Everyone in every field complains about not having enough time, even though we all have the same amount. But creative types often struggle with time management more than others. That’s mainly because organizational systems are designed by analytical types. The J’s, if you’re familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. These …
Time management for creative professionals
I just returned from the PENCON Christian Editors conference in Austin, where I taught time management. I want to share with you a little of what I talked about, because time management is as important to writers as to editors, if not more so. For most PENCON attendees, editing is …
A must-listen podcast for novelists
Writing a novel is an incredibly complex task with so many moving parts it’s easy to lose track of them. That’s one reason editing is so important. You can’t—simply can’t, it’s physically and intellectually impossible—get it perfect in a single draft. Because the task is so complicated, multiple opinions about …
Finally, a writing guide for the 21st Century
Last time I taught my Edit Like a Pro: Elements of Fiction seminar, one of the students questioned the absence of The Elements of Style from my recommended reading list. “It’s a primer,” I said. “If you’re writing novels, you’re beyond Strunk and White.” That little book is such a …
How Novelists Can Blog
There are mixed opinions about whether blogging is any good for novelists. As Caprice Hokstad noted on my post “Why You Should Be Blogging,” this kind of writing is nonfiction and doesn’t come easily to fiction writers. I myself struggled to blog consistently over at my other blog before I …
Why You Need a Picture with Your Blog Post
You may have noticed that almost every blog post you read has at least one picture with it. Often, the picture isn’t strictly necessary to understanding the topic. In fact, sometimes the images have a tenuous connection to the actual content. Nevertheless, you are well advised to include one with …
Choose Your Style Guide
I wrote before about three of the most common style books: The Chicago Manual of Style, The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style, and the Associated Press Stylebook. Two others are worth considering if you do most of your work online. The Yahoo! Style Guide is a huge compendium that not …
Grammar and Spelling Resources
Last time, we looked at the first two parts of PUGS, Punctuation and Usage. Today we’ll look at the others. Grammar In common speech, we often use “grammar” to encompass all parts of writing, including spelling and punctuation. But grammar really refers specifically to the way we assemble words into …
Don’t neglect punctuation and usage on your blog
Back in the day, amateur bloggers could often get away with sloppy craft. The novelty of the medium meant readers were very forgiving. Even today, the readers of someone’s personal blog may not care about slips such as using intrical to mean integral. But the more professional your blog is, …
Three Elements of a Good Blog Post
When writing your blog post, keep these three elements in mind. Attention-getting headlines are a must. Write your headlines with your reader in mind. Think about what sort of terms people would use on Google to find the subject you’re writing about. Put that term in your headline. Back in …