Many times I question myself about why am I doing this because it is a hard business. I don’t ever have writers block because there are so many things to write about that I feel like my brain is working overtime. Many times I will be working on a new ideaContinue Reading
My career has been as a professor of Art History at universities in the U.S. and Italy. I have a Ph.D. in Renaissance and Classics. I’m also a lecturer at various museums. As a scholar, my writing experiences centered mostly on dry, academic articles about abstruse themes. There is noContinue Reading
Writing is hard work. There is no way around it. As much as I love to write, most of the time it’s a struggle to wrestle the ideas out of my brain and onto the page. Your Writing Must Ring True When I’m into a project, my biggest emotional challengeContinue Reading
Writing is a solitary process, ideal for introverts, yet there are few actions more extroverted than baring your soul in a novel and sharing it with the world. I wrote for decades, scribbling into notebooks alone in my room often at odd hours of the night, before making the slightestContinue Reading
My biggest, perhaps only, emotional challenge as a writer is motivation/self-discipline/time management. After I transitioned from traditional to self-publishing a few years ago, one of the many benefits was that I set my own deadlines. For my personality type (Ooh, shiny!) this is also the bad news. There are soContinue Reading
I’d say separating self from product is the biggest challenge. We put so much time, energy, and love into our books, so we tend to take criticisms of our work personally. I can have hundreds of positive reviews, and if I get one bad one, it’s a little soul crushing.Continue Reading
Writers face many challenges, including rejection of their work on the path to publication. I wrote four full-length manuscripts before securing a contract, and, even though it was part of the process, each rejection stung. Still, I used the feedback I received to make my writing better, even little tipsContinue Reading
My biggest emotional challenge as a writer has undoubtedly been fear of judgement. In so many ways, I insulate myself from the scrutiny of others. I put up personal walls on which graffiti might read—I don’t care what other people think. But, that’s not always true. While I do myContinue Reading
Rejection is a soul-killer that naturally leads to depression, anxiety, self-doubt, isolation, and just plain wanting to give up and crawl in a hole. You’ve heard the term, “Your own worst critic?” That’s me. I brood and simmer and stew for a couple of days, but eventually I pick myselfContinue Reading
The key to my creativity is cultivating a positive and active brain. If I let in too much negativity (from social media, the news, and other people), I lose my creative energy. Likewise, if my brain is sluggish (from poor health, poor eating, or poor sleep), I’m incapable of creativity.Continue Reading
Completing my first crime fiction trilogy, the Tom Stone Detective Stories, has been a challenge and reward that follows decades of writing in different forms and working despite years of chaos based on the family that my wife and I chose to raise. We became foster parents to our fourContinue Reading
Writing, like growing old, isn’t for wimps. There’s always a new challenge, the next deadline, yet another hurdle to jump over. My most difficult challenge as a writer came early in my career. I Lost Control of a World I’d Created, and I Wasn’t Laughing It was an October morning,Continue Reading