CRITICISM IS GOOD FOR YOU
CRITIQUE & REVIEWSHey writer, do you know that criticism can be good for you? It’s actually true, and today I’m here to tell you why. “The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” – Norman Vincent Peale – In this…
MY SELF-PUBLISHING LESSONS
NEWS & UPDATES: I’ve sat down and attempted to write something like this multiple times now, and I thought my August 2022 update for As We Write would make an appropriate venue for my thoughtful musings and general reminiscing over the events of the past few years. For those of…
DID YOU SAY IMPOSTOR SYNDROME?
WRITERS WEDNESDAY: For someone who struggles with impostor syndrome, evidence to the contrary doesn’t matter. They may be a renowned author, selling millions of books, or winning literary prizes and still feel like they don’t deserve any of it. They may find themselves amassing...
THE WIDER CURRENCY OF CRITICISM
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS Hey writer, do you know that successful people tend to look at the wider currency of criticism? Instead of taking each review – whether positive or negative – too much to heart, they see it for what it is: Useful feedback to extract data from. And no, that…
CRITIQUE MAKES YOU STRONGER
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS Hey writer, do you believe that critique makes you stronger? Most of us could share quite a few stories about the criticism we’ve received in our days and the mark it left on our psyche. We all know it can leave us feeling weak, misunderstood, and vulnerable,…
DO YOU KNOW WHY IT HURTS?
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS Do you know why it hurts? Criticism stings, and it can sting even more for writers as it relates to something we made. Something that may be deeply personal, or that we feel very protective of. But then again, as Aristotle taught us: “Criticism is something you…
NOT ALL FEEDBACK IS VALID
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS Not all feedback is valid. I can’t stress this enough, so I’ll say it again: Not all feedback is valid! As I’ve mentioned before, people can’t help themselves. They just love to dish out criticism for all sorts of reasons, whether they know what they’re talking about…
WE ALL GET BAD REVIEWS
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS No love, you’re not alone - we all get bad reviews. Every single storyteller, every single creator, gets bad reviews. Granted, some get more than others, but generally speaking, we all get our confidences knocked down a peg or two every now and then. But it doesn’t…
JUST DON’T BE A DICK
CRITIQUE & REVIEWS Once upon a time I used to love reading the reviews in The Sunday Times. It was my most precious indulgence as a poor single mum living in the north of Sweden. I’d pick up the thick envelope from my newsagents on Wednesdays and put it aside…
A BOOK OF MY LIFE?
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 11 IT’S MY LIFE and, provided it was penned by a decent author, it would probably make for a rather fascinating read. Now, obviously, I don’t know what my future holds, but even if I were to die tomorrow there’s been enough drama, horror, action, romance, fantasy…
I WANT IT RAW AND KINKY
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 10 ICE CREAM FLAVOURS… Funnily enough, when it comes to ice cream I am very much a vanilla kinda girl. And the funny part of that whole equation is that I am so not vanilla and most certainly not a girl. Now, don’t get me wrong. Ice…
MY GREATEST FEAR
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 9 MY GREATEST fear… Now, isn’t that an interesting question to be faced with right now? If I were to be locked into a room with my greatest fear there are only two possible scenarios: 1) The room is full of snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies.…
A TEACHER I REMEMBER
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 8 THE TEACHER that had the most impact on my life? Hmm… I feel like I need to preface my answer to that question by saying I’ve had quite a few really good teachers in my life. Some of them were my teachers, some of them were…
HAVE YOU EVER FELT HELPLESS?
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 7 I’VE FELT pretty helpless ever since this blasted pandemic started. It has put my whole life on hold and cut me off from my family and friends. I realised quickly that I would need strategies in place to stop me from falling into the big, black…
THE MOST WE’VE BEEN APART
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 6 JONAH, YOU are my favourite person in the whole wide world! I can’t believe it’s been two years since we last cuddled up and told each other secrets. Or played games and laughed at how bad I was at playing LEGO The Hobbit. When you left to…
THE OPENING SENTENCE
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 6 DEATH ARRIVED by brewery truck/lorry (döden kom med ölbil). That’s the opening sentence in The Democratic Terrorist (Den demokratiske terroristen), Swedish author Jan Guillou’s second book in the series about secret agent Carl Hamilton. Code name Coq Rogue. It was adapted into a film in 1993, with…
PAIN IS TEMPORARY
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 4 MY FAVOURITE quote, that has become my motto in life, is: “Pain is temporary – losing is forever.” Pretty sure it’s from a ghastly film with snakes on a plane, but that’s not why it resonates with me. Living with chronic pain, I came so close…
#11 ON MY BUCKET LIST
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 3 THE 11th ITEM on my bucket list is actually something fitting for this blog. I want to get a rejection letter from a known publisher. Just one. I don’t have it in me to do the whole query trenches thing where you send your manuscripts out…
NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 2 THE ANSWER IS YES. New Year’s Resolutions are my thing. I’ve been writing mine in the (very) early morning hours on the first day of the year for as long as I can remember. And with one exception, I have kept them all. There have been…
WHERE I WANTED TO BE
DAILY WRITING PROMPTS 1 WELL LOOK AT THAT! This mammoth task started out a lot easier than I thought it would. Short answer: I spent the night at home in my bed. Same as I have for the last 700+ days thanks to this sodding pandemic and my unruly immune…
