How to Read Your Own Draft Without Losing Your Mind
Ready to open your draft for the first time? Before you do, read this. Here’s how to approach your first revision read without spiraling, and what to actually pay attention to.
The Power of an Imperfect Ending
There is a moment near the end of writing a novel when the finish line comes into view. You can almost see it. The last chapter waits just ahead, the…
Writing Through Resistance in the Final 25 Percent
If you have made it into the final stretch of your draft, take a moment and recognize what you have already done. You started with an idea. You built characters…
Stop Editing. Start Finishing.
Our brains are clever. Mine certainly is. When I was drafting the second half of one of my novels, I noticed a pattern. Every time I sat down to write…
How to Deal With the Unexpected: Writing Through a Nashville Ice Storm
As I’m writing this, Nashville is recovering from a winter storm that has brought the city to almost a standstill. It sounds like the last time it was this bad…
What to Write When You Sit Down
You finally sit down to write. You’ve made the time, opened your notebook or document, and told yourself this is the moment you’ll begin. And yet, once you’re there, everything…
What Makes a Great Writing Space and Routine for Your Novel Journey
If you are waiting for the right conditions to write your novel, more time, more energy, fewer responsibilities, a perfectly organized office, you may be waiting longer than you’d like.…
How to Make Writing Your Novel Fit Into Your Real Life in 2026
Every novel begins long before the first sentence ever appears on the page. It begins with the decision that this year will be different. That writing will no longer be…
Don’t Miss Out: Exciting New Year Awaits
The story of the year ahead has not yet been written, and for a brief moment, it belongs entirely to possibility. If you are a writer, this moment carries weight.…
Merry Christmas, Dear Writer
As Christmas arrives, I want to pause with you for a moment. Not to plan the next project.Not to outline goals for the coming year.Not to evaluate what worked or…