Ten Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

If you need to catch up on this series, you can find prior blogs here:

• Ten Steps Forward, Three Steps Back
• Step #1: Have a Little Faith

Mother Muse and Inspired Soup

Okay, so this may be a hard pill to swallow for us creative types. I don't know about you, but in the past I never believed creativity could bow to a time clock. After all, isn't inspiration an in-the-moment kind of thing? Doesn't Mother Muse bestow gifts of inspiration out of the blue, which means we've got to grab her with both hands before she flits away into the darkness, not to be seen or heard from again for who knows how long? 

The surprising answer is a resounding NO. Creativity and inspiration are indeed mysterious in many ways, but also predictable in others. Inspiration is almost always a result of cognitive soup simmering on the back burner, slowly stewing in our tasty creative juices until a savory dish of inspiration is ready to be...

If you like cozy mysteries, you'll enjoy Murder at Hotel 1911 by Audrey Keown. This was a joy to read. I fell in love with the characters, which makes me so look forward to the next book. The plot line was great and I didn't anticipate the ending, which is always a plus! Very sweet story with lovable characters (and a few not-so-lovable). I look forward to more from this author!
 

Quick Review: Ten Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

In our previous blog, Ten Steps Forward, Three Steps Back, we talked about the unfortunate fact that many of us have more unfinished writing projects than we do finished ones. However, in the words of one writing instructor, the big problems that writers face are actually few in number and are quite solvable. Since this often doesn't feel true to us at all, what else might be going on?

In this blog series, we'll cover steps of writing to lay down a roadmap, though these particular steps certainly aren't all-encompassing. The steps we cover aren't necessarily new either, but our perspective on them can be.

Here's the 10-step tour:

• Step #1: Have a Little Faith 
• Step #2: Make a Plan 
• Step #3: Narrow Your Focus
• Step #4: Dig Into the Details
• Step #5: Put Words on the Page 
• Step #6: Finish Your Draft
• Step #7: Profile Your Progress
• Step #8: Ask for Feedback
• Step #9: Make Your Revisions
• Step...

You're All Invited!

Our October Boo-Fest is coming up and you're all invited to join in the fun! Because part of the vision for The Write Cause is to create a supportive community, what better way to get started than to give everyone an opportunity to introduce themselves? And even better, these introductions will also serve as encouragement for your fellow writers, which is what The Write Cause is all about.

During the last week of October (26-31st), we'll send out a post with community participants who answered the three questions below (you can also include a link to website, book, services, etc., in your response if applicable). The responses to these questions can be in a short video, in written text or a combination of both, whichever is easier or preferred.

Boo-Fest Questions

Since this is our October Boo-Fest, Halloween costumes are welcome! If you love dressing up for Halloween, then don your costume before doing your intro video (or snapping a...

A Great Start to a Never Ending

How many writing projects have you started? Now ask yourself how many you've completed? If you are willing to admit that you have abandoned projects hiding in your desk drawer or in a folder on your desktop, the real question is why? 

I don't know about you, but a lack of good ideas is generally not the problem and after all, who doesn't feel excited by a newly minted notion for improving our business, decorating our house, making money for that dream vacation or writing the next book?

Often the problem isn't in the idea but in the execution. I know I've been guilty of excitedly starting a project, then getting frustrated (or bored) and setting it aside, only to start another project and do the same. Again, why? Well, on some level the problems I'm facing must feel too overwhelming or unsolvable for me to overcome or perhaps self-doubt sneaks in like a thief and steals away my resolve, leaving me to wander...

A Common Concern

Do you feel stuck in your current writing project? Or maybe you know you want to write and even have a vague idea as to your topic, yet can't seem to move forward. Worst of all, perhaps you've become so frustrated that you just shove your ideas aside and walk away with no idea what to do next.

Despite your frustration, it is important to know that you're not alone and that this is a common problem for most writers at some point during their projects. In fact, I was talking with an accomplished writer only a few days ago -- one who has won accolades for her work and has had multiple books published -- and she expressed this same frustration and self-doubt with her own current project. For the sake of discussion, then, let's give this ubiquitous experience a name: this collective frustration and self-doubt is what I would call creative angst.

Since creative angst is a common (and one could say normative) issue, then...

While most writers love to write, most writers would also admit, if they are being honest with themselves, that some level of fear trails their efforts like an undesirable relative, showing up on the doorstep at the most inopportune moments. So what are these fears?

Common fears include whether their writing or plot is "good enough," whether readers will enjoy their work or whether their ideas are sufficiently unique or their style approachable. Most certainly for debut writers, the added fear of whether they will ever find an agent and get published is thrown in for good measure. Now, how much these fears stops writers from reaching their goals varies widely. Interestingly, whether one has been published or enjoyed success in terms of sales, recognition or positive reader reviews does not seem to deter this wily tag-along.

If such fears keep you from writing, it's important to know you're not alone. For those who completed the survey after our recent...

It's hard to predict where markets will go or what the next "hottest" trend will be in sales and distribution. To be better informed, though, we can at least look at the most recent trends. Bear in mind that statistics on books sales and formats typically lag 12-24 months behind, so what you'll find below is mostly 2017-2018 data with some first quarter 2019 data as available.

Understanding what is happening in the market will help writers make informed decisions as to potential sales expectations and publishing possibilities. That being said, though, we each have to follow our hearts and particular passions -- not merely sales alone -- in deciding what to write and in what format. (This particular topic is covered in an upcoming blog: The Passionate Writer.)

Below you will find the most recent statistics available for sales generated by e-books, audiobooks and hard copy (print). We'll also cover stats on Indie published books and highest sales generated by specific...

I've been told by too many authors that they don't have an email list to not realize this is a problem. In the last few years as social media has boomed, folks have gotten the unfortunate misinformation that email marketing is dead or somehow no longer necessary. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you only needed one reason to build an email list, well here it is. As Terry Whalin, Author and Acquisitions Editor for Morgan James Publishing so aptly put it during our recent interview, "Social media is rented space." This is to say that you don't own it or control it, which means that if you've built a following on any social media platform, you are on unstable ground because in reality we are all at risk of being evicted from such platforms at any moment (and sometimes seemingly on a whim). As we see so often, Facebook is a prime example of how such companies can change their algorithms without notice, potentially rendering our carefully built marketing strategies...

The therapeutic benefits of writing have been known for some time, though it has been called by several names such as narrative therapy, expressive writing, and journal writing, among others. James Pennebaker pioneered the idea of writing for therapeutic benefits in the 1980s, which was referred to at that time as expressive writing.

In the initial experiments by Pennebaker, he used an experimental group and a control group, both of whom wrote for 15 continuous minutes, repeated over four days. The experimental group was instructed to write about past traumas with emotional expression encouraged while the control group was instructed to write on neutral topics, focusing on factual information as much as possible (i.e., avoiding emotional or upsetting topics that were personally relevant).

One very interesting finding of the study was that the experimental group, relative to the control group, had far fewer physician visits in the months that followed. While they reported being upset...