Let me share something written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:

Now, before I go too far here, let me clear up something. I do own a publishing company. WMG Publishing publishes all of my work. (Eventually, anyway. I do publish some things in anthologies and other venues, sometimes first.) The team there does a huge amount of advertising, usually on a budget, and always effectively. They’re refocusing their efforts because we have a new Shopify store. They’re slowly getting our 1,000 titles on the site.

Note that 1000 titles at the bottom. That’s a thousand titles put out by Kris and her husband Dean Wesley Smith. A thousand titles by two authors. And that’s not even fast. (more…)

I had fears. Big fears. Soul-crushing fears.

Let me give you an example. In 2003, I was a semi-finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. I’d sent in my story (which, BTW, predicted Bluetooth headsets 15 years before they became a thing) after months of sleepless nights and fearing what would happen.

I finished in the top 10, but I didn’t win.

Every quarter, WotF receives some 4 000 entries. My story was in the top-10 of those entries. The top 0,25%. It was judged to be better than 99,75% of all stories submitted that quarter.

But I didn’t win. (more…)

Making plans to change, and New Year’s Eve resolutions, is easy. Making them stick, is not.

However, it is simple – once you understand the science behind habit forming. Here’s Kruzgesagt with a wonderful primer on becoming the best you you can be.

What attention to detail can do…

Also, all the family loves it!

And just because it’s awesome: the behind-the-mic version with 25 singers.

So you’re finally going to start writing that novel. But there is a problem. You don’t know how to craft the perfect first sentence.

But you’ve found a book that talks about this. That’s good. However, it’s going to be two week’s delivery. That’s bad.

But you’ve found it in a second hand shop two towns over. You can get it today. That’s good. Except that your car has summer tires, and it’s a bit snowy outside. That’s bad. (more…)

1. Stop making excuses and write.
2. Stop whining and write.
3. Stop fucking around and write.
4. I take my own advice.

Read: Nora Robert’s Here’s How I Work on Facebook

First: write.

That’s it. Write. You’ll need to learn a lot, but writing is a craft as much as an art – you’ll learn a ton by just writing.

Second: keep writing.

The most common “mistake” prospective writers do is giving up. Learning is difficult. It can be hard. There will be parts where you feel like everything you do is crap. It might even be crap. (more…)

Ever felt like you want to tell stories, but can’t? That you’re sitting down, starting something great, all those characters dancing in your mind, but two weeks and fourteen failed starts later, you have nothing to show for it?

Maybe you like the idea of writing, but you’re having trouble doing the work. Maybe you feel, or have heard, that writing is work, and it should feel like work, and you’re not liking that feeling.

Maybe it’s making you doubt whether you are a writer at all, or should be one, or should give it all up and try out for that competitive TV-watching team you’ve heard about.

No, you shouldn’t. Because you, and all those more-or-less well-meaning people on the internet, are looking at writing the wrong way. (more…)

There are times when you look at a book by your favorite writer and despair. That your writing stinks, and that you’ll never be that good. That there’s no point in continuing. You’ve been doing this for months, or years, or decades, and you’re still not good enough.

I feel you pain – but there’s an easy explanation. (more…)

I have, at the time of this writing, received 829 rejections.

I’ve also sold 59 stories, most of them to pro-paying magazines, with another 9 out on submission right now.

If you crunch the numbers, you’ll see that I’m getting a 93,4% rejection rate. Which is actually quite good.

Let me explain. (more…)