You want to write. You want to finish books and get them out into the world. And yet… Weeks or maybe even months have passed and you’re no closer to finishing your latest work-in-progress. It’s still IN progress, only now maybe there’s a layer of dust on top of the box you keep your manuscript […]

Busy Women On Writing Books This is the the fourth instalment in a new interview series on writing, profiling women writers who’ve written and published books while also working, parenting, volunteering, caring for family, attending school, and ALL OF THE THINGS. For this week's interview, I'm pleased to introduce you to Lori McNulty. Lori McNulty is […]

Where do you find writing inspiration? If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m obsessed with helping you stay motivated and connected in your writing life. One way I do this for myself is by reading about the writing lives of writers I admire. I know that I have to find […]

Last week, I wrote about how to shift some of your unhelpful thoughts about writing. Today, I thought we could practice this with another frequent thought that comes up for writers in the early stages of their writing journey… “I’m not a Real Writer.” Depending on how used you are to catastrophizing, you might find this thought shows up […]

Beta readers refer to the initial readers of your manuscript. They’re people you ask to give you feedback on what's working and what isn't, and they're often doing this for you as a favor, perhaps with you swapping work and giving them feedback as well. Make sure you have a completed first draft of your […]

Humans think just over 6000 thoughts a day. That’s a lot of thoughts!  And for writers, 80% of them are probably some form of “my book is shite.” We have a tendency to think all our thoughts are true. But understanding that our thoughts are ephemeral AND that they can be changed is a huge step […]

Look! Squirrel! Distracted is my middle name. Or maybe it’s more of a problem than phrasing it that way let’s on. As in: “Hello, my name is Rhonda and I am distracted." But in all caps: DISTRACTED. Not all the time, but I do watch for the signs. Today, before sitting to write I did […]

Busy Women on Writing Books This is the 13th instalment in a new interview series on writing, profiling women writers who’ve written and published books while also working, parenting, volunteering, caring for family, attending school, and ALL OF THE THINGS. This week, I'm pleased to introduce Canadian author Michelle Butler Hallett. Michelle is the author of This Marlowe, […]

  If you’ve been having trouble writing lately, here's a gratitude practice for writers that works for me Every.Single.Time. Grab a pen and paper: ready? I want you to ask yourself: which writers am I most grateful for? Over the years as a reader, you’ve read books that excited and thrilled you, and books that […]

Writing retreats are hands-down my favourite way to make substantive progress on a manuscript. At one point in my life, I was a single mother of a young child, doing a Masters degree part-time and working a full-time management level job in the non-profit sector. People would say to me “I just don’t know how […]

Are your stories all true? Or are they just comforting? Sometimes I think that we get ourselves into trouble as writers because the stories we’re telling ourselves about our writing and our writing lives aren’t actually true. They seem true -- the voices are very convincing -- but if you start asking questions, you’ll often […]

“How do I even know if my writing is any good?” At some point or another, every writer asks themselves this question, in the general sense about themselves as a writer, as well as about specific pieces of work. In my experience – both with my own writing and for students I’ve worked with -- […]