Pandemic Blues and Creative Burnout

There’s no denying that the past year and a half has taken its toll on many of us and I’m no exception. The lockdowns and social distancing have left us with no choice but to be constantly aware of how daily life has changed and have limited the ways we can creatively recharge. Not only...

That overwhelmed feeling…

I don’t know about you, but this happens to me quite often. As a writer myself and as the owner of a small press, I often have a lot on my plate (especially in and around submission season!). I’m kind of in that place right now, so I thought I could offer some advice based...

Novels vs. Novellas vs. Short Stories – And what in the world is a Novellette?

I’m a novelist. I’ve a long history of writing longer books, and some multiple book series, even. Though recently, I’ve had the chance to experiment with shorter forms and I’ve discovered that writing a novel is a very different experience from writing a short story, for example.  I know how strange it sounds. Writing is...

Fiona Tarr, Author of The Eternal Realm series, shares her process…

I wrote my latest book in the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak and I have to admit, staying creative with all the distractions was more difficult than I have ever found it. Even if I closed all the tabs on my browser and turned off all social media notifications, my mind kept wandering to places...

When you can’t write, try something else!

We’ve had  a few guests come and share their thoughts with you these past couple of weeks, including David McLain and Brittni Brinn. Reading their posts got me thinking, ‘what am I doing to get through this rough time,’ and the truth is, I’ve been employing some tactics of my own to try and stay...

Put your thinking caps on – M|W Contest Opens Soon!

You may remember a few months back we mentioned that we were considering running a contest and creating the first ever Mirror World Anthology, well it’s happening! Here are the details: We will be accepting submissions between June 1st and July 31st and this contest is open to writers worldwide with no restrictions on who...

Staying Motivated means staying Caffeinated?

Hello readers, As we're nearing the end of the year, Murandy Damodred and I are preparing for another #85KChallenge. That's right, from January to March 2020, we're going to try and write another 85,000 words! To that end, we've made some preparations. The first is we've picked which manuscript we're going to work on. Since...

Improving Your Character’s Voice

Lately I've been working on my... third? draft of Uncommon, the novel I wrote during my month-long residency in New Orleans back in February. I'll admit, I've been having a rough time of it. You see, I wrote this book very, very quickly. I'm now wondering if that was the greatest idea, or if I...

3 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block

Writer’s Block is a big topic and one that I’ve touched on before and will likely come back to again. The problem with writer’s block is that there isn’t just one cause for it and for that reason, there can be no one-size-fits-all blanket solutions. So the first step to overcoming writer’s block if you...

Hey… Life Happens. That’s OK.

As writers we’re often encouraged to write every day and to make deadlines and stick to them, but there are times in our lives where putting our writing first can be an unhealthy mindset.  Which is why I tell people write everyday, where possible. Notice the caveat. Sometimes it isn’t possible to write everyday. Or...