4 Ways to Approach Prayer for Your Writing
This is about actively participating with the Spirit of God to assume the right heart posture. How you think and believe as you engage with God is important. So here are the heart postures that help me approach God about my writing.
Embracing the Cycles and Seasons of Creativity
As I cycle through what is required or what I am committed to as a CEO, a creator who leads and coaches other creators, a mom, a daughter, a sister, and a friend, the messages my mind, spirit, and body communicate back to me are writing a new set of rules.
Maybe Means No
I brought in the new year reading Kim Perell’s Jump. It was a perfectly timed read. In chapter 4, “The Power of Decision-Making,” she writes about the powerful bit of advice her mom gave her when she was dealing with indecision: “Maybe means no.” Your gut. Your intuition. Your Holy Spirit. Trust it. Trust Him. You know when you are not feeling open to the options in front of you. You know a no when you feel it.
The Catalyzing Power of Discomfort
Discomfort is a catalyst for change, for taking a leap you wouldn't normally take, for breaking into something you wouldn't have chanced if your back wasn't against a wall.
Work, Rest, Success, and the In-Between
Feeling soft brushes of distant sea breezes against my face and through my hair, I am thinking about all the work I have to do after a few back-to-back conferences and a business trip. On this dream-like, cloudy day in perpetually sunny Florida, I’m attempting to get back to the daily grind after succumbing to involuntary pressure to allow a few days to recoup from the last few weeks.
Read, Learn, Write, Revise: 10 Assignments for the First-Time or Aspiring Author
Writing coaches and professional editors and writers often give the necessary and hopefully paralysis-breaking advice to writers: “Sit down and write,” "Get those words on the page," "Just write.” And just writing is sometimes the scariest and toughest part, but then what? We’ve bled all over the page. The words are there. What’s next?
You Finished Your Manuscript—Now It's Time to Revise
Revising (or self-editing) is the next step in the process after you’ve gotten the first draft of your manuscript written. It can involve several levels, which all begin with you.
Bloom and Grow: Lessons from Houseplants on the Writing Life
For months, I watched my giant peace lily sensation push out leaf after leaf. I was amazed, of course, at her rich foliage, but I knew that these plants produce beautiful blooms. Yet, after so long and no hint of a bloom, I had resigned that mine, while healthy and growing, may not be in the ideal conditions to flower.
Being: Pentecost Sunday, James Baldwin, and a Cup of Coffee
Two years ago, my Pentecost Sunday started with a cup of coffee and a James Baldwin essay on a stony terrace behind a lakeside apartment in Minnesota.
Are Writers More Prone to Depression and Anxiety?
Did you know…? “…writers are around eight times as likely to suffer from mental illness than those who don’t pursue writing as a career, according to Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins who wrote Touched with Fire.”