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New Beginnings
It’s nearly the first of the year and the perfect time for new beginnings, but if you’re like me, the wintertime often brings an unwelcome writing slump. With the past year being a rolling coaster of exciting news (a short story published in a new publication, readying a manuscript for submission, a few full manuscript requests), I also wrote myself into an incendiary burnout by year’s end. In early November, right after the loss of my grandfather who was the rock on the maternal side of our family, the dream I thought might be just within my reach began to drift away. Two of the agents who’d requested the full manuscript reached back out…
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Do You Suffer from Imposter Syndrome?
My name is Renee, and I have Imposter Syndrome. It applies to a lot of areas in my life, but stands out the most when I discuss my writing. While on vacation a few years ago, I was telling a friend that I had applied to be a judge for a book publishing competition. The conversation went something like this. “I don’t know if I’m all that qualified,” I told her. “I mean, I have some experience in the publishing field, but I’m not an author.” She stared at me blankly. “What do you mean by that? Have you not had things written and published?” “Yes,” I said slowly. “I guess I mean…
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Don’t Let Fear Cripple You
There have been a lot of things I’ve been afraid of in my life. Here are just a few. I’ve been afraid to: -Go through labor and delivery with my kids (I survived, two c-sections later). -Travel alone to an unfamiliar location. -Take a cross-country flight even though I know I’m more safe in the air than a car. -Pick up the phone and make a call for information I need for an article (I’m introverted, and there are days I just don’t feel like talking to people I don’t know). -Confront people who have hurt me, because rarely does it work out the way I hope it would. -Share my history of…
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My 2019 EOY Writing Wrap-Up
It’s Dec. 31, and a lot has happened with my writing this year. Because I’m such a fanatic about listening to EOY wrap-ups from other entrepreneurs I follow, I thought it might be a good time to go over some of the accomplishments and setbacks I’ve experienced this year. Let’s get right to it. 2019 started with a bit of a quandary. To be honest, I was working in a job that made me question my skills and talents on a regular basis. I think a lot of it was that it was a structure (the company was a nonprofit organization) that didn’t have a lot of built-in support for my position, in…
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A New Decade of Writing
It’s hard to believe we’re about to conclude another decade. I’ve been reflecting on this a bit, and marveling about how far I’ve come since I graduated from college, with a stack of credit card bills and student loans to pay off, and working two jobs so I could support myself. And even then there were plenty of days where I was eating pasta with plain tomato sauce for almost every dinner. If I wanted to get fancy I would throw some feta cheese on top. Back then, I never dreamed I could make money writing from home, and that research for a million different topics would be right at my fingertips. I…
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WOW! Women on Writing Round-Up
I’ve written for WOW Women on Writing’s blog, The Muffin, for awhile now, and periodically I like to do a round-up of my recent posts, which all revolve around the writing life. Here are a few from the past few months–hope you find something useful! Going “There” with Your Writing Because it’s National Novel Writing Month (no, not participating this year!) I’ve noticed all the writing trade magazines and websites are chock full of inspirational articles on how to write a great plot twist and craft a page-turning dilemma. One such piece of advice centered on writing what scares you—you know, dig into those deep, dark fears a la Stephen King It style. Read more…