“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” —George Orwell Why am I starting with this quote? Because I full-heartedly agree with it. Orwell makes a valid point when he says that to write is to be spurred on by some demon, and I have felt the heat of such a demon. It is something that nips at your heels,

Branching off from last weeks topic on writing groups, I want to explore the topic of constructive criticism. The Wikipedia definition for constructive criticism is: “...the process of offering valid and well-reasoned opinions about the work of others, usually involving both positive and negative comments, in a friendly manner rather than an oppositional one. The purpose of constructive criticism is to improve the outcome.” Looking at it all broken down like this sparked a fe

I’ve been wracking my brain the last few days trying to think of what could be considered sound advice, one writer to another. As mentioned in a couple of our previous blog posts, Afton and I started taking writing more seriously when we took a creative writing class at a community college several years ago. I greatly enjoyed listening to other writers, both the new and the self-proclaimed experts. There was always something to learn from them, whether that meant following th

Something was haunting me. It was annoying and big and ugly, this haunt. It followed me. Everywhere. Sometimes I couldn't think straight. Sometimes it made me anxious, moody, depressed. Sometimes it kept me up at night, which isn't good for a mom of two kids under the age of two. This was the turning point. Something needed to change. Okay, so this haunt wasn't a ghost, vampire, fae or anything of that sort. It was a truth, about myself. Something that I'd known for a long ti