Category Archives: Blog

The Key Insight

Some writers seem to have been born with an understanding of how to be productive. Here’s the super-prolific Joyce Carol Oates in her 1978 Paris Review interview: “One must be pitiless about this matter of “mood.” In a sense, the writer will create the mood. If art is, as I believe it to be, a genuinely [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

Perfectionism and Addiction

“This is all a giant procrastination and you must deal with it. You must.” – Words spoken to author and then-active alcoholic Caroline Knapp by her dying father, also an alcoholic (from Knapp’s book, Drinking: a Love Story) The link between perfectionism and addiction has been well documented, but I’ve come to believe that perfectionism plays [...]
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment

Links: How to Live to 100

Great Expectations: Today’s Babies are Likely to Live to 100, Doctors Predict “And people could be living not only longer, but better, according to doctors writing in the Lancet medical journal, who say that most evidence shows the under-85s are tending to remain more capable and mobile than before. They have more chronic illnesses, such as [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

On Turning 51, Optimistically

So this month I turn 51. (I thought it was 50, but my helpful sisters reminded me…so I’m sending the newsletter I would have sent last year. And, YES, I do regularly forget how old I am. Now back to our regularly scheduled newsletter.) The wonderful thing is, I’m not depressed at all. Sure, the [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

A Writer Without A Publisher Is Like A Fish Without a Bicycle: Writer’s Liberation and You

An excellent essay by bestelling author Jennifer Crusie on why publishing shouldn’t be the end-all to your writing efforts. She’s got a whole section of advice for writers here
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment

Authenticity Catalyzes Productivity!

The response to last month’s “confessional” newsletter was amazing – a real outpouring of support. Thank you all so much. Here’s one thought-provoking comment I received: What is it to be professional? When we spend so much of our time working, is it fair to be asked to hide/divorce/suppress big pieces of ourselves that are considered [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

Speed as an Antidote to Writer’s Block

Greed may not be good, but speed sure is. It was only when I got into this line of work that I understood the meaning of the axiom “he who hesitates is lost.” Procrastination – the fear-based inner force that wants you not to complete your projects – will latch onto any feelings of uncertainty [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

Links: J.K. Rowling, Alice Sebold and more

From Sept. 09 Newsletter – sign up at left. Living With the Dead A haunting tribute to the victims of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina by Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones. My original clipping, now yellowing, is the only thing posted on my refrigerator door other than family photos. JK Rowling Harvard Commencement address, The Fringe [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

A Confession

(from Sept 09 Newsletter – sign up at left) Dear Friends, I have a confession – I haven’t sent out as many newsletters as I should. Bad form for a business person, and especially bad form for a business coach! I’ve been rationalizing by telling myself that a seasonal newsletter is fine, but that’s really not true: [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment

Special Offer! Workshop video and audio for $35

Purchase streamable / downloadable videos of my two workshops: Time Management and Overcoming Procrastination, Perfectionism and Blocks to Success for only $35, or purchase a DVD for $40. That’s 3+ hours of video, plus you will also get MP3 audio files of both workshops. To get the videos/audios, PayPal $35 (or $40, for a DVD) to [...]
Posted in Blog | Leave a comment