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Writing Life

Encouragement for the ups and downs of writing. Sample topics: recovering from writing burnout, protecting your wrists, handling disappointments, celebrating accomplishments, faking it, etc.

Author vs. Characters: Can Our Morals Be Different?

Graphic of two faces with text: Are We Our Characters?

The recent talk of watching what we say on the internet and being aware of our brand has brought up several ways people come to odd conclusions about us as writers. Despite all our work to ensure that our behavior supports who we are and what our brand is, people will […]

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January 31, 2013

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Faking It: Making Our Actions Count

Woman with arms outstretched with text: How to Fake Confidence

We’ve probably all heard the phrase: Fake it until you make it. The idea is that we’re supposed to act the way we want others to see us, and we’ll be treated the way we want. The concept can be applied to our personal life as well as our professional […]

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January 17, 2013

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What Writing Step Are You Afraid Of?

Dark door cracked open with text: What Writing Step Are You Scared Of?

I’ve said before that I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. However, I do have several writing goals for this year. Like many writers, my big goal has to do with making progress toward being published, and that means I have to face my fear. For me, that translates into… *dun […]

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January 10, 2013

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12 Tips for Recovering from Writing Burnout

Tire burnout mark on pavement with text: 12 Tips for Recovering from Writing Burnout

As I write this, I’m suffering from acute sleep exhaustion after pulling an all-nighter. I stayed up until 5:30 a.m. to finalize not one, but two entries for RWA’s Golden Heart contest (the big contest for non-published romance writers) before the deadline. I’m glad I completed everything on time and met […]

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January 3, 2013

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Do You Make New Year’s Resolutions?

Drawing of confetti with text: Toss Those New Year's Resolutions For Something Better

New Year’s Day. The time of year when society tells us to make New Year’s Resolutions. We vow to eat better and exercise more. We promise ourselves we’ll carve out more “me-time” for reading or other enjoyable activities. We hope to become better organized or more charitable. Most of those […]

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January 1, 2013

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‘Tis the Season to Be Chaotic, Is Reblogging the Answer?

Chaotic colors with text: Is Reblogging an Easy Way to Handle Chaos?

I don’t know about anyone else, but this is a rough time to get any writing done. I did great throughout November for NaNoWriMo, but since then I think I’ve gotten in only 7,000 words. And most of those words were written the first weekend of December, right after NaNo […]

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December 20, 2012

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Protect Your Wrists: Exercises for Writers

Exercise dumbbell with text: Wrist Exercises for Writers

Back in August, the keyboard I’d used for forever (about ten years) died. I tried using several other keyboards of various ergonomic configurations, but they all made my wrists hurt by the end of the day. After weeks of these inferior (to me) keyboards, my right wrist got so bad […]

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December 18, 2012

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NaNo Wrap-Up: Are You Happy with Your Accomplishment?

Jami Gold NaNo Winner Badge

For better or for worse, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) of November is over. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been catching up on sleep. (I lost count of how many nights I stayed up until midnight to get as many words in as possible.) It was […]

December 4, 2012

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NaNo Check-In: Lessons from the Halfway Point

Image of Jami Gold's "My Month" NaNo calendar

Today, November 15th, marks the halfway point for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November). That means all NaNo participants should reach 25,000 words on their NaNo project by midnight tonight. Yikes! That sounds like a big number—and it is—but I passed that milestone on November 11th. […]

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November 15, 2012

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Life Lessons from the “Epic Road Trip”

Road in front of Monument Valley, Arizona

Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have heard that my family and I took a two-week road trip a couple of months ago. And yes, it was “epic.” We traveled over 2100 miles on our way to visit four National Parks, two National Monuments, and one Tribal […]

November 8, 2012

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