Today's going to be a busy day. I've got to put in 6 hours at my favorite client's office, make it back home by 4:00pm to let the gas man in, visit with my mother, and run about a thousand smaller errands. But the main thing I'm worried about? Finding time to write. It's hard to find time to be creative on busy days. A mind buzzing with a dozen time-sensitive tasks doesn't want to be creative. I should know. I created three other blog post drafts this weekend. They all should have been ready to post today. But I...
They say that to be a successful writer you need a schedule. For years, I thought I had one. It wasn't a good schedule, mind you, but I did have one. I had convinced myself that I was going to wake up early each day, write for two hours, then come home after my day job and edit for two more. That schedule ignored the fact that I was a chronic over-sleeper. It dismissed the fact that I usually crashed after work. Yet I just kept telling myself that that was my schedule. And I kicked myself each time I...
If you know me, you know that I have a lifelong hatred of mushrooms. There's something about the combination of the flavor and the texture that sets my teeth on edge. For years, people have told me that I didn't give them a chance, I just didn't have them 'the right way'. Some have even tried to sneak them into my food. None of this made me want to give mushrooms a second chance. Yesterday I ate mushrooms. Willingly. I was at my favorite hot pot restaurant, a place I visit with my father every year after the Home and...
Admittedly, 2019 isn't a year that I'll be looking back on with fondness. Yet this year gave me the chance to grow and expand; not just as a writer, but as a line editor, a proofreader, and an overall writing professional. That's especially true with the projects I was tied to thanks to my membership in The Writer's Group. So as the Chinese New Year ends, and 2020 starts in earnest, I'm going to brag about three Writer's Group projects that helped me push my writing skills forward in 2019. I presented the free class "Why You're Not a Professional...