If you follow my work you know that I’m someone who collects writing advice and reads a lot of books on writing and productivity, but finding a truly revolutionary advice, the one that can shift your view in 180 degrees comes as often as Halley’s comet; some see it once in their life, some see it twice, and the unfortunate ones never see it. Yes, I’ve learned a lot from various sources but I‘ve often
As you might notice, I’ve been absent for almost a week. Yes, I spent time fixing my website and putting my novel back on retail sellers, but that wasn’t the main reason I haven’t blogged for 6 days. I was sorting out priorities. I already figured out that writing is a business. Listening to podcasts, I’ve learned that one can live a decent life while being an indie author, but only if one does everything
Several years ago, I overheard a line of conversation between a child and his grandpa. The boy was hurrying the old man, and he replied: “Slowness takes you far.” That sentence has been resonating ever since in my mind. Take for runners for example. Usain Bolt runs faster than any person has ever been able to. Compared to him, any ultra marathon runner is significantly slower but they go farther. It all goes back to
If you’ve read any book on writing and style development, you are familiar with the rule to avoid adverbs. As a novice writer, I’ve always wondered why is that the case, but the more experienced I became with editing the more clear it became. Let’s look at some examples which you might find in your first drafts. He went to the hospital quickly. The verb in this sentence represents an action; someone moved from one
If you wish to improve your writing, you need to be more patient. Writing is a complex process and it requires going through several stages from start to finish. We crave to bring our words into the world as promptly as viable. The desire for being heard burns in our insides and we type as rapidly as we can. As soon as we’re done with the first draft we’d like to hit the “publish” button.
The key to getting a job done is to treat your writing as a proper project. It’s not just sit down and write some words and everything will take care of by itself. You need to make a list of required mini tasks. Usually, it looks like this: Preparation: Get the idea Think of a character Figure out the character’s goal Think of a setting Think of an outer conflict Think of an inner conflict
This morning I’ve reached for one of my old stories and brought it back to existence. The readers in Serbia have appreciated it and a literary magazine published it three years ago. My intention was to translate it and distribute it to my English-speaking audience. According to my recollection, it was a solid, creepy, dark story, and I was hungry to work on it. Once I opened it, I realized that it’s a tremendous pile
Writers often brag with their refined vocabularies. Some of them swear that they never use a thesaurus or any alternative form of glossaries. According to some, applying these tools is a heresy and dishonor. Is applying tools, such as Grammarly or ProWritingAid unethical? Is it cheating or is it a clever exploit of tools and technology which can assist you to improve your writing? Yes, authors should use a reference book if they can’t pick
No, I’m not starting a podcast; yet. Honestly, I didn’t think positively about podcasts until recently. For me, it was like: WTF!? People are sitting in their rooms, talking to themselves and they expect someone to listen to that shit? But, let’s set my ignorant part aside for now. Somewhere during the last year, I discovered Seth Godin. I’ve started to listen to his audiobooks and to read his blogs, just to find out that
How often do you feel trapped and you wish to have more time to do the things you love? Perhaps you have a job, and you can’t wait for the weekend to come. Once the weekend is here, you are more relaxed and you know that you’ll have plenty of time for everything that you’ve planned to do. Two hours later, you catch yourself scrolling through your endless feeds and you feel guilty. Instead of