Stories

This post is an interview I did with Emily Clark, an award-winning editor in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s a bit longer than what I usually run – but if you read to the end, I promise you’ll be glad you did! If you’re a writer, you know that every writer needs an editor.  Maybe […]

Anais Nin said, The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. Ann Handley says this in her book title: Everybody Writes. This is true because we all: Write emails. Post status updates on social media. Write down things we want to remember. […]

25 years together! Two years ago I promised my wife the biggest anniversary gift ever. It took a little longer than I expected. Like two years longer. The Birth of the Dream It all started in January 2015. Missy told me, “I’d like to build a house on Poodle’s (her grandmother) property. We could knock […]

You spent four hours crafting a fantastic blog post. You share it on all your social media channels. Afterward, you pull up your stats every hour to see how many people clicked your link. You’re greeted with a big fat zero – zero reads, zero shares, and zero signs anyone cares. If you’re lucky, that […]

Have you ever had one of those weeks when you were so busy you didn’t have time to write anything? This was one of those weeks for me. Every morning as I left for work, the sky was dark. Every evening, the cloak of night descended as I drove home. When you spend what seems […]

What’s the goal of every writer once she hits publish? To get readers, right? If you’re sharing because you can, that’s a good start. It’s scary to put your work before people who can criticize you. Getting no reaction may scare you more. Anyone can publish in this always-connected world. We have freedom to speak […]

Blake Atwood said, “Without a deadline, every word you write will feel like you’re building a bridge to nowhere.” I have two clients I’ve promised to send 4 articles every month. At the first of the month, I decide what I’ll write each week. Otherwise, I can get distracted by a thousand unrelated things: doing […]

Have you ever designed a persona? If you’re wondering what I mean by that, let me explain. A persona is a profile of your ideal customer. If you were writing fiction, it would be like creating a character for your story. You want to know things like: Age Sex Income Job Location Then you’ll want […]

Photo Credit: mclcbooks Flickr via Compfight cc You’ve heard you should get up early to write. Research shows your brain is most creative in the morning. Your conscious mind sleeps. Your unconscious mind doesn’t. It’s always churning ideas – which may be why you have dreams. So why not take advantage of this natural cycle? […]

Alexander Hamilton said, I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man. You can do years of research. You can slave over your draft for days. You can edit until the cyber paper crumbles from all the hard eraser marks. Your work will never be perfect. Stop chasing perfection. You’ll never hit it. […]