How to Prepare for a November Writing Challenge Without Overplanning Your Novel
Getting ready for a November writing challenge doesn’t mean you need every chapter, character, and plot twist planned in advance. Find a balance between preparation and flexibility with tips for choosing a project, creating a lightweight outline, setting a realistic writing goal, and making time for writing around your everyday commitments.
How to Turn a Big Writing Project Into Small Assignments You Can Finish in One Sitting
Breaking a large writing project into smaller assignments can make it much easier to actually get started. Learn how to turn tasks like “write Chapter 4” into focused assignments you can finish in a single writing session.
How to Plan Your Writing Week Around Your Schedule
Instead of squeezing writing into whatever time is left, build your writing week around the schedule you actually have. Learn how to find realistic writing windows, set flexible goals, match tasks to your energy, and keep your routine going when life gets busy.
When Your Story Feels Too Big to Finish: How to Shrink It Into Pieces You Can Write
If your current project is starting to feel too big to finish, and every time you sit down to write your mind gets overwhelmed with ideas, try any of the tips shared here to take the load off. Every novel is written through repeated containment, and these tips can help you master that.
The Myth of the Clean Slate: How to Carry Last Year’s Writing Lessons Forward
A new year arrives with a familiar promise: this time will be different. You reset your calendar, rewrite your goals, and believe that whatever weighed you down last year can be left behind. For writers, that belief can be comforting… but also misleading. Writing doesn’t reset neatly when the calendar flips. Your habits, tendencies, unfinished […]
The First 30 Days of a New Draft: A Week-by-Week Writing Plan for January
January has a reputation problem among writers. It’s framed as a clean slate, a fresh start, a month where motivation should be effortless and discipline should magically appear. In reality, January often arrives with mental fatigue, lingering obligations, and anxiety about whether this will finally be the year you finish something. Starting a new draft […]