William Zinsser, writing professor and author of the million-copy classic On Writing Well, would probably tell you this sentence is too long. He’d also tell you the hardest decision any writer makes is how to begin a piece. “Your lead must capture the reader immediately,” he wrote, “and compel him to keep reading.” How am […]
Intense emotions are part of life, and they certainly come with the territory if you’re a writer. Whether it’s stress, fear, frustration, grief, sorrow, anger, or some other feeling, we all have times when strong emotions threaten to overtake us. As writers, we can struggle with knowing how to continue our work when these feelings […]
I’m in Chicago, about to board a train to Grand Rapids. I took a Lyft to Union Station and entered at Canal Street, an entrance that brings you onto a landing where you choose escalator or stairs to go down to where the trains are. I came through the doors with two suitcases and walked […]
This past May (2023) marked five years of fulltime self-employment as a writing coach. I’d like to mark the occasion by sharing some reflections on my experience so far. Listening to Clients and Customers When I went out on my own in 2018, I had three main products I’ll list below in the order I […]
You’re likely aware of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” The poem ends with the famous line “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” Nice idea. The problem is that the narrator of the poem knows full well the path he took was “worn really about […]
Sometimes when I’m working with writers, a question comes along that pierces me. I was leading a group of writers a little while back when one of the participants wrote in the chat space: “I struggle with making myself write—even a little—when I don’t have something I think is of any value. How do I […]
In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel reports on the work of Angus Campbell, a psychologist who studied what makes people happy. Campbell wrote, “Having a strong sense of controlling one’s life is a more dependable predictor of positive feelings of wellbeing than any of the objective conditions of life we have considered.” Housel summed […]
As a writer, whether you’re working on nonfiction or fiction, one of the biggest challenges you face is building an audience. Without readers, you won’t have the benefit of early feedback on your work. You likely won’t be able to land a book deal if you’re going the traditional route. And if you’re going the […]
My latest obsession is the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. I like the show for a lot of reasons, but here I want to focus on how well one scene captures a particular feeling with which many of us are familiar. In one of the plotlines, the title character, Evan, is a lonely high school […]
Recently I surveyed writers about their biggest challenge, and the following response caught my attention: Some days . . . all of it. I feel totally lost at times. How do I build an audience, know my work is where it should be, decide which publishing path to pursue, know who is the right person […]
