TakingDictation
The Best “Extra” Thing to Study as a Writer
If you get to know me a little, you quickly learn that most of my free time (if I have five minutes) is spent within psychology. This is both informal (e.g., YouTube videos from licensed...
Why Creating a Simple Spreadsheet Helps With Platform Building
Especially now, success as a writer unfortunately isn’t about the quality of your work — it’s about being able to prove to a publisher that they’ll get sales and a good ROI. That’s why there’s...
Why Collaboration Can Be Dangerous for Writers (and How to Do It Well)
People traditionally see writing as a “lonely” art where we put words to the page by ourselves in a corner somewhere, but many authors work together all the time — we use collaboration just like...
Who You Are and How You Write
Who are you? It's the kind of question you'd expect more at a therapy appointment than a writer's conference or webinar. But your sense of self invariably connects to what and how you express on...
What Is an “Author Platform?”
What's a book (or other writing) without an author platform? What even IS an author platform? 🤔🤔🤔 We tend to think of author platform in terms of social media and followers. That's PART of it....
About Your Reader Count…
Writers, we need to talk about your reader count. We all want to measure that. It's a lot like social media, where lots of followers implies you're resonating with people. But it's also a perception...
Your 5-Point Guide to Better Dialogue
I don't read a ton of fiction these days -- I've been leaning into more nonfiction, simply because it helps me learn and reassures me that others are diving intelligently into all sorts of topics....
“Show, Don’t Tell”: The Big Picture Function
"Show, don't tell." It's one of the most widely repeated pieces of author advice out there. The goal is to bring the reader into the character's world and immerse them in it. stokpic from Pixabay Most writers...
4 Tips for a Stronger Sponsor Read or Ad Copy
I hear tons of ads and sponsor reads every day, often on places like MPR and YouTube. And if you're like me, you might have noticed something: Everything. Sounds. Alike. KitLittle from Pixabay As I explain in...
Recent Posts
- When Is a Writers Conference Worth It? April 9, 2026
- Will Publishers Reject Long Books? March 27, 2026
- Write When You Mean It March 13, 2026
- Why You Need to Schedule Time to Do Nothing on Your Book February 27, 2026
- Why I Can’t Support (Most) Writing NDAs Anymore February 13, 2026
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