There’s nothing worse than settling in to what you can tell will be a long writing session, just to discover that your favourite pen is out of ink.

Equally perturbing is when you pick up a new pen at the store because the packaging caught your eye, but when set to your page the tip is so coarse it feels like you’re trying to carve your initials into a picnic bench. Hopefully with this list of carefully chosen pens, your troubles will be eased. 

I last wrote to help you narrow down the never-ending search for the Best Journals for Writers. This list will be just as subjective as the last and includes reasonably priced pens all under $10 that I believe will make sitting down to write painless. 

Best Pens for Writers: Ballpoints

Uni-Ball Jetstream Retractable

https://www.amazon.ca/Uni-Ball-Jetstream-Retractable-Ballpoint

The Uni-Ball Jetstream is just one step away from ordering a daily PSL (pumpkin spice late) on its way to work. That’s how basic it is. This would normally be a big...

True confession time: I put off writing this blog post because I was afraid it wouldn’t be perfect.

I find that hilarious now, but I used to be sooo much worse than this: I would put off writing because I was afraid it wouldn’t be perfect and then NEVER get back around to my work-in-progress.

At this point in my life, I’ve done the work to own my own B.S. and I can see myself coming, so I pay attention whenever I start to get those procrastination signals and I can typically turn myself around fairly easily.

Here are my best tips for beating perfectionism in the New Year. The bonus here is that if you do the hard work to beat them once, it gets much easier with time.

How Writers Can Beat Perfectionism

1. Pay Attention to Your Thought Signals

If you’re anything like me, procrastination sends you some thought signals before it cosies in and settles down to stay for awhile. Noticing these signals takes some practice, but just learning how to recognize these can potentially transfor...

There’s a major mistake a lot of writers make when they’re just starting out writing their book. Can you guess what it is? (Hint: the answer is in that first sentence!)

The mistake is all in how you think about your book -- including thinking of it as a “book” at all in the beginning.

We have very capital-R Romantic ideas about books and writing, ideas we’ve picked up from reading or watching movies and just fantasizing about what it must be like for published authors. 

If you’ve never done it before, here’s how you might think writing a book goes:

1. Have an idea for a book. 
2. Sit down and write the book. #easypeasylemonsqueezy
3. Publish the book.
4. Cash those royalty cheques.

Mm-hmm, sorry about that...I can tell you from experience that this is not the typical experience for most published authors.

What’s missing is a true understanding of the book-writing process -- how we really get from idea to finished product.

In my First Book Finish program, I coach my students in the “6...

The gap between writing smaller, individual pieces of work -- short stories, poems, essays -- and writing a full book sometimes feels like an incredible chasm.

With individual pieces of work, no matter how challenging, the satisfaction of an ending comes much sooner and more frequently, generating a sense of momentum that is inspiring in and of itself.

With a book however, the ending can seem a long way off. And the distance between where we are now in the project, and a final published version of our book on the shelf can feel like a literary Ironman marathon.

How to Manage a Book Project

If how to manage the enormity of a book-length project is keeping you up at night -- or leading to avoid your writing (uh-oh!) -- then here’s how I suggest you get yourself organized to help you manage some of the stress of a project of this size.

Stop Doing Research (and especially “Research”)

If you have been spending a lot of time on research, or “research” -- the latter involving some serio...

You can be forgiven for thinking that writing a book is all about the craft: how to write compelling characters, or how to structure a mystery novel, what to leave out when writing your memoir, or how to handle backstory, or how to curate a collection of stories or poems so it hangs together well as a whole.

Of course, these are elements of writing a book. But truth be told, they are not what gets in the way of most writers.

For a lot of writers, the story of writing a book goes like this…

• Have brilliant idea for a book. ✅
• Get excited about the book and start writing. ✅
• Write about a third or perhaps half of the book just by riding that wave of excitement. ✅

Then...start to worry. 

• Worry about the middle. ⁉️
• Worry about the ending. ⁉️
• Worry about the language. ⁉️
• Worry about the structure. ⁉️
• Worry about how to make the book GREAT. ⁉️
• Worry about finding an agent.  [Note: book still not yet finished!] ⁉️
• Worry about finding a publisher. ⁉️
• Worry about people reading...

Put your heart in it.

There’s an old writing joke that makes the rounds (I think I first heard it from an article about Margaret Atwood) about a writer and a brain surgeon chit-chatting over drinks at a cocktail party. The brain surgeon pipes up:

“When I retire, I'm going to write a book."

And the writer, in a very wry and dry Peggy Atwood kind of tone, says: "How fascinating. When I retire, I'm going to take up brain surgery."

I mean, it’s not ROFL funny; it’s a joke about writers after all.

The brain surgeon’s operating assumption (haha) being that of course anyone can write a book.

If only, my medical and non-medical friends...IF ONLY.

But then, who can write a book? Is it as easy as the Internet makes it sound?

One Internet guru promises you can finish a book in 30 days.

So then the next dude has to promise you can do it in just 3 EASY STEPS!

Hang in there, writers -- we’re just weeks away from a book requiring no steps at all!

I don’t believe that writing a book is e...

“I just wish I had more time to write.”

If you’ve ever said that to yourself, you’re not alone.  The vast majority of writers are writing while also doing #allofthethings: working, parenting, volunteering, going to school, spending time with family and friends.

We are all always busy and often getting busier with every year that passes. But writing -- and writing well -- simply takes time. What’s a busy writer to do?

Here’s the straight-up truth: the world will not find you time to write.

In fact, today’s world is designed to work against your ability to create and sustain a writing life you love. No one is going to find the time for you...you have to find, and protect, that time.

Here are 3 important actions to take if you really want to find more time to write right now:

Finding More Time to Write: Train Your People

Tell the people who love you that you need time to write. Explain to them how important your writing life is to you, and that you’re a better person (a mor...

Fear of failure personified: your very own sad Frankenstein. (Photo by Ashkan Forouza)

Because facing failure is such an important issue for writers, I wanted to share some thoughts on the topic here on the blog for you.

Take a deep breath...and let’s dive in!

Facing Failure: Some Ways Writers Fail

• They fail to get stories or poems published.
• Then the writer has some stories or poems published, but their book is rejected.
• Then the book is published, but the critics hate it.
• The critics hate it, but readers love it.
• Most readers love it, but a few really hate it.
• The book is nominated for an award, but doesn’t win.
• The book is nominated for multiple awards, but still doesn’t win.
• The book wins, but some people still hate it and most people don’t read it.
• The book wins, but the author still knows all the ways it has failed.
• The book ends up in the “Sale” bin and then returned to the publisher.
• Then the author writes the next book, which is always compared to the first.

You've got choices!

Let’s talk pants! If you’re anything like me, you gave up on anything without an elastic waistband early on in this pandemic -- leggings, yoga pants and sweats are all I’m wearing, when I’m not in my pyjama pants.

If you’ve seen me on Zoom, be assured that no matter how much I may be rocking the mascara, with a bright top and some snazzy earrings, down below it is all comfy pants.

(Fortunately, the folks I write with in The Writer’s Flow Studio are very much a come-as-you-are kind of people!)

But the pants I want to talk about today are part of that age-old writing debate…

Outlining a Book: Pants On, or Pants Off?

There are fierce proponents on both sides of this debate, which essentially boils down to should we outline our book in detail -- down to the scenes and even the beats in the scenes or the individual moments that comprise the scene -- or should we just take it one page at a time as the story comes to us?

Folks who like to take the story as it comes ...