Dana Sitar's Blog, page 24

All That Matters is Who You Are Now

Stefan and I have both dated the people we used to be — he used to be the super-jealous boyfriend type, and I used to be the ultra-naggy wife type. But we’ve learned from those relationships about who we want to be with and what kind of people we want to be. Our relationship works [...]

3 Reasons Your Freelance Pitches Fail

From Dana: This is a guest post by Samantha Gray, who blogs advice for students and grads atBachelor’s Degree Online. She welcomes your comments or questions below or atsamanthagray024@gmail.com. For most struggling or beginning freelancers, writing well isn’t a problem. The problem we have is finding the work. If you want to make a living [...]

44 Things I loved on the internet in July

July was a whirlwind month, and August is only picking up speed. Which means that I’ve sorely neglected my Google reader for about five weeks! I’ve been traveling, running a mini book tour, and finishing a manuscript for a non-fiction ebook (details are coming soon!) In completing the manuscript, I’ve been scouring my favorite blogs [...]

Why do you write?

In this recent guest post to Jeff Goins’ blog, author Brandon Clements posed this simple question, Why do you write? To inspire? To critique, teach, or motivate? To remember (or forget)?For self-expression? Because you have a fire burning in your bones, and you simply must? “You want to touch your readers,” Clements wrote, and he [...]

The best way to help people understand what you do for a living

Has your grandma ever questioned why you just sit at home with your face in a computer all day? Has your eight-year-old nephew ever wondered why you couldn’t just “call in sick” to get a day off of work to hang out? Have you ever witnessed your parents trying to explain to friends and family [...]

The power of being present

On my recent trip to Utah, a vacation with Stefan’s family and son, we took a hike through the beautiful Capitol Reef, a few hours south of Salt Lake City. The whole family drove down for a night of camping and a day hike. I had never been hiking in the mountains like that, and I knew it would be an opportunity to experience an immense amount of beauty, enjoy the majesty of the mountains; as well as to hike and climb, get the kind of exercise and sunshine that make me feel good about myself,...

How exposing yourself can bring you closer to readers

Have you ever blogged a story straight out of your journal or diary?

Amidst all of the writing prompts and tips for free-writing that are supposed to encourage creativity and improve your skills, journaling seems like just a compulsive hobby and personal therapy. Maybe it is a little. But it’s also a great way to develop first drafts of stories you didn’t plan on writing.

I took over Arlee Bird’s memoir-writing blog Wrote by Rote this week to convince his readers of the merits of exposing yours...

How to write a bio that will dazzle your audience

Whether it appears on the back page of your books or the About page of your blog, a strong bio is vital to building your brand and your credibility as an artist in any field. It should answer these questions for your audience:

Who are you?


What do you do?


Why are you worth their time?


Where can they find you?

Author Allen Schatz welcomed me to his fiction writing blog yesterday to share these tips and more with his readers. He also re-wrote his bio according to my tips as an example:

Allen Schatz (...

Coming Soon! Summer Splash Blog Hop with ‘Indie Writers Unite’

Next week, I’m participating in my first blog hop! Over 80 authors of the Indie Writers Unite! Facebook group have come together to organize the Summer Splash Blog Hop July 23-31.

What is a blog hop?

The point of events like this is discover new writers and new blogs by teaming up and directing readers around the web to participating blogs. We also suck you in by offering TONS of prizes. A central website will be available soon with links to all of the participating blogs and how to enter to wi...

What does your blog’s name say about the path you’re on?

Happy late blogoversary to all of you awesome readers! Can you believe I missed it? Writers, you can understand — have you ever gone straight to your computer one random Tuesday morning to hammer out a few graphs of your WIP, only to have your sister call out of the blue to wish you Happy Birthday? It’s good that we have grounded people all around us to keep track of things like time when we can hardly stand to be bothered by it.

On July 1st we turned a year old as a blog community (and I as a...