How Becoming a Better Editor Made Me a Better Writer
Since the 2020 pandemic, my primary focus in my life was to make the best of my writing archives. As of September 2022, however, my focus has shifted slightly: make my writing archives better. This is, in fact, a very straightforward process. Find the posts that used to get love and improve them, then find […]
How Revision Reveals the Artist Within
“The first draft reveals the art; revision reveals the artist.” — Michael Lee You know that saying, “the devil is in the details?” With writing, the devil and I have become good pals. There was a time when I felt like a failed writer, adrift in a sea of half-formed ideas and clumsy sentences. In […]
Setting the Bar for My Writing
One of my greatest difficulties is setting the bar for expectations in my work much too high. It’s as if unless I produce a masterpiece daily, then I failed not only myself, but everyone who has and ever will read my words. Of course, whenever I try lowering the bar, I find myself producing nothing […]
Are Poems Reflections or Distortions of Life? (Or Are They Both?)
While I’ve written hundreds of poems over the years, I have always found myself rather disconnected from pursuing the art on a regular basis. I’ve long reserved poetry as a means of expressing thoughts, emotions, or ideas. At times, I have some jumbled thoughts that seem to loosely fit together, but wouldn’t be easily put […]
Creating a (More) Perfect Sentence
The concept of a “perfect” sentence is as elusive as a mirage in a sprawling desert. We chase it, knowing full well it recedes from us with each step we take forward. As a writer, I’ve come to recognize that while there may be objectively bad writing, the art of composing sentences is profoundly subjective. […]
How to Bridge Value Gaps with Your Own Content
Once upon a not-so-distant yesterday, content was crowned king, and marketers across the land bowed to its reign. If you’ve ever wandered through the kingdom of digital marketing, you might have heard the bards sing tales of blogs like Moz and how they turned mere words into golden leads. But, the plot thickens. It’s not […]
The Hardest Part of Writing
The hardest part of writing is knowing what not to write. Writing is often as much about what you leave out as what you include. It’s much like sculpting; as a sculptor removes pieces of marble to reveal the form within, a writer discards words to uncover the true essence of their message. When you […]
8 Tips for Writing a Great Young Adult Fiction Manuscript
While offering manuscript review and editing services, I wrote up 8 tips for writing a great children’s book manuscript. Once, I myself wanted to dabble in the realm of children’s literature, as E.B. White of course did with Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and Trumpet of the Swan. However, my own dabbling in fiction has led […]
Why I Quit Ghostwriting
While I’ve been writing professionally for more than a decade, I have written mostly as what is known as a ghostwriter. That is, someone who has ghostwritten articles and website copy. When you think about writers—or just about anyone who creates something from scratch—it’s natural to expect their process to start with an idea and […]