How to Save Money While Self-Publishing

/
How to Save Money While Self-Publishing

There is a lot of information available online regarding how much it costs to self-publish. It varies widely between authors, especially if you have additional skills like design and formatting that you can use to your advantage.

You can find everything you need to self-publish (mainly editing, cover design, and file formatting) in a wide variety of price ranges. The key to saving money while self-publishing lies in doing your research. Here are a few things to think about if you want to save money on your self-published books.

Read More

New Resource & Giveaway Alert: The Occupation Thesaurus Writing Guide is Here!

/
New Resource & Giveaway Alert: The Occupation Thesaurus Writing Guide is Here!

Hi everyone! Today I have something fun to share…a special chance to win some help with your writing bills. Awesome, right?

Some of you may know Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi of Writers Helping Writers. Well, today they are releasing a new book, and I’m part of their street team. I’m handing the blog over to them so they can tell you about their Writer’s Showcase event, new book, and a great freebie to check out. Read on!

Read More

Realistic Character Descriptions: My Experience as a Floral Designer/Florist

/
Realistic Character Descriptions: My Experience as a Floral Designer/Florist

To win readers over we need to write characters so authentic they feel like real people. How do we do this? By brainstorming a character’s backstory, personality, needs, desires, and their day-to-day world. Lucky for us, one aspect of their daily life is a goldmine of characterization: the type of work they do.

Think about it: a job can reveal personality, skills, beliefs, fears, desires, and more, which is why Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi created The Occupation Thesaurus, a writing guide that profiles 124 possible careers and the story-worthy information that goes with each. To help with this project, I’m sharing my experience as a floral designer/florist below, in case this career is a perfect fit for your character!

Read More

Why It Might Be Better For Your Wellbeing to Not Write Every Day

/
Why It Might Be Better For Your Wellbeing to Not Write Every Day

Last month I shared a wonderful guest post by Desiree Villena—4 Reasons Writing Every Day is Great for Your Wellbeing. While I agree with the points Desiree makes, I also found myself questioning whether writing every day is great for everyone. If you follow author Becca Syme on YouTube, you’ll know about QTP—Question the Premise.

Read More

4 Reasons Why Writing Every Day Is Great for Your Wellbeing

/
4 Reasons Why Writing Every Day Is Great for Your Wellbeing

Guest post by Desiree Villena.*

As someone who writes for a living, I’ll admit it’s not always something I want to do. Getting started some days is like pulling teeth (if you’ll pardon the cliché from this purported professional wordsmith).

But unlike a trip to the dentist, I always feel much better immediately after a writing session — mentally, emotionally, and sometimes even physically. To me, this is a sure sign that writing is good for my wellbeing, and I know that many of my writer friends feel the same!

Read More

Track Income and Expenses to Improve Personal Finances

/
Track Income and Expenses to Improve Personal Finances

With the fourth quarter of the year just starting, I’ve heard a lot of chatter about planning and goals. Today, I wanted to share another way you can use your planner—to track your income and expenses to improve personal finances.

I started tracking my income and expenses at the beginning of this year as a way to keep an eye on the mountainous pile of debt I’d been accumulating. I like using Google Sheets, but you can easily do a quick tally at the bottom of a daily planner spread to record your income and expenses for that day. 

Read More

Tips for Journaling from Mari McCarthy

/
Tips for Journaling from Mari McCarthy

After she lost the feeling in the right side of her body due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Mari McCarthy turned to journaling when she learned about Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages through The Artist’s Way. By developing a daily journaling practice, Mari was able to regain feeling on her right side and currently needs zero medication to control her MS. 

Read More

Learn to Write Faster with Writing Sprints

/
Learn to Write Faster with Writing Sprints

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a writing sprint challenge hosted by Sarra Cannon of Heart Breathings. I’d joined many writing sprints on Twitter (@TWSSFU hosts one every month) and read a lot about how writing sprints had affected many authors, but Sarra’s challenge really opened my eyes to just how powerful writing sprints are. 

The goal of Sarra’s writing sprint challenge was to find your ideal writing sprint session. Each day of the challenge involved a different length and number of sprints. For example, the first day was three 10-minute sprints with 5-minute breaks, and Day 2 was two 25-minute sprints with a 10-minute break in between.

Read More