Mid-August Writing Practices August greetings, Reader, I can practically feel the push-pull of September in these middle days of August. School has started, coaching clients are lining up, yet no one wants to give up on summer yet. I sure don't. This writing practice was inspired by hiking. Hope you find it fun and useful. The August give-away books My friend, I have done a terrible job of soliciting reviews for my last two books. The Writer's Voice is shy of the 50-review goal so many...
26 days ago • 1 min read
August's Writing Voice exercise Happy August, Reader! Because August should still be fun, this month's Writing Voice exercise should feel like play. At least, I hope it does! Try on a new voice (or three) How do we discover the depth and breadth of our own writing voice? Often, by trying on the voices of others. This month's exercise asks you to pick a few extreme characters and see how they might comment on your life. Click here to read the post online If you'd rather watch than read, watch...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
July's Writing Practice and Book Give-away Hello Reader, What's distracting you from writing these days? Sunny weather and open trails calling you outdoors? Excessive heat draining your energy? Road trips or family gatherings? Protests? The siren call of a good book? Whatever it is, today's post might help you make peace with the fact you're not writing as much as you'd hoped, if that's true for you. First, though, I have a book give-away you might enjoy. The Book Drawing: Algospeak The New...
2 months ago • 1 min read
The July Writing Voice exercise Hello Reader, We're past the halfway point of 2025 — are you doing the writing you want to do? Even if your time is constrained with work or family, protests or vacation, you can always find a few moments for journaling and writing voice exercises! No matter what your summer holds, I hope you'll take a moment to try the fun "voice" exercise for July. Flip your intentions Everything we write has an intention behind it. When we flip the intention on its head,...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi friend, When I was a kid, every summer I would check out a giant pile of books from the library for the long drive up to northern Wisconsin. I could actually read in the car back then, stretched out on the back deck of the family station wagon, surrounded by luggage. Now, I load up on audiobooks for summer road trips. My favorite place to do that is Chirp — a discount audiobook site. No membership or subscription, just audiobooks, and lots of them. And they run a lot of limited-time, steep...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Writing practices for dedicated writers Happy mid-June, Reader. As we approach the solstice, I bring you a few things to brighten your day in uncertain times: An almost-free audiobook A give-away book Encouragement to branch out Let's dive in. The Writer's Process audiobook for 99 cents Did you know there's an audiobook of The Writer's Process, my best-known book? I'm basically giving it away for the next few weeks on a service called Chirp (for listeners in the US and Canada). If you don't...
3 months ago • 1 min read
The Writing Voice exercise for June + more Hi Reader, Last time, I asked about your thoughts on AI. So many people responded—and, as you might guess, reactions to using generative AI were mixed. We have many cautious adopters on this list, and most of you draw a firm line under using AI to write—at least, for the writing that matters. Several people report using it for brainstorming and unblocking. One has experimented using AI for graphics for her blog (with mixed results). Morgan uses it in...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Writing Practices Mid-May Edition Hi Reader, I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading lately about AI and writing. Why? In addition to the unending flood of AI chatter, I wonder if I need to update my book about writing at work (The Workplace Writer's Process) with advice on where/how AI fits. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. (I'm not eager to do a second edition.) In case you're thinking about writing and AI, here are a few sources that have helped me wrestle with the...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Writing voice exercise for May Dear Reader, Did you try a "tiny writing experiment" in the last couple weeks? I'd love to hear how it went. People have been sending me theirs, and the experiments are as diverse as the people doing them! One writer is experimenting with changing the place she writes for a while. Another is aiming for simply "a single coherent paragraph about anything every day" — love it. Congrats to Karen for winning the drawing for the Tiny Experiments book. She plans to use...
4 months ago • 1 min read