Tracking Your Muse’s Favorite Hangouts What are you doing when the ideas start flowing in your brain? Where do new insights strike? When you sit down and the writing is fluid and productive, where have you been in the hours and days preceding? Those are the places that your Muse thrives. The Muse is a short-hand label for those […]
writing
What Inspires Your Writing?
Getting To Know Your Muse Inspiration may appear in dreams. New ideas or complete phrases might pop into your head when you’re doing the dishes. Or, you’ll be in the shower when you suddenly think of a wonderful approach for something you’re writing. Our best ideas seem to come from places beyond our intentional control. That’s probably why the Greeks personified inspiration in the […]
Behavioral Writing Sciences
In 2002, a psychologist (Daniel Kahneman) won a Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Yes, you read that correctly. A psychologist won a prize in economics, by studying the imperfect, human variable in economic equations. Kahneman is a pioneer in the field of behavioral economics: a mash-up of psychology, neuroscience, and economics. It examines how people make decisions in the real […]
A New Writing Book by Steven Pressfield
Short version of this review (for people who have read The War of Art) Steven Pressfield has another book out, a follow-up to The War of Art, titled Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t. It’s free (until June 30) in online formats here. Enough said. Long version (for everyone else) There are a few, select […]
A Guide to the Writing Process
When we summon a mental image of a writer, we envision the act of drafting: putting the words down on paper. But the writing process extends far beyond the time drafting. Authors also assemble research, think deeply about topics, and create outlines before they draft. Many drafts require numerous revision cycles. The act of writing the draft is like the […]
Why Writing is Like Baking Bread
Have you ever baked a loaf of bread, or witnessed a masterful baker at work? Through a mysterious process of beating, kneading, waiting, and baking, an unappealing, gluey mass of dough transforms into fragrant and delectable food. Freshly baked bread is one of the wonders of the civilized world. Baking bread is eerily similar to […]