I still remember the first time I built a website gallery for my art. It was a labor of love, a mix of excitement and frustration as I navigated the world of HTML for the first time. Each line of code was a step towards bringing my vision to life, a digital space where I
Quick Answer 250+ original writing prompts organized by genre (fantasy, romance, mystery, sci-fi, horror), 25 stealable story starters, age-appropriate prompts for kids and teens, and a free prompt generator. Use any of them as warmups, novel seeds, or unstuck-ers. I’ve been up for days, anxious and paranoid, because I’m excited...
I’ve seen this question pop up a few times, as well as some answers I don’t agree with. The main presumption seems to be this: that people with ADD can’t sit still and focus on ONE BIG PROJECT, which puts us at a disadvantage. I’ve seen some authors say this is why they can’t plan
I can tell you exactly how to write books that matter, but first we need to agree on some basic tenets, regarding the purpose of writing. Otherwise, you may resist some of the strategies I’m about to share, due to things you’ve been told, and things you believe. You’ll feel them when they come up,
A lot of authors – almost all I’ve talked to – are very cautious about the money. Several writers have told me they don’t want to make money with their writing, even after publishing several novels. They don’t want to make a living with their writing, because then it would be a job; if they
Archive note: This post was first published in May 2020. References to “this summer” describe the 2020 writing camp. I planned to spend my summer indoors quietly catching up on my backlist of YA fantasy and scifi novels and maybe doing a bit of book editing. But I’ve also been wishing I had a way
Passion is worthless. Joy is priceless. The last several weeks I’ve been staying in a castle. At night, I’d scramble up the steep ruins, my path lit only by the moon and the stars. Below I can see the thick pine tree hills and the warm glow of the cabin down the hill. I’d sit
Quick Answer Poesis (from the Greek poiesis) means “to make” — it’s the lost art of creating something meaningful from nothing. Poesis is also spelled poiesis. In this essay I use it for the passion side of making, the pull to create something, and set it against techne, the practical know-how; my argument is that
Quick Answer Being alone is a skill; loneliness is what happens when you haven’t learned it yet. If you only need one powerful quote on being alone, use Paul Tillich’s: “Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And
Archive note: The personal reading plans in this post date from August 2018. References to upcoming reviews and research describe that original project. I started this blog in 2011 and did nothing for a year except read all the books on creativity. It was research for a manifesto, but the more I read, the more
This morning I did an interview on writing fiction and we discussed, among other things, whether writing faster books leads to inferior quality and whether writing to market creates inferior art. These are real conversations, and though I would answer “no” to both, I’m often challenged by thousands of passionate creators who...
If you have a good idea for a business that provides value (by making something people want, need, like or enjoy), it’s easy to get sidetracked by details that don’t matter, and waste months playing around with websites and logos (by which time, you’ve probably had a totally new and better idea!) You need to
