I have spent the last four months being coached by a developmental editor who used to work for a publishing house. It is very humbling to go from coach to coached, from the expert to the person asking for help. I have learned more than I could have imagined and not all of it relating to writing. Here are some …
Many of my clients have the ultimate desire to rank #1 Bestseller on Amazon when they launch their books (knowing that the NYT Bestseller title is almost always held by a traditionally published book). They think it will give them more credibility or clout and single them out as the best of the best in a sea of 800,000 other …
It can be difficult to know when you’re done with a writing project. Have you used the right words? Have you said enough or too much? And there’s always that question about perfect grammar (say yes to the Oxford comma!). Whether it’s a book or a blog post, sometimes writing The End can be the hardest part. This blog post …
Publishing a book can boost a career, establish your authority, differentiate yourself, and heal emotional wounds. But before you put any words on paper, it is important to understand why you want to write a book. What is the purpose of the book? What is the story you are going to tell and are you ready to emotionally and physically …
This past weekend I moderated a panel for Airdrie Pride Society with five brilliant panelists on the topic of what works and what needs improvement in the LGBTQ community in our small city. The question of representation was not on my cue cards but it came up naturally through the conversation, and it got me wondering… how many of us …
Patience is not a virtue I have in abundance. So, take my impatient nature into account when I stress how important it is to take our time when writing and publishing a full book. For example, my first book, though filled with great takeaways, was rushed because of my impatience and will eventually need a rewrite. It was rushed, and …
If you are writing any form of your own story, either in a memoir or in vignettes in a non-fiction self-help or how-to book, there will be some self-exploration that occurs. The truth is that no one wants to read a book about how great you are and how swimmingly your life has gone. Nope. To write a good story …
Walk into any coffee shop in any city or town in North America and you are bound to find someone tapping away at a keyboard. The proverbial writer hyped on coffee writing the next bestseller. But did you know that us writers hang out in coffee shops for another motivation besides forcing ourselves to shower, dress and leave the house? …
When it comes to musical tastes, some of us like jazz, some of us like country and some of us like heavy metal. We can easily tell the difference in the voice of each genre—the smooth jazz voice compared to the country twang and the screaming rock. We can also identify a particular singer’s voice as soon as we hear …
I’ve been on this writing journey for over 30 years now and writing professionally for twelve. I was not born an award winner. I had to hone my craft because we all learn as we go. Like many writers, I also love to read and over the years certain books have stayed with me and helped me along my journey. …
