It may seem a little distracting to be an independent writer, but the perks of self-publishing are that you are the one who gets to choose who is in your writing space. So today, I’m introducing you to mine.

Researching is one of the Stages of The Writer’s LifeCycle that writers often dread the most. It doesn’t have the freedom of brainstorming, and it doesn’t feel like real writing at all. It’s easy to put off, easy to tell yourself you’ll get to it later, and easy to avoid because it means facing your competition and wondering if you measure up.

Every morning, I wake up with a brand-new idea that I want to use, and I have to write it down. In this blog, I share a few methods I use and invite you to try one of them out this summer.

The Writer’s LifeCycle is my personal framework for the entire self-publishing journey, giving a specific name and place to every stage a writer goes through. From the first idea all the way to running your book like a business.

Removing Distractions & Unlocking Your Speed If you seem to get distracted by the words on the screen as you write, this one is for you. WHAT IS THE BLIND TYPING TECHNIQUE? If you find yourself constantly staring at a screen, fixing typos, and overthinking your writing, you are killing your momentum. I know this firsthand because I used to do it constantly. In my experience, the visual feedback of a monitor acts as a distraction loop. When you see the words appear, your brain

This blog will help you map out your nonfiction topics and lock down your fiction beats, so you can stop taking one step forward and three steps back.

Word count is one of those things that sounds like a technicality until you realize how much it affects your book. Whether you write nonfiction or fiction, understanding the range for your genre is one of the first things you can do to set yourself up for success.

In a world gone digital, social media is inescapable no matter who you are or what your profession. The internet has consequently become a powerful tool for entrepreneurs everywhere, and writers are no exception to this consistent upward trend, using social media for book promotion, growing their brand, and reaching a targeted audience.

When we write without a filter, our minds naturally move faster than our fingers. We scramble to capture every single idea, ending up with a manuscript where only twenty percent of the content belongs on the page. The remaining eighty percent is information fluff, repetitive loops, and side-tangents that stall the momentum of our book.

Before you choose fonts, select a color palette, or search for images, there is one question that should guide every decision you make about your cover: Is this appropriate for my genre, subgenre, audience, and brand?

Getting your book to the point where it is ready for publication can feel overwhelming, especially when you do not fully understand the process. And I know that feeling firsthand. While I was working with Beth and her team on my own book, I spent weeks reviewing my manuscript’s interior layout, marking up every place I thought needed adjusting.

With spring in full bloom and summer rapidly approaching, the weather is heating up. Luckily, there’s one way to ride the heatwaves of the seasons and make the best out of them: a good book (or two) in your armour for maximum enjoyment. And with this year’s trends in fiction and nonfiction, escapism has never been hotter.

Research is how writers gather the information they need before they begin drafting. It helps you build confidence in your details, stay accurate, and shape your ideas into something clear and usable.

If you have ever written a memoir, or a collection of stories from your own life, and would like to imagine and set your raw lived experiences into a story, then this blog will set you up on where to go.

This two-part series will walk you through the foundations of writing your memoir, from understanding the craft to setting up your workspace and tools. Part Two will explore how you can take memoir material and transform it into historical fiction. Whether you have been journaling for years or have never written a full page about yourself, I hope this blog series will help guide you.

How to Hook Your Reader and Never Let Go Have you ever watched a movie or a show and, in the middle of a scene, felt it hit you in a way you weren’t expecting? You might have felt chills move from your arms down your spine, or found yourself frozen in place, completely focused on what was unfolding. In those moments, you are no longer aware of your surroundings. You are inside the experience. Reading can create that same effect. You may come across a line that feels so close

Most writers have at least one person they trust with their work. I trust my writing to no one else like I trust my son. But if you are being honest with yourself, maybe you do not even have that. Maybe the only reader your work has ever had is you.

Inspiration can come at any time of the day or night (if you’re like me, a night owl). You might be washing dishes or going through your routine, and get inspired by something so simple. The point is, when inspiration hits, you need somewhere to put it. And that somewhere needs to make sense.

It is almost Easter. And while the kids are out in the yard hunting for plastic eggs filled with candy, I want to talk to you about a different kind of egg hunt. One where the stakes are a little higher than what is inside a bright or pastel-colored shell.

If you are a self-publishing author managing your own timeline and your own career, you are running a business. And businesses that do not track their time do not last long. The most common problem I see is not a lack of motivation. It is imbalance. Writers spend enormous amounts of time in the early stages of a project, brainstorming, drafting, revising, and almost no time at all on the stages that matter just as much on the back end: editing, formatting, marketing, and adve