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.

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.

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.

Some writers keep their pen names hidden from their children. From their parents. From their partners. They create an entire alternate identity for the version of themselves that writes, because they are not yet ready to let those two worlds collide. That is internal author conflict, and it is more common than most people want to admit.