Welcome to DIY MFA Radio, where I do a deep dive into the writing life as well as the craft and business of writing. Today’s episode continues our series: Ten Lessons from Ten Years of Podcasting. This is Lesson 2 – Act “As If” Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is… Read more »
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about writing-life balance, and what it looks like to live an author life. This topic has been on my mind because I’ve been secretly working on a new project for DIY MFA. This project is a free event that we’re planning for this Fall where I’m interviewing a bunch… Read more »
Welcome to DIY MFA Radio, where I do a deep dive into the writing life as well as the craft and business of writing. Today’s episode kicks off our series: Ten Lessons from Ten Years of Podcasting. This is Lesson 1 – Jump First, Build After. Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet?… Read more »
Before we dive in, I have a short warning. What I’m about to share here is not a glowing, rose-colored-glasses view of being an author, but the sometimes-tough realities of the publishing business. If you’re living blissfully in denial—and that denial helps keep you motivated—keep doing that! Seriously, if not knowing the cold, hard numbers… Read more »
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about endings, in particular the denouement. The denouement is that “sigh of relief” that happens after the climax, that extra scene or two (or many) that allows the story to wrap up and come to a satisfying conclusion. It got me wondering why we even need a denouement. After… Read more »
I’ve been thinking about supporting characters a lot lately. These are the unsung heroes of storytelling, and yet they are often misunderstood. We might call them “side” characters or “secondary” characters as if they play second fiddle to our main character, but the truth is they play a very specific purpose in the story. You… Read more »
About a month ago, I wrote a Writer Fuel on creative burnout and wow did that hit a nerve! I got a bunch of emails from folks sharing how much the newsletter resonated with them and telling me about their own experiences with burnout. One of the patterns I noticed as I read some of… Read more »
I was at a writing conference this past March (the Women in Publishing Summit, which was amazing!) and during one of the networking sessions one of the other writers mentioned they were writing a knitting cozy mystery. As an avid knitter myself, I immediately asked, “Do you knit?” From there, immediately my fellow writer/knitter and… Read more »
Sometimes we lose our writing mojo and, try as we might, we struggle with building momentum around our writing. No matter what we do, we can’t seem to get in a writing mood. This state of creative paralysis can happen for any number of reasons, including: In the last Writer Fuel, I talked about creative… Read more »
For the past several months, I have been going through a period of creative burnout. Maybe it’s the aftermath of COVID and how it has changed the way we learn and interact online. Or maybe it’s because some things in my non-writing life have just been really hard lately. Or maybe it’s the result of… Read more »
