Early mornings, late nights, a trillion words written, loud music, standing desks, and bananas – week 1 of the April challenge was a massive success. If you haven’t read my post about what I’m doing this month, check it out here. As a quick recap, I promised to: Write 90,000 words in April (3,000 a
We writers are stressed out, jumpy folks, don’t you think? Some of us can be downright irritable. We can be argumentative and contrarian. A lot of us aren’t very good in crowds. We get anxious a lot. That’s the stereotype, I know, so I apologize if any of you are different. I can just see
Write 90,000 Words. Step Up At The Gym. Quit Drinking (Temporarily). It’s time to make a change, and have some fun while doing it. Over the past few years I’ve been getting better and better at self-motivation, productivity, and juggling the multiple things I care about (friends and family, fitness, work, writing, etc.), but I
Divisive post, I know, especially to a group of people that (probably) mostly consists of night-owls. Here, I’ll post your reply for you: “Shut up, Dave, I work better at night. Don’t tell me how to live my life!” But I’m here to tell you that if you’re looking for an extra boost, that surge of productivity that’ll
It’s been cold in DC for the last few weeks. Not just chilly, but bone-biting, wind-driving, snow-piling cold. The bulk of people in the city have spent their time hiding indoors, layering like they live in the North Pole, and Ubering places they could easily have walked. I Ubered 4 blocks the other day. It was
What is it about a challenge that motivates us so much? Why is the pull of a one-week challenge so alluring? There is something a little magical, and a little scary, about setting a short-term goal for yourself and driving towards it with all the power you can muster. You see it in the fitness industry
A couple weeks ago, after a work trip to Montreal, I was going to write a blog post about how much I love working on planes – they’re actually one of my favorite places to write. I’d gotten through a couple of paragraph before I thought, “Hm, shouldn’t I wait to write this blog post
I’ve been working on my characters a lot lately. You know, those people who walk around your stories and never end up doing what you want them to? (And no, I don’t mean my character, though that could probably use some work too). Characters are fun to work with. It’s easy to think of them
One Sunday morning a few months ago I woke up with this story buzzing around in my head. On most mornings I wake up, take a shower, make a cup of coffee or grab breakfast, and spend some time just relaxing before I do anything remotely productive. Not on this Sunday, though. On this Sunday
Thanksgiving is for friends and family. It’s for eating turkey, and mashed potatoes, and mac & cheese and stuffing and pie for dessert. For loaded down tables and creaky chairs. For laughter and thankfulness and more hugs than you know what to do with. Thanksgiving is a day when we get to take a break,
