When I became a writing coach, my students started asking for writing prompts. I couldn’t let my students down, and so I started to really investigate—what is a good writing prompt? What would be really useful? Enter: The Writing Prompts Generator for People Who Aren’t in Seventh Grade

The question I get more than any other is some version of: What do I do when I’m stuck? How do I overcome writer’s block? And the best answers I’ve come up with—the ones that works for me—are the opposite of what, I think, people expect to hear. Because for me, overcoming writer’s block isn’t about willpower, or discipline, or making yourself do something you don’t want to do. Here are three strategies I recommend to overcome writer’s block.

Sometimes all we need to get started is a little motivation. Here are three writing tips for you if you’re just getting started—writing tips that aren’t going to scare you away before you even pick up your pen or open your laptop.

Unsure where to begin? Here, I share how to begin writing a book for the first time. You don’t have to know everything yet when you begin. The important thing is to begin.

It took me years to figure out what I’m sharing with you in this post, and I hope I can save you time and heartache. If you’re stuck on page three or two hundred of your book, or you’re simply unsure where to begin, here are four misconceptions that I see beginning writers make when they’re just starting out.

The story about the pots is an oft-cited anecdote from the book Art & Fear, and I decided to write about it today because it’s one of those parables that, as an writer, you absolutely must hear at least once. I probably think about it five or six times a week.

Think back to when you were a kid, and recall a reward that you desperately wanted. I can think of a bunch: my name under the sunshine that read “THANKS!” on my second grade teacher’s chalkboard; 

Nothing is more motivating than a deadline. We’ve all experienced this in a million ways, right?
Only in recent years have I discovered that there is such a thing as a too-distant deadline.

Like many people, I love the ocean, and not just lying on the sand soaking in the sun—I love being in the water. I love trying to surf and doing it badly/thinking I look savvier than I do. I love the waves crashing into me and leaving my skin gritty for hours afterward.