Get the Support You Need
How do you get the support you need as a writer? Well, here’s how to know when it’s not the support you need.
Get the Support You Need: A Little Horror Story
When I was an acquisitions editor, I heard from an author who wanted to pull her book from publication because her friends had found a bunch of errors in the ARC (that’s the Advanced Reading Copy of a book, which is sent out to reviewers before the book is published).
Of course, I was concerned, as I had seen nothing but a handful of typos typical of an ARC and asked if the friends could provide further information about what they’d seen.
They couldn’t because it was just a joke—a little prank they were playing on the author, who was absolutely devastated by what they did.
This story still haunts me years later.
If you can’t be happy for your friend’s success, then just STFU.
If your friends can’t be happy for your success, and they can’t STFU, then you need new friends.
Tips for Editors & Writers
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World-Building Without Info-Dumping
World-building is often seen as the province of science fiction and fantasy writers who have to convey new-to-us settings and cultures, and occasionally by historical writers who have to convey the feel of an era that a reader may not know much about. But every story takes place somewhere. Even stories set in a contemporary…
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Avoiding Burnout as a Freelancer
“The road to success and the road to burnout are the same for too many people,” a friend mine, a leadership coach, recently said to me. This struck me as one of those truths that you have never articulated but feels so obvious once someone has said it to you. I’ve been thinking about burnout…
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Minimum Viable Tasks
If I want to give myself a break, normally I will take Friday afternoon off. But recently I took a Monday afternoon off and I loved it. I’m always very busy on Mondays but it occurred to me that I could reduce the stress of that day if I just focused on the main things…
