Productivity – The Productive Author

My Panels at SL Comic Con FanX 2016: Gaining Writer Resilience, Writing Tough Topics for YA, and Going Beyond Steampunk Goggles

A look at my author panels and featured titles during the FanX session of Comic Con in Salt Lake City.

Dictation: The Best Trick I’ve Found to Get Your NaNoWriMo 2016 Done!

I’m posting this well before National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but I know many of you are already thinking of it, and ramping up! National Novel Writing Month is just plain difficult. Here’s how I made it easier on myself, and maybe it will work for you, too. As mentioned, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel […]

by Cindy Grigg

The Productive Author’s Guide to Dictation

I have rebranded, retitled, redesigned, and republished a resource I completed at the end of 2014, detailing how dictation has revolutionized my fiction writing and blogging. I also use dictation for some non-fiction tasks, but I have found it better for creative thought than it is for assimilating or synthesizing. That said, I meet people […]

by Cindy Grigg

Using Pressure To One’s Advantage As a Writer

Since I’ve been fairly immersed in pressure this week, I focused on finding more ways to channel it. Here’s what I came up with. Financial Pressure – Rar! I had some writing and publishing expenses beyond my usual monthly investment. Unusual outlays of cash have always created dissonance for me as an artist, because I […]

by Cindy Grigg

Daring to Squirm as a Writer

Last night I was at a singles event where a relationship expert presented techniques on how to flirt. And then we were turned loose to flirt. – All introverts just shrieked in horror. – I know because I pick up the introvert frequency. While I’ve trained myself to be a fairly gutsy and outgoing lady, […]

by Cindy Grigg

My 100th Post! And Other Fiction Writing Updates Including Dictation

WordPress just heralded me for writing my 100th post on this blog… To celebrate, I am taking a quick break for the month of May as far as writing my usual Monday posts. Actually, I am doing this so I can focus on a few deadlines and such. In the interim, here are some past […]

by Cindy Grigg

Increasing Writerly Decisiveness

So much of the time, we wring our hands that we don’t know what to do about our problems, writing problems included. But fascinatingly, we do know what to do in many cases. We just don’t like the answers! I’m sometimes guilty of this. Maybe my options are not tidy or clear-cut, which makes me […]

by Cindy Grigg

Adventures in Extreme Novel Outlining

I began writing fiction as an interior decorator of rooms that were ill-designed. “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.” – Ernest Hemingway Specifically, my early stories feature quirks and atmosphere but lack something in orchestration and plot. In other words, I began this adventure as a die-hard pantser who resisted outlining and structuring. Over the past […]

by Cindy Grigg

Writing and Fiction Podcasts to Love

These days I prefer listening to my reading, as opposed to absorbing books, news, and articles with my eyes. I discovered this while pursuing my initiative to sit less and move more. We’ve probably all heard by now that sitting all day is terrible for us, and as writers we tend to sit plenty! To fight […]

by Cindy Grigg

A Few Stunning Quotes About Imagination

In my experience, imagination is an important part of mental and spiritual well-being. It’s also rather handy for writing fiction! Here are a few quotes about imagination that inspired me this week… I write fantasy because it’s there. I have no other excuse for sitting down for several hours a day indulging my imagination. Daydreaming. […]