Category: on the writer’s life

Setting & Achieving Your Writing Goals

Diane Ferguson 4 Comments
Paul Zizka Photography @paulzizkaphoto https://zizka.ca/

Is writing your day job? Or like me, do you have to fit it in between the many things that fill a mid-life. I remember days in my late twenties when I could like on the couch and do nothing. Why did I waste so much time? (Okay, I was recovering from getting a university education and further designation, so I won’t be too hard on my younger self.)

But now, with a day job, two teenage girls, several pets, a husband and a house – time is of the essence. Not to mention the biggest time factor in life: getting older. Yet, I’ve decided to start my novel all over again. Read more

Holiday Tasks & Seizing Opportunities

Lori Twining Leave a comment

Dear writers,

The countdown is on! We have exactly two weeks until Christmas arrives… whether you’re ready or not, the day will still show up on December 25th, and so will all your company demanding your attention.

Therefore, you will need to prioritize your precious time and outline some kind of schedule to make sure you still get some writing time in over the last week of December (before the 2017 year is over).

If you are one of those writers who hold down one or two other jobs to pay the bills between small pockets of writing time, maybe you will get some much needed time off over the holidays?

Free hours? Free days? Free time?

What are you going to do with all this free time?

I have a few suggestions for you:

Read more

Freedom

Kelly Babcock Leave a comment
open gate
I’ll get the gate …

“Nothing happens in my life worth writing about.” “I can’t write.” “I don’t have an imagination.”These are excuses I hear all too often.

And the painful thing of it is that it shows, not that people don’t lead exciting lives, but that people don’t write because they don’t know how this works.

And I, poor excuse for a teacher that I am, intend to set this wrong to rights.

Read more

Writing Life Events

Bernice Connell Leave a comment

I’m a pushover for stories revolving around weddings, funerals, birthdays and holidays. Everyone has experiences of these relatable events.

Life events can make the most of storytelling by giving us a recognizable backdrop along with the unique twists and turns of each story. This is what intrigues me; the combination of the familiar and somewhat predictable components and the inevitable unfolding surprises. There are endless possibilities of tears, laughter, intrigue and celebration, possibly all happening on the same occasion. Not to mention the fun of getting to know characters as mundane or bizarre as you can imagine. Read more

My Guilty Writing Fuel

Tracey Richardson Leave a comment

For most of us writers, doing the thing we love most entails planting our butt in a chair for hours on end. Not only are we physically inert, but our minds wander too. Writing is tedious work; boredom can easily set in. That’s when many of us feel the need for a little assistance to keep us focused and fueled.

Coffee, tea or…

By “assistance” what I really mean is a pleasant little diversion to keep us from going completely bonkers while we’re writing our next opus. And often, this diversion is a guilty pleasure, such as chocolate (one of God’s wonders for sure!), coffee (again, nectar from the Gods), tea, candy, or smoking for famous authors such as Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and George Orwell. Read more

Local Literary Adventures & the Words Aloud Festival

Diane Ferguson 1 Comment

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost

Are you a genre writer? Or a poet? Or a novelist? Or do you just like to read in these areas? No matter what you love, it’s always good to try something new, something different. We all have something to learn from each other. Check out what literary events are happening in your area. Go to them, support them, enjoy them. At the very least, you might make some new friends. Go see authors you haven’t read before, join a book club and read something different.

Hwy 4 Writers Group Reunite at Words Aloud I’m holding Suzanne Sloan’s book, Mining the Memories

I’ll give you some examples from my own experience. Earlier this summer, a friend had an extra ticket to a romance writer’s event in Collingwood an hour away. We carpooled and met with others for dinner first before listening to four romance writers read and talk about their writing. Now, I don’t write romance novels, but I can’t imagine myself writing a novel without romance in it. There’s always something to learn and I had a great time and made new friends. Read more

Branding Like a Boss

Lori Twining Leave a comment

This month, my writing group has taken an interest in developing their author websites and all I could think of while they were discussing this topic was… “Please don’t look at mine as an example.”

Why?

Because I’m one of those authors that still hasn’t decided on how to brand myself. You look at my landing page on my website and you will have no clue as to what I write. This is because I’m prone to genre-hopping. This allows me to write anything I want, whenever I want. I like to be in control. I don’t want to be known for only one thing. Yesterday, I worked on Literary Fiction and today I worked on a Suspense-Thriller novel. Who knows what I’ll work on tomorrow?

What’s wrong with that? Read more

To Quit or Not to Quit Writing

Donna Judy Curtin 1 Comment

Life is Busy

We all have commitments that fill up our day, our calendar and our thoughts.

At times, it seems as though my life and the choices I have made are overtaking my ability to continue to decide how I want to spend my day.

There comes a point where we need to clean house and decide what must stay on our ‘to do’ list, however, lately it seems the things that tend to get kicked off my plate are things I actually want to do.

So there goes writing time

Time to give up. Toss in the towel. Zip up the heart and close the computer screen.

If you know me at all, I can already imagine you shaking your head and mumbling,

“What’s the catch?”

Allow me to digress, one last time, into storytelling, because as I’ve stated, I’m quitting this writing thing. Read more