THE RYW Blog
WRITING, SELLING, AND BALANCING YOUR LIFE
How to find your Right Readers, Part 2
You know your author brand. Now what? Remember last week, when we talked about author branding being an introduction? When you introduce yourself to someone, you don’t regurgitate your whole life story in minute detail with footnotes and color commentary. You...
Writing when it’s hard
How do you keep writing? So... how are you doing? In the past week, especially if you live in the U.S., things have been... chaotic, to say the least. For some of us, there is an active despair. Demoralization, depression, rage, grief, all there in a shaken...
Burnout, Part 3: Reboot.
We acknowledged that we were in burnout. We stopped the immediate downward spiral, finishing the stress cycles. We worked on identifying what was keeping us in quickstand. From there, we triaged as much as we could out of our schedules, slashing away at commitments...
Burnout, Part 2: Triage
The problem with burnout is you’ve taken all available personal resources, to the point where you have nothing left. Unfortunately, the demand for resources is still chugging along, and odds are good you are either trying to meet demand (or even increasing...
Is writer’s block burnout? Burnout Part 1
BURNOUT: The struggle is real. I’ve had what has been called “writer’s block” many times over my career. What I only recently realized is: what we call writer’s block is, quite often, burnout. Which is probably why some people experience it, and others don’t (and...
Back to school for writers.
In the U.S., September is generally considered the season of “back to school” as kids shuttle back to whatever places of education they’re generally sent to, and school years start back up. Personally, I love back to school. Not only is fall coming back (and...
Self-care
I had big plans... I had very, very big plans for August. I was speaking in New Zealand and Australia, giving workshops on writing to two different organizations. I’d never been to either place, so needless to say, I was thrilled. New Zealand went off without a...
Reader Experience
Learning from UX. In my coaching and editing practice, I work with nonfiction authors as well as fiction ones. I have worked with a good number of people from the tech world, specifically UX design. If you’re not familiar with that field, UX means “User...
Systems
Cluttered desk syndrome I have ADHD. Even with meds, keeping my environment tidy is a challenge at best. Ironically, I feel intense relief when I have a “clean" desk. I'm just not built to automatically maintain one. Here's what happens: I’ll get ready for the...