Writing a Novel with the Loose Draft

Today, let’s talk about loose drafting, a writing strategy that is a mix of plotting and pantsing.

4 Exercises to Develop Writing Voice Flexibility

In writing, your voice is the combination of tone, personality, style, and everything else that makes your writing an authentic expression of you. Writing voice is the reason that A Series of Unfortunate Events became more than a depressing saga, and it’s the reason the Fantastic Beasts movies may feel more like Harry Potter to…

3 Tone Exercises to Make You a More Agile Writer

Here are a few exercises to help you develop your tone-forming muscles. Note that I’m not going over what tone is in much any depth here, so hit the Googles first if you need a review.

How to Balance Writing Time and Chores

your work done first, then you’ll never write. Here’s a five-step process I’m trying out to set boundaries around my writing time. List Your Chores and Rank Them by Importance First, list all the chores you have to do on a regular basis. How you define “regular” is up to you — I interpret “regular”…

How to Find Your Ideal Job

With jobs, knowing what you want can be difficult because so many factors are involved. But here’s an outline for how to figure out what your (current) ideal job is. Identify Your Dream Job For now, stay in the real world. (Don’t choose “unicorn wrangler” as your dream job.) But don’t worry about money. Ask…

Sleep Routines for Writers

I’ve had significant sleep problems for a while now, so how one gets good sleep has been on my mind. One common recommendation is to have a regular sleep routine, and today we’ll talk about some options that you can incorporate in your routine to enhance your writing, reading, and entertainment life as well as…

5 Ways to Gain the Confidence of a Professional Writer

One thing the online writing community has taught me is that a lot of writers suffer from self-doubt and don’t necessarily feel supported as writers. And while I relate to these feelings to some extent, I’m fortunate in that my formal writing education and my paid writing and editing positions have boosted my confidence. In…

4 Writing Prompts That Help With Personal Branding

If you’re a writer, then you need a solid personal brand to help you market your work. And if you Google information about personal branding, you’ll find a lot of guidelines about finding your audience, clarifying your values, and highlighting your purpose. All those things are great and important, and we’ll come back to them…

4 Times You Shouldn’t Do Your Best

Sometimes sticking with something isn’t the most effective use of your energy. Here are four times when you don’t want to do your best.