Delighted to welcome Angela Ackerman of Writers Helping Writers & One Stop For Writers, writing coach, speaker, & co-author of many bestselling resources, including one of my all-time favourite fiction writing book series, which if you’ve been in your writer’s garret for the last few years, are so invaluable, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without. Here Angela offers her potent & equally invaluable writing tips on vulnerability […]
A. L. Kennedy’s 10 Rules for Writing Fiction
A. L. Kennedy’s 10 Rules for Writing Fiction These writing tips were gleaned from an interview A. L. Kennedy gave to the Guardian. Writer and performer, Alison Louise “A. L.” Kennedy is the author of 17 books: 6 literary novels, 1 science fiction novel, 7 short story collections, and 3 works of non-fiction. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and […]
7-Step Process to Align Body, Mind and Soul for Optimum Creativity
Allow your creative conduit to open with ease by using a few ancient healing practices to quieten your inner critic, ground and centre you, refresh your thinking, spark inspiration and refine your focus. Spending a few moments aligning your being before you begin brings clarity to your creativity, so you can create unfettered by distractions or doubt but with gentleness, calm equilibrium, and aplomb. It’s also a perfect practice to do during […]
When Life Takes Over Your Writing—How to Find Clarity & Put the Drama on the Page
“Your art is where the drama belongs, not your life,” wrote artist, and author, Julia Cameron. Yet life by its very nature is frequently laden with drama, difficulties too, and sometimes that may prevent your writing from happening, distract you, or hamper with your flow. It’s hard to create anything if you’ve a thousand other concerns or your heart hangs heavy in your […]
10 Brilliant Tips for Writing Fiction Inspired by Famous Authors
Discover Your Story in the Act of Writing It’s natural to want to know where your story is headed or at the very least, know that you are not wasting your time — especially on something as grand as the first draft of a novel — but it’s not always easy to relinquish control and let the act of writing itself discover your story. Yet often it is in doing […]
15 Secrets to Achieving Your Creative Goals Every Day
Achieve your creative goals with ease and purpose every day with these tips from successful creatives Every creative soul knows that creativity, enthusiasm and inspiration too, cannot be consistently sustained or even necessary to do the work. In fact, showing up regardless of a dip in drive or plummet of passion, is what separates the aspiring writers […]
15 Ocean-Inspired Storytelling Tools & Tips
Every writer has days where they feel a little deflated, distracted or depleted of wonder — especially when working on a project as grand as a novel. With short fiction too, it’s natural for this ebb and flow. Although each of us must find our own process, if your writing runs a little dry or you’re feeling uninspired, try these […]
Joseph Conrad on Fiction, Art and the Power of the Written Word
Fiction — if it at all aspires to be art — appeals to temperament. And in truth it must be, like painting, like music, like all art, the appeal of one temperament to all the other innumerable temperaments whose subtle and resistless power endows passing events with their true meaning, and creates the moral, the […]
7 Ways to Embrace Vulnerability and Write Truth
When you create with openness, with a willingness to trust and be vulnerable for your art, your writing is all the more authentic and true because it is uncensored, drawn from the deepest part of yourself — pure feeling articulated on the page — but it can be hard to share our truths, to write without censor, especially when the […]
Creative Confidence: How to Believe in Yourself [and Your Art]
“Self-confidence grows every time you keep a promise to yourself.” —Asha Dornfest Sometimes everything just feels right. You feel confident and relaxed, as if life and your creative projects are all swimming along sweetly. Other times, a fluctuation in your creativity, subtle anxiety or momentary doubt can knock your confidence and lead you to question everything you […]