Nancy Christie's Blog, page 3

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 27

Build Your Confidence.

Sometimes, all the gods are with us, the muses are lined up on either side of our desk, no one is bothering us—in short, conditions are perfect for writing.

And then it starts: our internal gremlin whispers: “You’ll never be a writer. Who do you think you are— another Shakespeare? JK Rowling? Stephen King?”

This is the evil spirit of self-doubt.

Part of what can trigger this is your actual writing process, beginning with second-guessing the quality of what you’re writing. ...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 26

Know Your Value.

Your writing ability has a value, both intrinsically and commercially.

Whether you write books or marketing copy, poetry, short stories or essays, your words can be a source of financial compensation as well as a method of building your writing brand.

But this requires you to take off your writing hat and put on your bookkeeper bonnet.

If you are investing time and money in your writing career, make sure that your decisions have a solid financial basis. Writing for corporate cli...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 25

Be Accessible.

I interview a lot of writers, authors and industry professionals on my blogs and podcast.

And nothing frustrates me more than when I search for specific people online and find either they don’t have a presence at all or what they have doesn’t offer any mode of contact.

Unless you are emulating Greta Garbo’s “I want to be alone” attitude from the movie Grand Hotel, you need to be accessible. Reachable. Available.

Now I’m not advocating posting your home address for all the world to...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 24

Increase Your Efficiency.

If you have multiple projects at various stages of completion on your schedule, you may get that sinking feeling that you’ll never be able to meet all the deadlines.

While project management software can help, my preference is to use a large whiteboard where I list the projects and deadlines.

Others may use a wall calendar, paper date book, or an online calendar with notifications to remind you of what’s coming up.

But whatever you use, you need to make a list, so not...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 23

Become Social Media Savvy.

Facebook. X. Instagram. Pinterest. LinkedIn. Bluesky. Threads. TikTok.

Each day there seems to be a new kid on the social media block vying for your time and attention.

Whether you like it or hate it, social media is there to stay. That means you must learn how to use it to connect with your readers, increase your platform and support your fellow writers.

While not a substitute for your own website, whether you’re an author or a freelancer looking for assignments, soci...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 22

Create a Writing Success Team.

Sometimes it can feel like you are working in isolation, with no one to share your work with and no one around to understand the joys and challenges of the writing life.

That’s when having a writing success team can make all the difference.

A good writing success team has three kinds of people:

The Encouragers—These are the people who keep your spirit up when you’re ready to throw in the towel after yet another rejection or a client project that went all sideways....

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 21

Take It a Step at a Time.

You’ve set your 2025 goal. This is going to be the year when you write your book. Or start your copywriting career. Or become a rock star on social media. Or build your writer platform.

You do your research, reading everything you can on the subject. But the more you research and read, the more overwhelmed you feel.

Or maybe it’s a client project or magazine assignment that you have committed to. But what seemed like a doable task when you took it on suddenly seems far ...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 20

Get Over the Guilt.

You want to write but…

You need to leave for work. Or the kids need help with their homework. Or the laundry needs washed. Or dinner needs prepared. Or a friend or family member wants to talk.

So, you push your writing aside, telling yourself, I’ll get to it later.

The trouble is, “later” never seems to come around. There’s always something else that needs attended to.

And, after all, you tell yourself, it’s not like I’m making any money at this. Or that I’ve been published. ...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 19

Call for Critiques

Beta readers can be one of your most valuable resources as a writer. Whether you seek them out through online resources or ask for help from members of your writers group, you will get the feedback you need to improve your work.

Once you’ve created your list of beta readers, be clear what you want from them.

On my Be a Beta Reader! page, I list some of the tasks beta readers can provide, from giving initial gut reactions on the piece to flagging those annoying clichés and repe...

31 Days of Rut-Busting Tips For Writers for 2025—Day 18

Nix the Negativity.

I once knew a writer who loved to write. but hated the writing business—every part of it.

He hated the idea of having to do any marketing.He hated the reality that pitching a book to agents or publishers would garner more rejections than acceptances.He hated the fact that copywriting projects frequently meant revising work to meet the expectations of clients.

And so ultimately he gave up on the whole writing life, blaming everyone and everything else instead of his own in...