A few months ago, the handle to the diverter valve on my shower broke off. What does shower repair have to do with writing? And what’s a diverter valve? You’ll never guess what happened when this writer tried his hands at shower repair. As I later told the plumber, “I...
You’re an artist. A consummate wordsmith who crafts powerful prose compelling readers to take a specific action. To have some corporate suit and tie type question your word slinging prowess is almost insulting. They don’t understand how your copy will help their...
Like many aspiring writers, my writing career started early. I was that introverted six-year-old sitting a safe distance from the playground, nose perpetually glued inside a book. By third grade, I’d finished the entire Goosebumps series. Luckily high school rolled...
As a psychologist I might be biased, but I believe psychology is the ultimate complement to writing. Think about it: Psychology is the study of human behaviour and emotions, relationships and social interactions, psychopathology and human dysfunction. What do novels...
What’s your favorite genre? Memoir? Science fiction? Romance? What about cli-fi? Oh, you’re kind, but I didn’t sneeze. I said cli-fi. Climate fiction. The genre crept up on me before I knew it had a name. I had been eating up dystopian novels, like breakout YA series...
The audiobook industry is quickly growing, yet it can seem daunting to authors unfamiliar with the process. For the past couple of years, I have slowly been turning my repertoire of 50+ works of fiction into audiobooks. I have encountered many roadblocks, from...
It happens to every freelancer at some point. You get sick. Maybe it’s a stuffy head and a streaming nose, or a stomach bug or a bout of depression. Whatever your exact symptoms are, it’s a safe bet that if you were working for an employer, you’d call in sick. But you...
The Oxford comma debate has been settled, as least in one court of law. But another debate rages on in the halls of academia and the forums of word nerds: the great cursive debate. Common Core standards removed cursive instruction as a requirement, which means that in...
Do you have a freelance writing squad? Can you name at least five editors and writers who support your work, give you opportunities and help your career grow? A lot of early-career freelancers focus on getting clients and clips, or pitching those higher-paying gigs...
Let’s be honest — being a writer can be torture, right? You know what you want to write and the goals you have are real, but sometimes life, excuses and your own fear can get in the way of success. There is no magical unicorn that will make the process any...
