Less is More! — This is one of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever been given. I was at my first science fiction convention. It was at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool in 1997. Chris Priest had advised me to go. He said these Easter conventions were great for meeting people. And…

Getting back with an old flame — After many trials, as documented in previous posts, I decided to abandon plain text. Perhaps I was throwing my toys out of the pram, but ironically, the simplest of document formats was causing me complicated issues. Or perhaps it wasn’t the document type, but how to use it. How I…

Someone asked me a question recently: Do I have to write morning pages as soon as I get up in the morning? Or can I have breakfast or something like that before doing it? My view is the longer you leave it, the less likely it is that you’re going…

Writing’s hard, but your message is just as valuable and valid as anybody else’s. That blank page is the start of a journey. And if you’re writing a novel, or even a short story or script, that journey can be a long one. So we need to know where we’re…

You, as a writer, need certain tools. I’m going to share several golden nuggets with you that I’ve gleaned over the course of my career as a professional writer and editor. We’ll cover physical and emotional things, some practical techniques, and there’s at least one absolutely, must-have, non-negotiable essential. 1. Resilience So…

We all want to achieve things. Success in a career. A relationship. A nice car or an apartment, something like that. But often we’re afraid to set those kind of goals because we’re scared of failure. If we don’t have a goal, we can’t fail to reach it. But how…

Writer, beware! — Writing morning pages is very popular. Many people get a lot from it, me included. There are lots of videos and articles about morning pages, and they are overwhelmingly positive. But there is something you need to be aware of when writing morning pages to help maintain good mental health. …

I thought I’d got it all worked out — then the perfect plain text app took me by surprise! — In my last article, I explained how my desire for a plain text workflow that’s as simple and lean and efficient as plain text itself was making things complicated. Or at least, my overthinking was making things complicated. I thought I’d found a solution. …

HELP! My graceful, plain text ballet is an elephant in a tutu! — I like simple, robust tools. That’s probably why I’m a plain text geek. I love the light, lean efficient nature of plain text. I’ve been reading Ellane W’s articles on this subject with interest. Maybe I’m a bit old school. Perhaps it’s because I’m a child of the 1970s and…