Who needs a little encouragement to start off the new year ahead? I do…did! Every year I reassess where I’ve been, how I’ve grown, and then set new goals for the year ahead. Here are the 3 easy steps that keep me focused during New Year’s Resolution time: Reflect, Celebrate, and Plan!
Sharing my journey as a writer also includes an occasional request. Today, I need your thoughts—from both readers and writers! After working with my editor on Seam Keepers, set to launch in 2021, it only makes sense to set aside my new book project, Life Song, to write the next book in the Keeper series. It’s reassuring to know that Life Song is still there, outlined, started, and ready to […]
Somehow August has arrived, with sunshine and summer in tow. It felt so far away, back in March, when isolation started. But here we are. And after a long lull in my poetry inspiration, I’m back to writing more fluently again! Last month I wrote three poems for my Wednesday Whims page, plus a couple online workshop pieces, and a few others to hopefully send out for submissions (so I […]
Last week I shared real-life distractions blocking my creative pathway, even amid true inspiration. My readers delivered with caring advice, either through comments or private messages, and I am grateful. A few small suggestions helped me to make some slight alterations to my writing routine, which made all the difference. As a reference, please take a peek back at last week’s post: https://stepsinbetween.com/2020/06/21/creatively-crunched/ For starters, I took some time off […]
Sometimes, as a writer, even when I know what to write, my fingers hover above my keyboard in a clutched-claw formation. I don’t know how to describe this state other than it feels as if my creativity is crunched. I am full of ideas and motivation, but I waver back and forth between projects hardly completing a thing. Meanwhile, my writing to-do list grows longer. Why, when I sit down […]
With the book that’s held my attention for the last several years complete, and in the hands of an editor (and soon to be published, late spring 2021), I now have the time to focus on a new story idea that’s been brewing in the back of my mind. I believed utilizing what I learned from my first book to begin my second book would make story-writing easier. But it […]
I’m two scenes into a new story idea, and I can’t wipe the grin off my face. There are still plot twists to create and character arcs to build but ringing in 2020 with a novel writing goal seems like a decade-worthy decision. It’s also a fresh new year for my blog, Steps In Between. The first Sunday of every month I typically pull your attention to my Wednesday Whims […]
Just because I’m a writer…author of my first poetry book…revising-expert of my fiction manuscript…and mostly nice human, doesn’t mean I have the business knowledge or wherewithal to market myself. This is the hardest part for me. More difficult than the writing itself; and writing is challenging. ***Side Note: At the bottom of this post you will find some links to marketing advice as well as a REQUEST for more resources. […]
Beholden, grateful, obliged, and bound…how many other words might describe the thankfulness in my heart. This is the season where I wind down, follow that trickle of thought from mind to heart. That gleaming light from purpose to fingertips because when creating, that’s where things get done. I’ve found the writing side of who I am, depicted this way, as I’m certain it’s been with me my whole life. I […]
Inspiration rolls in waves at various times in a person’s life. But, is there a peak age inspiration strikes? Can you miss it? Author Priscilla Long doesn’t believe so. She gave a talk on aging and creativity at the Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle on Saturday, October 27, 2018. The event was in honor of the second edition release of her book, The Writer’s Portable Mentor (University of New Mexico […]
Steps In Between 