License to Write Badly

by Barbara Martin

in Writing Daily

As a writer, how often do you stop to reread your work and then agonize over what you just wrote because it’s not perfect? How much time to you spend mulling exactly where to start a scene, debating the perfect first line for the fifth chapter, toying with the perfect verb for a key sentence, […]

Family and friends must understand that your writing time is important. It’s beyond important: it’s sacrosanct. It’s not interruptible. But it’s not fair to ask family and friends to allow you the time you need to write — to take your writing seriously and to support your creative efforts — unless you yourself take it […]

Set Aside Time to Write

by Barbara Martin

in Writing Daily

Any big writing project, or even a modest writing project (is any writing project modest? I don’t think so!) requires you to sit down and actually write. Finding the time to write is a matter of priority setting and a matter of logistics. Once you’ve cleaned up your calendar and eliminated any “extra” responsibilities, look […]

You may be wondering about all the NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month fuss. Wondering why anyone would even want to try to write a novel in a month or 50,000 words of anything in thirty days. At that pace, the quality will be subpar and the burnout risk is above average. Let’s be bluntly […]

Publishing the first issue of Scoops and Swoops newsletter has emboldened me. The thrill of hitting that send button is close to the terror I feel leaning over a precipice, an abyss, or my balcony. (You can subscribe to it on the sidebar right. Next issue is sometime in November. First issue is archived here.) […]