I’ve been lucky to be a freelance writer of nonfiction for many years. A fantastic tribe of readers — people like you — have supported my efforts by buying my books, attending my talks, sharing your thoughts and otherwise making my work a joy. Even those of you who send me notes from your prison…
Tag: Making a Creative Life
Be your own hero
The connection between self defense, personal empowerment, and living the life you want to live overlaps a great deal more than you’d think at first glance. That’s because self defense doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s not something you do in a scary parking garage and nowhere else. It’s part of your daily life. …
Outsourcing to protect the work
You may think I mean hiring someone overseas to handle your customer service. I don’t. While I have used virtual assistants in the past, most of the work I do these days doesn’t lend itself to that approach. Pitching an editor, writing a novel, posting regularly on my blog – none of this is something…
Developing habits that protect the work
“True originality eschews its trappings.” That’s about the only thing Freud ever said that I agree with. Being a creative person — writing books, painting pictures, developing the theory of evolution — is incredibly time-consuming. It’s hard. It’s an awful lot of work. If you’re spending all of your time on appearances, on the trappings, you simply don’t…
On the pleasures of hobbies
My friend Marilyn, at Simmer Till Done, told me a story from her culinary school days that has stuck with me for months. Her instructor used to say to those who didn’t work quickly and efficiently, “you scrape the bowl like a housewife.” That line made me laugh when I first heard it and it…
No such thing as failure?
A theme I hear a lot from writers (not necessarily my clients, but colleagues and acquaintances) is something along the lines of “I need to be published” and “I have to sell this project.” A little poking (gently done) reveals that these writers think if this project doesn’t sell or they’re not published this year, they will be…