First, ask yourself: What the heck does enough even mean? In my opinion, a dangerous game to play is the comparison game. Before anything else, I recommend the following self-check: Am I forcing myself to fit someone else's writing routine?Am I putting unrealistic expectations on myself?Am I being influenced by "bullies" who tell me to drop …
That's not a typo in the title of this post. This term is the ingenious brainchild of my best friend, educator and activist for transgender rights, Talia C. Johnson. (Btw, her blog is brilliant, so follow it!) Yesterday I finished the first draft of my third and final short story for the winter-spring anthology season. …
Some writers are able-bodied. Some have disabilities that impair cognitive function. Some can blaze on the keyboard with ease. Others have too much pain to type or even sit up to use their dictation software. If you command that all writers must write every single day, can you see how this might be an ableist thing? Maybe let’s not assume everyone’s life is exactly the same.
Hi, people who like words! I thought I would blog about how---now that I'm a published author---I'm simply teeming with confidence about the writing process as I work on my second book. Except . . . if I wrote anything like that, I'd be what's known as: LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE! Holy schnikies, it's like …
This was my original piece, written in 1999. I'd barely written anything and gave up. It was still a story with a writer who hated his day job and who tried to become a fiction author. It was awful, though, with glimpses of potential. Kitty was my late Irish granny's name, so I was considering …
Even though my book, Life in the 'Cosm, is already published, its official launch is next weekend on October 29, 2016. (See more info on the Renaissance Press website!) So, it's super really true, I'm an author now, who writes words. Whoot! But, if I'm all about the writey-writey, why am I also doodling a comic strip of …
Continue reading If I’m an author, why am I doodling a comic strip?
As of today's date I have one publisher reviewing my submitted manuscript for book one while I work on book two of this three-book series. And you know what? It's kinda lonely. I'm shamelessly going emo here. Maybe not Kylo-Ren emo, but emo in my own way. The loneliness of being a so-far unpublished author stems …
I spent the last year and a half gleefully happy that I was writing a book. Now the inevitable begins. It's time to pitch the manuscript to agents and publishers. Here are the five signs that I've entered the dreaded Pitch Wars. (Cue ominous sci-fi theme...) 5. My palms are sweaty and I think I might …
"And later, you can give us a reading of your book," enthusiastically said Almost Author's husband, much to her terror. I gave my first reading. Sort of. There was only an audience of four, and I was related to them, but I don't think I'll ever forget it. We went to see our parents for …
OK, OK, I did it again. I lost my poop. I took my eyes off the pleasure of writing and started fretting about how to publish--who would accept me, how would people regard me if I self-published, and on and on and on. This is what I call The Dark Vacuum of Joylessness. I just get sucked …
Cait Gordon—author and editor 