This book is excellent for helping you break through the barriers that keep you from moving forward in your life. The subtitle of this book — Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles — does a good job of describing the content that’s inside this book. On one of the first pages…
Editorial calendars not only help you stay organized. They can also helpreduce your stress levels — a winning combination! Editorial calendars (despite the name) are NOT just for editors. They come in handy no matter what type of writing you do — whether business or personal. Like any other calendar, they help you not only…
This book is one of the few things I’ve never put in storage. It sits in an easy-to-see spot in our living room bookcase. Nearly 22 years ago, my husband and my son (who was almost 6 at the time) gave me a Christmas gift that I still pull off the shelf now and then….
Taking photos (even as a hobby) is a fun way to energize your writing. It was the early 1980s when I sold my first freelance article. I’d written about an unusual company that was on the radio a lot back then … advertising their potato chips — which they’d named Buffalo Chips. When the trade…
My son (who didn’t enjoy reading) LOVED this book. He was 10 at the time. This book, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, played an important part in my son’s life. There was nothing in the title that prepared me for that, since I thought it was just another “history” book that the homeschool co-op I was part…
Outlines used in writing are similar to the scaffolding used in construction. Despite what you may believe (or have been told), there is really nothing “magical” about writing. It’s a skill that can be taught. I would say it’s more “craft” than “art” … although writing that’s done well does fall under the category of…
My son, Ben, was 5½ years old in the photo on the left. My husband, Tom, is pictured on the right … 24 years earlier. I grew up less than 10 miles from the ocean — San Francisco’s Ocean Beach was our closest access point, down the road from the world-famous Cliff House. But, as…
ALWAYS check to make sure your sources are reliable. These are just some examples of ones you can trust. In this article, you’ll find a list of 5 different categories of sources that have proven to be VERY reliable for years … and, in some cases, decades. Each category relates to a part of our…
This is one of those books that stick with you forever. Even if you only read it once. I don’t remember now what made me decide to read this book, but I do know I was in my early 30s when I finally bought a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird and read it for the first…
Research is more important to your success than you may realize. Research is something most of us probably started doing when we were still in elementary school. I know my own experience with it started when I was in 5th grade and needed to write a report on Mexico. We were told it was OK to…