Category: Inspiration & Creativity

Ernest Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea"

20 Writing Quotes From Famous Authors – From Hemingway to Jong

Blocked? Can’t write? Use these writing quotes from famous authors to inspire, motivate, and inform your writing. These quotes are from the Masters, including Ernest Hemingway, Anne Lamott, Anne Tyler, Erica Jong, John Updike, Julia Cameron, Walt Whitman, and more. To kick things off, here’s one my favorite writing quotes from Annie Dillard: “I don’t do housework. [...]

Amelia Earhart - A Woman Who Wasn't Well-Behaved

How Can I Improve on This Query Letter to Literary Agents?

Two years ago, my agent stopped trying to sell my nonfiction book because the biggest publishing houses rejected it. Now, I’m sending a revised query letter to different literary agents because I really really want to write this book (under contract with a book publisher)! Back then, I was sorta relieved that a publisher didn’t [...]

Writers Who Lose Their Writing Ability Need to Find the Way Home

Lost the Ability to Write? How Writers Find Their Grooves

If you’re sick of being a “wannabee” writer and tired of wondering where your writing ability went, check out these tips for getting your groove back. They’re inspired by a reader who is both sick and tired… “I have wanted to write ever since I can remember, and I used to write an awful lot [...]

5 Tips for Overcoming Discouragement and Rejection for Writers

5 Tips for Overcoming Discouragement and Rejection for Writers

Even the most talented, creative, brilliant writers won’t go far unless they know how to overcome the discouragement of getting rejection after rejection! Talent and creativity isn’t nearly as important as stick-to-it-iveness. Here’s what one poet recently said: “Lately, I’ve been struggling with writer’s block with my poetry,” says M. on my Ask a Question [...]

How to Increase Writing Confidence – Grow the Skin of a Rhino

How to Increase Writing Confidence – Grow the Skin of a Rhino

What’s so great about the skin of a rhino? Toughness! These tips on increasing your writing confidence will help you toughen up and soldier through the moments of despair all writers face. Before the tips, a quip: “The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And [...]

What Do Writers Do When They’re Stuck? 5 Ways to Find Flow

What Do Writers Do When They’re Stuck? 5 Ways to Find Flow

How writers get unstuck differs from writer to writer – but there are common solutions. These five ways to find flow are from Deanna Proach, a successful novelist who just completed her second book. Before her tips, a quip: “People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.” [...]

Not Writing Enough? 5 Tips for Disorganized, Distracted Writers

Not Writing Enough? 5 Tips for Disorganized, Distracted Writers

If you’re not writing enough, do yourself a favor. Put just one of these tips for disorganized, distracted writers into action – and watch your productivity skyrocket! “The hardest part of writing is starting, especially if the project is daunting,” says freelance copywriter Brenda Ebel Kruse, author of John Deere Collectibles. “I often feel overwhelmed [...]

Margaret Atwood on Writers’ Childhoods and Getting Published

Margaret Atwood on Writers’ Childhoods and Getting Published

How do writers’ childhoods affect writing and getting published? What is the writing process? Here are bestselling author Margaret Atwood’s writing quotations and advice, from Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing. “All writers must go from now to once a upon a time; all must go from here to there; all must descend to [...]

Waiting for Publishers and Editors to Decide Your Writing Fate?

Waiting for Publishers and Editors to Decide Your Writing Fate?

What do you do while waiting for editors and publishers to decide on your writing fate? Don’t just sit there! Check out these five ways to keep your motivation and hopes high, because it can take forever to see things happen… “It took a year for my agent, Christopher, to find a publisher,” said J.K. [...]

5 Tips for Getting Things Done Before the Deadline

5 Tips for Getting Things Done Before the Deadline

Whether it’s a tax deadline, client deadline, or a “drop dead” date on your honey-do list – the benefits of getting things done before the deadline far outweighs the luxury of procrastinating. These tips for getting things done without panicking before they’re actually due are from Vancouver-based writer, Daphne Gray-Grant. “Do deadlines make you nervous?” [...]