Archive for the 'A writer’s motivation' Category

I Got Your Writing Formula Right Here, Pal.

  Fine. I admit it. I get frustrated by all the charlatans willing to take advantage of writers searching for a formula for writing well. There’s no law against it, of course, and I suppose there’s an argument that it’s dishonorable not to take stupid people’s money. But come on, people. Even if someone could simply hand you a map to
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If You’ll Accept the Struggle

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi Writing is hard–for so many reasons. Is it worth the effort? I get so many manuscripts from new writers asking me if it’s worth the effort to invest in. I used to try to
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Letter to an Anonymous Author

“I am a writer. Therefore, I am not sane.” ― Edgar Allan Poe Dear X, I appreciated your note, my friend. And I’m grateful for it. I’ve seen your struggle and I know how hard you’re working to progress and capture everything well, and also accept help. I knew your journey would be a special challenge, and while your issues
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What Writers Need to Know about Talent and Self-Discipline

The most important thing you can do is a lot of work…. – Ira Glass       They need to slow down. Sitting with the other parents in the little orange plastic chairs at Charlotte’s cello lesson, I have to force myself to be quiet. The teacher is trying hard to get the other kids (the boys) to go
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Why Writing Well Is All About Intensity

“…I began to find life unsatisfactory as an explanation of itself and was forced to adopt the method of the artist of not explaining but putting the blocks together in some other way that seems more significant to him. Which is a fancy way of saying I started writing.”   I taught fiction at Mt. Hermon last week. The most
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