Category Archives for Writing
What Should You Do With All Your Old Writing? Delete, Ignore, or Update?
Do you have a stash of old writing?
Perhaps it’s a partial novel manuscript in a bottom desk drawer, or a handful of short stories in a folder on your computer, or a tatty pile of school magazines that published your earliest poems.
It might not bother you at all. Those old pieces may not weigh on your mind, and they may not feel like clutter, just a part of your writerly history, which is fine!
But if you occasionally think about that half-finished project from five years ago, or those stories you never managed to sell, or that excruciatingly bad fanfiction you wrote when you were 15 (or is that just me?), then you might want to think through your options.
Feeling Like a Fraud? How To Get Over Impostor Syndrome
We see those professional writers and entrepreneurs bask in the glory of their successful careers. They deliver quality work, become an authority in their niche, and seem to connect well with their audience. People get the idea that they definitely know what they are doing.
But beneath that surface can be a frustrated individual who feels like a fraud despite the glaring evidence of success.
We have all been there, one way or another. One minute, we’re feeling a sense of accomplishment with our work, and then next, we’re dragging ourselves down, flooded with guilt, because we feel undeserving of any kind of merit.
“Is it because of pure luck, or is it because of talent?” we may wonder.
How Watching TV Can Make You a Better Writer
What’s your favorite TV show to fold laundry to? You know, the one you can half pay attention to and still keep up with the plot?
Maybe you don’t have any shows you only half-watch because everything on TV right now is so good. Peak TV is a real thing.
Or maybe you think watching TV is a waste of time. It’s a “guilty pleasure” or a purely leisure activity.
I’ve seen writers who encourage others to trade TV watching for book reading, but those activities don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Yes, to be a really good writer, you have to be a really good reader. But, my friends, there is some excellent TV on right now. And if you want to be a better writer, you should be watching some of it.
How to Use a Rubber Duck to Beat Writer’s Block
It’s writer’s block: the moment you run into a mental wall while writing and can’t think of a good idea or a way to continue your story, paragraph, or even a single sentence. All creatives run into this problem at some point. Most run into it rather frequently. Sometimes it gets so bad that people give up on their creative pursuits entirely.
Thankfully, there’s a solution to the problem. It’s well-known in computer programming circles, but writers can use it, too: Talk to a rubber duck.