5 Tips for How to Return to Writing After a Long Break

Making a return to writing after a long time away can feel overwhelming or even bewildering. Depending on the reasons for your break, you may be confronting a wide array of emotions—everything from anticipation and excitement to trepidation and confusion. If you find yourself worried or uncertain about how to proceed, the first step is simply to acknowledge...

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Your Story Isn’t Working? Here Are 6 Problems to Troubleshoot

If you’re here because you feel your story isn’t working, you’re not alone. Most writers feel that way about most of the stories they write. The good news is you can probably salvage your current story by troubleshooting a few key areas. One way to learn how to accomplish this is to learn what didn’t work in certain stories. Today, I’m offering myself...

2w

6 Lessons Learned From 4 Years of Writer’s Block

To be a writer, one must do two things: write and, perhaps surprisingly, not write. Usually, we champion the first and demonize the second with much fear and trembling, giving it dread labels such as “writer’s block.” The implication is that, for a writer, not writing is about as bad as it gets. The truth, however, is nuanced. I have been waiting...

3w

Need a Writing Buddy? Find One Right Here!

Some of the questions I am asked most frequently are, “How can I find a writing buddy? Where did you find your own critique partners? Help! I need beta readers!” And, yes, as you may have noticed, that last isn’t a question so much as a desperate plea for help. I noticed too! Need a Writing Buddy? You’re Not Alone! Writing is a solitary life, which...

4w

Looking Back on 2022: 5 Reflections on a Year of Healing

For the past five years or so, I have opened every new year with a post looking back on the lessons I have learned in the previous year. What began as just another idea for a blog post has become one of my most treasured rituals. Every year when I sit down to write this post, I enjoy looking back over the previous twelve months and taking the opportunity...

Jan 2023

Top 10 Writing Posts of 2022

We made it! Welcome to the end of 2022! After the many notably momentous years that preceded it, 2022 was for me a “sleeper” year—both in the sense that it was much quieter and less externally eventful, but also in that it still ended up surprising me with the deep changes and transformations it has wrought particularly on an internal level. I’ll be...

Dec 2022

Merry Christmas, Wordplayers!

Dear Wordplayers! This week, I am wishing you a merry Christmas and a beautiful holiday season. My hope is that as you look back on this year, you find it rich in blessings, memories, good surprises, growth opportunities, and wonderful stories of every kind. A cold and snowy Nebraska sunrise. As always, this time of year is a retrospective for me....

Dec 2022

15 of My Favorite Books in 2022

This year-end round-up of my “top books” is always one of my favorite posts to write. I always look forward to the retrospective of my year, not just because I get to remember everything I read, but also because my memories of my actual life are so intertwined with what I read. (When I’m trying to remember when something happened in my life, I will...

Dec 2022

What Are the Best Places to Write? 15 Tips to Create the Perfect Writing Space

I admit it. I drool over Pinterest pictures of dreamy libraries and studies. Sometimes I google “writer’s offices” for inspiration about the best places to write, in search of that perfect writing space that will magnetize me to my desk and make me want to stay curled up with my work-in-progress for endless hours of storytelling. Of course, it doesn’t...

Dec 2022

The Best Christmas Gifts This Writer Has Ever Received

Buying that perfect Christmas gift is always a challenge, but if someone on your list this year is a writer (or if that writer is you), here are some ideas straight from my top-ten list of personal faves. The following were gifts from thoughtful family and friends who know I’m a writer and chose accordingly. (Admittedly, not all of these were Christmas...

Nov 2022