This is my grimoire: A grimoire is a book of spells, but when I call it a spell book, half the people think I’m talking about a dictionary. A book of spells is like a cookbook, a collection of recipes, but “cookbook” just doesn’t do it for me, and is possibly misleading in case…
Category: The Writing Craft
6 Steps for the Time-Crunched
We’re heading into one of those times of years where there are more demands on my time than time to deal with them. But as ever, I have a solution to my time-crunch problem. I just have to dig it out and remember what it is. Step back. I ask myself, “What are you doing,…
On your one big thing
I originally wrote this post over on Be Your Own Book Doctor, but I wanted to post it here because it has so much to do with what I’ve been posting about a lot here, on doing the work. The key is doing the right work: As I know I’ve said, I get a lot…
On where I work
I usually spend some mornings each week at my favorite coffee shop, working. The change of scenery is good for me, and sometimes if I have to spend one more hour in my own house, I won’t be responsible for my actions. But occasionally I go somewhere else, because sometimes (not too often!) change is…
On doing the work. Or not
I’m at the coffee shop and I’m supposed to be working on this book. I like the coffee shop because I can’t do my laundry here, or wash the dishes, or alphabetize the spices, all things I’ve been known to do when I should be tackling the work. But the work is hard and I…
On how the work is going
Sometimes the world is a fetid swamp, and other times it’s a glorious sun-kissed beach, usually depending on how the work is going. It’s the same world on Monday as on Tuesday, so I recognize that the difference is in me, and then I jump up and down and yell, “Stop that!” to myself, which,…