Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 172

Don’t Go Changin’

Do you sometimes change your work habits, or is it better to keep things consistent?

From Jim

Until my current work in progress, I always followed the same four-stage routine. Reasearch, outlining, writing, and revision.

1. Research.
I love the reasearch stage. It’s an opportunity to learn lots of new things about the era (early 1960s). But it also gives me new ideas for the plot. A good example is the weather in Los Angeles in February 1962. By chance, as I was researching newspaper stories for...

Whatever works

Do you sometimes change your work habits, or is it better to keep things consistent? 
by Dietrich
I write every day. I get up early and work until noon. That’s when my best stuff comes. In the afternoon, I like to go for long walks through the woods or along the ocean, five or six miles usually. The exercise and the connection with nature helps keep me sharp. 
When I complete a draft, I step back from it for a few days, sometimes switching to another project. So, while I do have daily...

A regime that goes with the flow

By RJ Harlick
Do you sometimes change your work habits, or is it better to keep things consistent?
As much as I hate to admit it, I’m into a writing routine. I know myself too well. If I didn’t follow a schedule, if I wrote when the writing muse struck, I would start all sorts of ‘the best ever’ projects, but would never finishing anything.
When I started out on this writing adventure a good twenty years ago, I was a management consultant who worked at home. I followed a daily schedule, heading...

The Best Laid Plans - by Brenda Chapman

Question: Do you sometimes change your work habits, or is it better to keep things consistent? 
An interviewer once asked Somerset Maughen if he kept a strict writing schedule or if he waited for the Muse to strike him before he sat down to compose, to which Maughen replied, “Oh, I wait for the Muse to strike. Fortunately, she strikes every morning at precisely nine o’clock.”



The prolific Stephen King also professes to a regimented writing schedule and has claimed to write 2000 words a day...

Sacrificing to the Gods of Writing

What obstacles, if any, did you encounter on your road to becoming a writer? And how did you overcome them?

by Paul D. Marks

Starting out to be a professional writer is scary. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome. Different ones for different people, though there are many that we all have in common. I’ve always done some type of writing of one kind or another, starting with poems and songs, non-fiction and then screenplays, writing for radio, short stories and novels. Each one had its own s...

Writing (but not a book).

Life - What obstacles, if any, did you encounter on your road to becoming a writer? And how did you overcome them?
By Catriona
This spring, my sister, niece and great-nephew came to visit and I dragged them to the railway museum in Sacramento. I always try to make guests go there; it's one of the best, most interesting, most well-conceived and executed specialised museums I've ever encountered. But a typical conversation goes like this:
Guest: What will we do today?Me: Let's go to the railway mu...

Life is like a... by Cathy Ace

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Learning to be a Writer

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Don't Compete. Play.

What advice would you offer a new writer wanting to get their first novel published in today’s highly competitive publishing environment?

I've been scarred by my use of other folks' wisdom in my life. For a kid who was raised to find good teachers and swear fealty to them, that produced a series of unbroken wondrous moments where I hard-earned a few nuggets, at least upside my head. It's why I'm pained to give advice, and even more confused about what it says about me once I do. What I can saf...

Do as I Say

Happy Thanksgiving!
What advice would you offer a new writer wanting to get their first novel published in today’s highly competitive publishing environment?

From Jim

I’ve just spent three long days moving into our new house in a new city. And there’s still lots more to do. Where did we get all this stuff? And weren’t there any houses available without stairs? Anyway, I’ve fallen far behind on everything else in life, including writing this blog piece. I’m tired and sore and looking forward to T...