“Write drunk. Edit sober.” Whether Ernest Hemingway ever said those words or not, there’s wisdom in that quote. It just doesn’t have anything to do...
How to Build an Author Platform from Scratch
Lynn McGinnis helps self-published authors build and grow their platforms, gain visibility, and reach their unique author marketing goals through...
The Lifelong Impact of a Book
Books change lives. This is the story of one book and how it changed my life. I was a 19-year-old Marine when I responded to an ad offering three...
3 Ways Keeping a Journal Will Help You Write Better
Call it a journal, a writer’s notebook, or an idea file. It doesn’t matter what you call it. Keep it on a computer, loose sheets of paper, or in a...
How to Get the Most from Your Writing Talent
In 1989, Daniel Chambliss wrote about the making of Olympic swimmers. He coined the phrase “The mundanity of excellence” to describe how the best...
Let your brain play!
Dog walking time. It’s good for me. It’s good for my dog, Toto. And it’s good for my brain. When you’re writing, you may be tempted to bear down and...
2 Simple Writing Momentum Hacks
My clients are what I call “semi-pro writers.” Writing isn’t their day job. Instead, they need to squeeze it into a calendar that’s already stuffed...
Enemies of Great Writing
Writing a book takes time, energy, focus, and sacrifice. You must also defeat or subdue the enemies of great writing. Here are five of them, along...
4 ½ Things You Don’t Need for a Productive Writing Session
If you’ve got plenty of time to write, this post is not for you. I’m not like that. My clients aren’t like that. We must squeeze our writing into...
Take a Little Time
It’s almost New Year's, one of those days that psychologists call “temporal landmarks.” Here’s how researchers from Wharton described New Year’s in...