Warning: This installment of the Three Minute Writer is more like four and a half minutes long. I’ve talked on the blog, here, about finding a creative rhythm and giving yourself the energy and opportunity to seize on your creativity. In this video blog, I begin to describe a simple method for beginning to take control of your creative life. [su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxPUWZSsPHE”] You can check out other episodes of the video blog on the vBlog recap page

I try to post the Unblocker prompts on Tuesday and Thursday, and post the video blog in the middle, but I wasn’t very good with reading the calendar this week. Today’s episode of The Three Minute Writer is dedicated to thinking about how we structure our writing lives. Check it out: [su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68MOl_2hiKM”][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68MOl_2hiKM] [/su_youtube] If you’ve missed prior episodes of the video blog (or want a quick w

Strategic planning. Sounds stuffy. Like it comes from corporate America. Like something that is the polar opposite of creativity and the freedom to write. Right? Hardly. It seems to me that there are any number of writers (even some I consider friends) who bristle and balk at any mention of structure or planning or even the slightest hint of purposefulness. A practice like “strategic planning” is the antithesis of creativity, they might say. But, I’m not so sure. I’ve done so

So in a previous post I mentioned that I was starting a tracking experiment, where I’m setting an “ideal writing/work week” goal, and then comparing that goal to actual writing/work activities I’ve done throughout the week. Basically, the system is working like this: I’ve come up with a “perfect week” schedule that encompasses four areas of my literary pursuits. The four areas are, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Website & New Business Development, and Reading and Research. For me, in

So, let me dig into today’s thoughts on writing. I’ve been working on a novel for a while now. That’s pretty typical. Most writers (there ARE exceptions) don’t sit down and spit out a novel in some long mental purging that is well-plotted and coherent in one pass. I’m not putting any time line on this writing, except that one of the goals I hope to have accomplished by the end of my MFA (January, 2012) is to have this book finished and polished and ready to be read by agents

I had big plans for the summer. I really did. After I left the May writing residency at Queens University of Charlotte, this is what I planned to accomplish: Deep revision of the first 1/3 of my novel (Chapters 1-5 as it now stands) Finish first draft of the second 1/3 of the novel (it is about 80% written, but needs a lot of work, and a lot of “connections” work…) Edit and finish two short stories workshopped at the May residency and ready them for submission to literary mag