Love: Practical Strategies for Living a Creative Life is now out in paperback! This chapbook draws on my quarter-century of writing experience to share insights and inspiration previously only available by attending one of my talks or, more recently, downloading an ebook. It makes a great gift for any writer in your
Doing What You Love: Practical inspiration for writers Read More »
I had an amazing Creative Conversation with Janet Lee Carey about Career Cycles this week, where we talked about many of the things we often hesitate to discuss as writers: At some point, it also hit me that there were no guarantees as a writer and that success wasn’t as simple as just being intense
A Creative Conversation about Career Cycles Read More »
You don’t have to write fast You don’t have to write slow You don’t have to go in with a plan You don’t have to outline You don’t have to wait for the story to say where it wants to go You don’t have to write what they tell you to write You don’t have
Jaye Wells and Tiffany Trent both have posts up this week about writers and burnout. (I totally agree with Jaye Wells on the importance of writers having hobbies, once writing ceases to be one. Writing professionally is one of the things that led me to become a serial hobbyist.) This got me to thinking about
Intensity, burnout, and regrouping Read More »
“What do you do about writers block?” It’s a question writers get asked often. It’s also a subject on which writers are tempted to go the hard truths route on when they answer. When I was asked this question, I used to say something like, “Well, I don’t really get writer’s block. I just keep
Writer’s block: short answers and long ones Read More »