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Guest Post: The Four Hidden Habit Skills

Lots of people think, “I should learn a language,” or “I’m going to start exercising soon” … but then don’t actually take action. That’s because they haven’t really committed to getting started. In our minds, we half commit to things all the time.

Painting Characters into Corners

by Nancy Fulda

If you write stories, this has probably happened to you:

The words are flowing. The plot is exciting. Your characters, faced with overwhelming odds, find themselves in the midst of a difficult and absolutely enthralling situation. It’s the Big, Dramatic Moment of your story – and you have no idea what happens next. The bad guys are too strong, the social pressures are too powerful, the pit is too deep, or your character is too broken. Try as you might, you can’t think of a single way to get your protagonist out of the current crisis.

Guest Post: I’ve made every mistake an author can make in their writing career

by Jason Sanford

This has been a tough writing year for me. I finished my first novel only to learn that at this point in my writing career it’s going to be a hard sell. I’ve struggled with short fiction, publishing only two stories this year. I’ve even wondered why I’m writing stories in the first place (which probably ties back with the issues I’ve had with the novel and short fiction). All of this caused me to step back and reflect on my writing career up to this point. And I’ve realized I’ve made just about every mistake an author can make, career-wise.

Creating Aliens

by Deborah Walker

I’ve written a fair few aliens since reading it, always thinking about that advice, but with an added aspect: stealing blatantly from Mother Nature.

How I Remain Productive While Traveling

by Jennifer Brozek When I first attended conventions or traveled for the holidays, my freelance work suffered. Not just during the event but for the few days before and after the event as well. I knew this and scheduled for it. This worked for me for a while. However, as my writing and editing project deadlines […]

Guest Post: Hope as Fuel

by Amy Sundberg

Let’s talk about hope today, shall we?

One of my friends posted this great thought about hope on Facebook, which I cannot share with you word-for-word because privacy, but he basically talked about the importance of maintaining a store of hope in order to continue accomplishing things in life. And then another friend texted me about hope a day or two later, and I said, “Yeah, I’m going to blog about this now.”