My Writing Gratitude List

It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I’m feeling especially thankful for a few things that are writing related (especially since it’s the end of NaNoWriMo, and I’ve depended on all of these to survive the month). I’ve composed a list to share with you, my special readers and listeners to my writing related thoughts.

Inspiration Monday: Quote by Ernest Hemingway

Every time I read this quote, I feel two emotions simultaneously. The first emotion is intimidation. The job Hemingway gives writers sets a high bar, but the challenge leads to my second emotion: inspiration. This quote inspires me to work harder, to write more, and to revise better each day. This quote is a goal I intend to accomplish.

Outlining Methods

Outlining is one of my favorite parts of writing. I get to dream, be creative, and write down as many strange and crazy ideas I can think of (not that I don’t do that when I’m writing). I love planning out stories; in fact, I’m always outlining/dreaming up at least one story while I’m writing and editing another. Outlines let me save my ideas so I can return to them later and instantly remember why I was so excited for the idea.

Inspiration Monday: Quote by Anton Chekhov

Writing With A Baby

a sleeping baby

With only one child I do not know the pains of writing with multiple children demanding my attention, but I do know the pains of writing with an infant.

Writing with a baby is hard.

7 Strategies for Writing Tired

For some people, writing when they’re tired awakes an inner creativity that spawns magical words. For others, writing tired is a slow torture that drains their creativity and sucks at their soul. I am of the second nature. For me, writing tired is a horrible struggle, especially at the end of a long day.

8 Tools for Writing On-The-Go

Life often keeps you away from home (or your office) where your writing computer lives. In writing history, if you didn’t write on paper and weren’t at home where your typewriter was, you couldn’t write. Today, desktops, like typewriters, are still stationary, and most laptops are still too heavy to carry around.

If you’re wanting to write a few words on a lunch break or at the laundromat, here is a list of electronic writing tools so you don’t have to carry around old-fashioned pens and paper (because if you’re like me, your pen is always lost when you need it). Writing on-the-go is easier than ever when you have writing software in your pocket.

Pantsing vs Outlining

The great debate of pantsing versus outlining spawned from the depths of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Each November hundreds of thousands of writers write a novel in a month, and then many of them argue about which method is better: pantsing or outlining. I’ve watched this debate year after year take over forums and Facebook groups–even my own friends have stated their opinions.

Each year I see the same answer: it’s a matter of preference.