About Writing

Writing 1,000,000 Words

by Shawn September 3, 2011

In moments of frustration I come back to one word: Process.

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Confessions, After Twenty Months of Making My Living as a Writer

by Shawn August 25, 2011

Twenty months have passed since Maile and I came to the conclusion that I should write for a living. Some days I wake up with this almost paralyzing fear that the day will come when our finances will dictate that I cannot do this anymore – other days I’m scared that I might HAVE to [...]

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Writers: Respect Your Readers (or, Seven Ways to Improve Your Style)

by Shawn August 24, 2011

Many times we forget, as writers, that it is our responsibility to learn more about the craft. Too many times we fall into the trap of believing that the only way to improve our writing is to just keep writing. The good stuff is somewhere inside of me, we often think. It will come out [...]

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How Do You Decide What to Write?

by Shawn August 16, 2011

Anything we read for pleasure we read because it interests us. One would think, since this is so, that the first question any young writer would ask himself, when he’s trying to decide what to write, would be “What can I think of that’s interesting?” Oddly enough, that is not a very usual first question; [...]

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Five Writing Lessons I Learned From Butchering Chickens

by Shawn August 15, 2011

Last week I did something I never thought I’d do: with some help from our Amish friend Rebecca, I butchered five of our chickens. The whole time I was thinking about ways that butchering chickens is like writing – sounds strange, I know. Here are a few of them:

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When Your Dream Requires Waiting…and a Teeter Totter

by Shawn August 5, 2011

Andi is a good friend of mine from college who, just a few weeks ago, was gracious enough to give my family a tour of the estate of which her father has been the caretaker for many, many years. She is a fabulous writer working on a project that I think has huge potential to [...]

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Three Things to do After a Bad Day at the (Writing) Office

by Shawn August 4, 2011

Ever have days where you feel like everything you’ve ever written is terrible or (even worse) simply average? John Steinbeck did. Referring to a writing session during the creation of East of Eden, he wrote: “It is just no good and I am going to throw it away.

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