Goal Setting

Read more about the article [Podcast] Kobo Writing Life Podcast: #344 – Committing to Your Writing Practice with Jessie Kwak

[Podcast] Kobo Writing Life Podcast: #344 – Committing to Your Writing Practice with Jessie Kwak

I recently had the pleasure of joining the Kobo Writing Life Podcast to chat about all things writing and publishing! As an author of over fifteen books, including series like The Nanshe Chronicles and The Bulari Saga, as well as standalone thrillers such as From Earth and Bone, my expansive career has touched on many aspects of the publishing world, and I had lots of amazing advice and insights to share. During our conversation, we covered a wide range of topics, including ghostwriting, writing sci-fi and paranormal thrillers, and time management as an author. I also shared what inspired me…

Read more about the article A look back, a look ahead

A look back, a look ahead

I've been thinking a lot about work these past few months. It's in the zeitgeist, as we collectively as a society realize we can't keep hustling at 125% day in and day out while the world goes up in flames around us and we pretend everything's fine. It's on the minds of several of my ghostwriting clients, who are coaching their own clients through burnout and trying to find meaning in their lives. And it's been on my mind as I juggle writing thoughtful posts about burnout for said clients — while kickstarting From Big Idea to Book, racing up…

Read more about the article What I Learned in my 7th Year as a Freelance Writer

What I Learned in my 7th Year as a Freelance Writer

Photo by Carl Cerstrand on Unsplash Seven years ago this week, I was snowed in, stir crazy, and fighting off the certainty that I'd just made a huge mistake. And now — sans snow — I'm struggling with that fear again. (But more on the changes afoot here in a minute.) That snowy January seven years ago, my husband and I had just moved to Portland, OR. I'd worked my last shift at the Elysian Brewing Company, said goodbye to all our friends, and hung my shingle as a full time freelance copywriter. I was terrified. One year earlier, I'd worked…

Read more about the article What I Learned in my 6th Year as a Freelance Writer

What I Learned in my 6th Year as a Freelance Writer

(Welcome to my annual post about what I learned as a freelance writer this year!) Six years! Six years of working full time as a freelance writer, folks. I can barely believe it — it doesn't seem like that long ago I was trying to figure out how to even find a client. Lately when I'm feeling frustrated with life, my husband likes to remind me that I literally made my own job, and have been doing it successfully for longer than I've worked anywhere else. And I'm like, right. That is pretty badass. I'm saying that not to brag.…

Read more about the article Stop Self-Sabotage: Dreaming Big in Small Ways

Stop Self-Sabotage: Dreaming Big in Small Ways

(This post about dreaming big is part of my weekly Monday Morning Blast-Off email series. To get emails like this in your inbox every Monday morning, head here.) Happy Monday! Every week, I send out the Monday Morning Blast Off email to a really cool group of folks who want to boost their creative productivity. Last week I asked people to tell me what some of their shoot-for-the-moon dreams were, and I got some really lovely responses — everything from having a quiet writing retreat to being a radical agent of change in the last years before retirement. My point was that…

Read more about the article Kick Analysis Paralysis to the Curb

Kick Analysis Paralysis to the Curb

I’ve struggled with analysis paralysis for years. Should I be cold calling new clients, or working on my novel? Should I be blogging, or working on my book launch? Should I be pitching guest posts to sites my clients read, or pitching my novel to review bloggers? It was excruciating! No matter what I was doing, I felt like I should be doing something else. Plus, at any given point I had a half-dozen creative projects I was halfway working on. I was totally overwhelmed. (Sound familiar?) But over the past few months, I've discovered an easy(er) way to help…

Read more about the article What I Learned in My Third Year of Freelance Writing

What I Learned in My Third Year of Freelance Writing

Welcome to my annual review post, where I'm taking a look back at 2016 to see how I make a living writing. Read about Year 2 (2015) and Year 1 (2014). It's hard to believe I just finished up my third full year as a freelance writer. Every year has been a little different — and every year has gotten me that much closer to where I want to be in my business and life. I like doing these end of year posts — in part because they help tie a nice, tidy ribbon around the year, and in part because they…

Read more about the article Hit Your Writing Goals by Setting Smarter Quotas

Hit Your Writing Goals by Setting Smarter Quotas

Yesterday I wrote 3,300 fiction words in one day. This isn’t usual for me — even when I’m on a pretty good writing streak. This especially isn’t usual for me lately — after all, I’ve been in a 2-month-long fiction slump. (Need proof? I wrote 2,650 fiction words in the entire month of October.) Part of that has been busyness (I had my biggest freelancing month ever in November). Part of that was burnout (I finished up a massive revision of a fantasy novel in September). Part of that was the stress of the current political climate (ugh). But a…

Read more about the article What I did (kind of) on my personal retreat vacation

What I did (kind of) on my personal retreat vacation

Well, I promised that I would report back after this weekend's personal retreat to let you know how it went. The short answer? Not as planned. After one day, my retreat was cut short due to an emergency. It’s all perfectly fine now — don’t worry — but I didn't have the uninterrupted days of relaxation, planning, and work that I'd hoped for. That's disappointing, of course, but it's also life. It doesn’t matter how much you plan — in the end you still have to roll with the punches. I'll admit, I started writing this post with a bad…

Read more about the article Planning a Personal Retreat for Creativity and Career
Photo by Vladimir Kudinov via Unsplash.

Planning a Personal Retreat for Creativity and Career

I'm one of those people love fall. I mean, don't get me wrong – summer is great. I love the whole sunshine and being warm thing. But there's also something about summer that can be, well, exhausting. When the sun’s out, I feel compelled to take advantage of every gorgeous second. It's hard to hunker down and work when people are inviting you out for bike rides, and hikes, and early afternoon happy hours on sunshiny patios. Who wants to stay home for the weekend when you could go camping or out to the Oregon coast to get rained on?…