by Lynn Schmidt I went back to school to get my doctoral degree in mid-career. At the time I was working in corporate America as the director of leadership development. I kept seeing women in senior level positions come and go in executive roles quickly and I wondered why. BasedContinue 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
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
We like things to be clear. Unfortunately, they seldom are. In writing and in life, there are always gray areas. How should you market your book? It depends on the type of book, your audience, and the marketing tasks you enjoy. How should you structure your writing day? It dependsContinue Reading
My biggest challenge is lack of time. I am a writer who doesn’t want to start work on an aspect of a project unless I have a good couple of hours. It takes me time to reacquaint myself with where I was and my mindset. Sometimes, though, that becomes anContinue Reading
Here’s a question I’ve gotten from Writing and Wellness readers recently… How do I take a project from beginning to end without losing it somewhere in the middle? So how do we do that, exactly? Getting to “The End” Means Getting Through the Dreaded Middle I think most writers wouldContinue Reading
If they’re right when they say that sitting is the new smoking, although I’ve never had a cigarette in my life, I have a 2-pack a day habit! I spend way too much time sitting. It’s not a new problem. My 20+ years working in hi-tech also involved a lotContinue Reading
You know you’ve come to the culmination of your writing career when a client asks you to write about poop transplants. This happened to me a couple weeks ago. As a health writer, I’m often asked to write about the latest advances in medical science. These things usually interest me,Continue Reading
Jennifer was over the moon. Her book had been picked up by a publisher that she admired. She never thought she’d see one of her books with this publisher’s logo on the title page, but now it was going to happen. Finally, all her hard work had paid off! TwoContinue Reading
Facing my biggest physical challenge is what actually inspired me to become a writer. I have always identified as a creative person. A pianist with a music degree, I’ve also sewn, quilted, painted, refinished furniture . . . you name it. (Ask me about the three-foot balloon-and-paper-mâché kangaroo I madeContinue Reading
Do you find that even though you have a scheduled daily writing time, it’s often interrupted? Jennifer had the perfect situation for a while. She wrote while the kids were in school and her husband was at work, which worked out beautifully until summer break came. Then she was constantlyContinue Reading
We all know that negative self-talk can be destructive. Most of us are much meaner to ourselves than we ever would be to a friend. When a story is rejected we privately bash our own writing ability. When we fail to stick with our writing commitments, we bemoan our ownContinue Reading