4 Questions to Help You Determine Whether Your Writing Matters

By Colleen M. Story

Part of The Writer’s Life Series

JH: You’ve probably wondered from time to time whether your writing matters. Colleen Story offers four questions to help you discover the answer.

Colleen M. Story inspires writers to overcome modern-day challenges and find creative fulfillment in their work. In her new release, Your Writing Matters, she helps writers determine whether writing is part of their life’s purpose. Her other books for writers have been recognized in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards and Reader Views Literary Awards, and her last novel, Loreena’s Gift, was a Foreword Reviews' INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner.

Writing and Wellness | Writer CEO | | Author Website | Twitter | Goodreads 

Take it away Colleen…

Writers: Start the Year with a Clean Slate

By Sherry Howard, @SherLHoward

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: I've always found starting over easier than catching up, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Sherry Howard is our first guest lecturer of the year, and she's here to share some tips on the benefits of tabula rasa.

Sherry Howard lives with her children and crazy dogs in Middletown, Kentucky, a stone's throw from the beautiful horse farms her state is always bragging about. She was an award-winning educator, serving as teacher, consultant, and principal in one of the largest urban-suburban school districts in the US. Sherry loves to read, write, cook, and sit in the sand watching the waves when she can. Her poems and stories have appeared in multiple journals and anthologies. Her picture book, Rock and Roll Woods, released in 2018 to a starred Kirkus review.

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Take it away Sherry...

WINNING WAY: Establishing Professional Writing Goals Worth Pursuing

By Damon Suede, @DamonSuede

Part of The Writer's Life Series

As writers we have the best and worst job in the world. We get paid to make stuff up. We are captains of our own destiny. The tools necessary are simple and ubiquitous.

When it comes to my career, I treat our industry as a giant, elaborate game because genre publishing really does have rules and roles, strategy and struggle, touchdowns and trophies… No matter how intense the conflict or dire the stakes, no one gets jailed or murdered because they didn’t hit the USA Today list. That perspective helps me keep my nuttiness and anxiety to a minimum no matter how vile or harrowing the experiences of a given moment.

Because I tend to think of writing as a game I'm always keeping the prize in mind. Every game has a goal that allows you to develop a strategy. If you're not the type of person who examines your personal goal motivation and conflict this can present a giant problem. The truth is we are not all the same and we don't seek the same rewards. Different players in different contexts seek different rewards and play radically different games. Some of us love brutal conflict. Some of us gravitate towards gentle, cooperative détentes the human heart is simply too complex to boil down to a single identity or path to happiness.

Stay Motivated With Writing Goals

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

In the writing world, November (and much of October) tends to be filled with advice on NaNoWriMo, but the lessons learned are ones we can all put to good use any time of the year. NaNo is about hitting a target word count and training yourself to write when you have to, and these are skills that every writer can benefit from. Goals keep us motivated, give us clear and defined milestones to gauge our progress by, and give us targets to shoot for.

While word count is by far the easiest milestone to set for ourselves, it's not the only one. Some people are daunted by vast numbers of words or find it too constricting, putting the focus on quantity, not quality. For these writers, a different measurement is often more useful for gauging progress. Maybe it's chapters, or acts, or specific points in the story. Maybe a set amount of time per day is a better motivator. It all comes down to what tactics works best to help motivate you to achieve the goals you've set.

A New Year, a New Writing Start

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

I know I write these posts every year (heck, let’s be honest—almost everyone writes these every year), but this year, I’m feeling particularly reflective. Like many of you, 2016 was a difficult year, and it affected my writing in multiple not-so-good ways. I’m looking to 2017 to make a fresh start and get my writing back on track.

I share these things because I know reading about what others have tried has been beneficial for me in the past, and something I'm trying might help someone else facing the same struggles. Writers deal with similar frustrations and issues all the time, so why not learn from each other's trials?

The Organized Writer: Goal Planning for the New Year

By Angela Quarles, @AngelaQuarles

Part of the Indie Author Series

I kicked off my posts here with some articles on organization for writers. Since this is typically the time when people look back over the past year and plan for the next, I thought it appropriate to write a new installment for this series, this time on goal planning.

Indie writers have a unique advantage that can also be a disadvantage, if not managed properly--we have the freedom to create our own production schedule. This can be a blessing when you really need the extra time for a troublesome book that perhaps a book contract wouldn't allow. But if you don't make a schedule, then it's easy to let a whole year slip by without reaching any of your goals.