Tag: persistence
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Decisions, Decisions
The more I make a decision to do something, the easier it is to make in the future. If I decide to go for a walk, it’s easier for me to decide to go for a walk the next day. Some people talk about this in terms of building habits, but I prefer to think…
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Edits!
I re-read my earlier post about not writing during edits, and realized that the word “editing” covers a wide variety of tasks for me. There’s the initial quick-edit of a piece after the first draft is done, just to get in those changes I don’t want to forget. I generally think of this as finishing…
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The Call – Part Two
I am so happy to announce that I have another piece coming out with Samhain Publishing in 2015! And I get to work on it with the amazing Holly Atkinson! I’m still a bit in shock. This one is a science-fiction erotica novella. It’s not due out for a bit yet, so I’ll be saving the details…
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Letting Go
The first novel I wrote that had a beginning, middle, and end was a dark fantasy romance novel. I rewrote it seven times. Each draft was about 100,000 words long. I designed a cover, wrote the back-jacket blurb (I can still recite it without missing a beat), and filled page after page with back-story and…
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Behind the Curtain
When you start to study the craft of writing, to really roll up your sleeves and dig into the guts of the matter, you have to let go of something. You have to let go of being surprised. Sure, there will still be moments and pieces that catch you off guard, but they’ll be fewer…
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The Call
Many famous authors talk about their rejection letter collections, and thinking about it that way is how I’ve handled mine. When I send out queries, I’ve armored by writer’s heart by thinking of rejections as additions to my collection. There was always hope alongside that shield that someday I’d get some amazing news instead. That…
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Patience
Writing teaches patience, whether it happens when you’re staring at the blank screen and trying to figure out what happens next or watching the words slowly build to a completed piece. It’s like going to an amusement park. You can’t sleep the night before, waiting for that new adventure to begin. Once you’re there, the…
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Monkey Mind
It’s amazing the things that I’ll come up with to distract myself from writing (take this blog post, for instance). Earlier, I caught myself looking at my arms and wondering if my biceps were the same size. I’ll suddenly remember a picture that I just have to send to someone right that moment. The most…
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Ebb and Flow
Writing every day is a wonderful habit to cultivate. I work hard to make the time, to show the discipline to make it happen. Sometimes, though, I need to let go of that expectation. Life is busy and curve-balls can come out of nowhere. It’s important to make a consistent practice of writing. It’s also…
Cassandra Chandler 