Barbara V Evers

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Dear Printer, I'm sorry, but we must break up. It's not working out. You keep holding out on me, making me change ink cartridges when your settings clearly indicate there's plenty of ink. Seriously! What are you doing with it? Selling it on the Black Ink Market? One thing for sure, you're not using it to print my pages. Thanks to you, I had to run around town on Tuesday to get work printed for Wednesday's client. AND, I might add, the printing looked so much better than yours. No streaks, no fades, no random lines. You're not even that old, but you're showing your age there! Even after I gave you an extended spa day with new alignment, cartridge cleaning, and advanced cartridge cleaning. You'd think you would feel fresh and new. Ready to tackle any simple print job. Of course, I got nothing else done that day...this blog post, for example. Did you really expect me to spend all day with you? Was it something...

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles Freedigitalphotos.net In our writing group, one of our members confessed she couldn't seem to move forward from rewriting the beginning of her manuscript. She was in rewrite mode all of the time. "How do you do finish writing a book?" was her question to the group as a whole. Our group loves to help others improve their writing and achieve their writing goals. As the feedback started, answers poured in. A few of the suggestions included: Set a timer and only write during that time Don't go back and revise the same pages after every critique group Write the whole manuscript first before trying to edit it Use what you've learned in the critique group to write the next pages instead of focusing on rewriting those pages again (you can do that after the first draft is done) Look over the last two pages you wrote, make small changes or notes about potential edits, and then start writing from that point Set aside a specif...

One of the best benefits of being part of a writing community is our ability to celebrate successes with each other. I had so much going on over the last few months that I never got around to sharing the news of my latest short story publication, "The Wall" published by moonShine review in late November. This story marks a first for me--they invited me to submit to this special 15 year anniversary issue! It feels so different writing a story that the editors hope will fit their needs. The invitation did not guarantee acceptance of my story, but it's great to be asked. I'll admit I struggled a bit with one part of this submission--they decided to choose a theme, something they've never done in the past. I'm ok with themes, but this one was politics. The exact phrasing in the invitation said: "...so we invite you to submit stories and photos about “politics”—whatever definition or connotation of that word is completely up to you. Be creative ...

Image courtesy of kahunaspix at freedigitalphotos.net The biggest challenges for writers are... Finding time to write Believing the praises and accolades from family and friends about their writing (as opposed to people who know the industry) Finishing what they start Staying off of the internet when they should be writing Knowing when to stop revising Submitting work before it's ready Believing if one contest/journal/agent/publisher didn't choose it, it's no good Being open to constructive feedback on how to make their writing better Knowing the unwritten rules of creative writing and when to break them Recognizing a publishing scam when they see it Thinking that if best-selling author X breaks the rules of writing, they can too Saying, "Some day I'm going to write a book," but never starting to write that book Avoiding writing conferences because their book isn't finished Thinking they don't need writing feedback on their work ...