The First and Best Writing Advice I Ever Received

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of... See more

How do we deal with failure? There are as many reasons to fear as there are personal hang-ups. Publishing a book or blog post exposes you to criticism like Starcraft at Bronze doesn't. Perhaps you're afraid of showing off your mistakes because you're a perfectionist. Or maybe you're afraid of being judged by others."Reasons don't matter" seems a bi... See more

"You won’t write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process, not a finished product. Nobody expects you to get it right the first time, or even the second time."

Before my first published novel, Something Missing, I wrote hundreds of thousands of terrible words. Pages upon pages of uninspired, unentertaining stories. I spent more than eight years writing bad fiction before finally stumbling upon a method and mindset that made fiction writing click for me. Had I not allowed myself to write poorly, I never wo

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