I’m PUMPED to be guest posting over at Mary DeMuth’s blog today. Here’s what she says at the beginning of the piece… I normally don’t take guest posts (in fact, it’s pretty rare these days, though you’ll see another one on Monday), but I really loved what my friend and editor Chad had to say in this […]
When I was young and got overwhelmed with this or that, my mom had a terrific way of helping me. She’d sit me down and help me think through what I could and couldn’t do to influence the situation. She led me through a process of deciding how to respond to each anxiety-producing factor, and […]
Imagine two chefs. One is a world-class culinary ninja who has logged thousands of hours in the kitchen. The other, for the sake of this parable, is me, who has logged about 43 minutes. We’re given the exact same recipe for pecan pie and as much baking time as we want. Whose pie would you […]
Earlier this year I coached Gary Neal Hansen through the process of writing a book proposal (See here for a post that will take you to the whole series.) It was a great experience. As a way to wrap things up, I asked Gary to write a guest post on the main things he’s taking […]
In the children’s book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats a boy walks through his neighborhood after a snowfall and discovers the beauty there. At one point he breaks a branch from a tree and continues walking in the snow. Soon he looks back and observes his footsteps along with the groove the stick has […]
Earlier this year I coached author and professor Gary Neal Hansen through the process of writing a book proposal. We covered every element of a typical nonfiction book proposal except the writing sample. This post will cover the writing sample. (To read the rest of the series, visit here.) Gary sent me his writing sample […]
Email, for all its benefits, is the scourge of our age. What began as a handy way to communicate has become a relentless slave driver. Who hasn’t arrived at one’s workstation ready to make solid progress on something that really matters only to find oneself a million hours later in servitude to email? I’m convinced […]
This little book could change everything for you. Do you have a passion or side project that energizes you? It could be a different job, a book idea, an art project, a blog, a business idea, a nonprofit you’d like to start. This brief manifesto uses stories and a series of questions to help you […]
Sometimes it feels like nobody’s listening,” my writer friend groaned. Can you relate? Have you ever poured your heart and soul into an article or proposal only to hear the cruel sound of silence? It’s frustrating. So we just keep slogging away, right? Well, yes, but there is a way of thinking about your writing that just […]
Recently my six-year-old son won a slinky from Chuck E. Cheese. It wasn’t long before we tried to do what they do in the commercials. That’s right—we headed for the top of the stairs. We tried. And tried. At best the slinky walked down a step or two, then died. Dead slinky. “Dang,” I thought, […]
