What does Butt in chair mean? A bit of writing advice you'll see a lot is, "Butt in chair!" But what the heck does that mean? I can do a heck of a lot of things with my butt in a chair that have nothing whatsoever to do with writing! I also do a fair amount of writing...
Once you've given yourself permission to write, you'll realize that's not enough. Because it's one thing to say, "Yes, I will write!" and another to do it. You've already got a whole life crammed into 24 hours a day, and there are zillions of things vying for your...
"It sounds amazing in my head but when I write it down, it's terrible!" Does this sound familiar? You've got this fantastic scene in mind, the whole thing is just RIGHT THERE fully formed in your head, and all you need to do is write it down! You rush to your...
It starts somehow Sometimes you sit down, butt in chair, just like you're supposed it and... you've got nothing. Or you've got something, but it’s stuck in your head, and you can't seem to get any of the words down the page. And all the while, the blank page just sits...
Do you consider yourself a writer? Do you feel comfortable calling yourself one now? One of the most common mental hang-ups I've seen in beginning writers is this reluctance to call themselves a writer... "yet." There's always some arbitrary benchmark they've set up...
Start a writing habit Why start a writing habit? What's the advantage of writing regularly rather than just when you feel like it? There are several big reasons. Build up your writing muscles The runner jogs every day to prepare for the big marathon, and daily...
There's a new NaNoWriMo guide coming out on August 27th specifically geared towards young writers. It's called Brave the Page by Rebecca Stern and National Novel Writing Month Executive Director Grant Faulkner and I was lucky enough to score an advanced copy. Regular...
Here's something exciting: The Fourth Orange and Other Fairy Tales You've Never Even Heard Of is finally ready to share with the world! This play has been 6 years in the making* and is without a doubt the most complicated thing I have ever attempted to write** but,...
This post is a sequel to my original post about Kanban for writers so you may want to start there. But, if not, here's a quick recap: What is Kanban? Kanban is a project management system that started in manufacturing in which projects are visualized by easily movable...
⚠️WARNING⚠️ You're reading an old post. Since I posted this, 4TheWords has added a desktop app that lets you count offline words in any program! You can see my full review of that free program here or go directly to the 4TW explainer site...
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
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