Category: Priorities
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When You Face Resistance as a Writer
Does anyone else ever feel like all hell breaks loose once you set a goal? Recently I determined to spend a minimum of two hours each day on my novel. Since then my computer broke down and I was required to order a new one. We had “smoke week” here…
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It’s Not Who You Are
We can choose to be identified by our past or we can have faith to move beyond it. As I commit myself to working on my novel again, I am having to deal with demons of the past. “You won’t follow through.” “You’ve failed before.” “What makes you think you…
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Organizing for Writing
As writers we are always collecting material. I have file boxes full of notes. Numerous computer files. Bookshelves of books. My brain is constantly coming up with new concepts to write about. New angles. New stories. I can’t possibly keep track of them all. Between my electronic notes and files,…
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How I Beat Writer’s Block
At the Peace Arch border crossing, entering the U.S. from Canada, the border patrol person asked me what I did for a living. He seemed very interested when I told him I was a writer and offered me a cure for writer’s block. “You know what you have to do…
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My Writers’ Conference Experience
Last week I attended the Oregon Christian Writers Conference in Portland, Oregon. The conference began on Monday and ended Thursday afternoon. For any writer who has never attended a conference, I highly recommend it. One of the reasons to attend a writers’ conference is that writers have access to agents…
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Getting Past the Fear
Last night, at 4:00 a.m. I finally pressed ‘Send’ and submitted my first ten pages to the Oregon Christian Writes Manuscript Submission program. For $5.00 you can have an editor or agent look at your first ten pages when you attend the conference. They may or may not want to…
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What I learned from the NaNoWriMo process
The first two weeks of National November Write Month went better than expected. I managed to keep up with my target word count, more or less, or at least catch up. But then we ran into a bit of a crisis at work and my job had to take priority,…
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Why I have not been writing as much
From the perspective of the successful author, no reason is valid for not writing, short of being comatose or having both arms in a cast and my mouth wired shut. But for anyone who would like to hear about my process, here it is. For awhile I was writing five…
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Happy landing
I am awake at 4:00 a.m. and not able to fall back asleep. This happens fairly regularly. It is a great time for reading, and sometimes writing. Speaking of reading, one of the best books I have ever read is People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others and Resolve…
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On time management and self-discipline
Has it come to this? Why of course! And we always knew it would, one day. Joking aside, I was reading Sally Stuart’s Guide to Publishing a few days ago and became motivated to make some changes. It happened because I recognized who I am as a writer and what…
