It’s partway through your morning work time, and here are your symptoms: brain on ice (or scattered), lethargy (or restlessness), total aversion to the work on your desk. You’re frustrated with yourself; it’s not time·to be tired yet. You’re … Read more
Zombie hours. We all have them. You know, that stretch of time when you feel about as vibrant and intelligent and insightful as a stick figure of a sleepwalking corpse. You dream of napping under your desk. You eat chocolate … Read more
These days I’m doing most of my work from that “other” side of myself–the comparative literature PhD candidate side. My goal is to finish a full draft of my dissertation by early next spring, a very ambitious timeline for a … Read more
Anybody who’s remotely paying attention should know that I love Scrivener. I’m near evangelical about its virtues for everything from novel-writing to blog-touring to academic blah organizing. (Yes, my academic blahs need to be organized.)
But there’s something that … Read more
Here’s the full Q: How do you work writing into your life? I often find myself without any time to write, or if I do have the time, I am not in the “zone”. I am tired, or worn, and so … Read more
Let’s say you want to write but you’re stuck. Blocked. Nothing’s coming out. But you can’t just sit there.
So try this:
(1) Get down a favorite book from your shelf. Find a passage you really admire.
(2) Write it … Read more
You know how sometimes you fantasize about this perfect tool that will make a really hard job magically more manageable? And how most of the time that fantasy remains, well, just a fantasy?
Well, here’s good news for writer types … Read more
Two things I’ve loved about this spring: seeing What Can’t Wait on a real shelf in a real bookstore and seeing our little boy Liam crawl, walk, giggle, eat, and be.
One thing I didn’t always enjoy but love being … Read more
Twice in the past two weeks my brain has worked overtime for me outside of normal business hours to cook some ideas for me with very little conscious effort on my part.
Maybe–like some men I know–the brain will only … Read more
