Last week I started blogging about the reasons I write. These reasons aren't in any particular order; I'm simply blogging about them as they occur to me. I blogged first about writing because I can . Today I'm blogging about another reason. I write because I should. I should write because I often write about abuse. I believe writing about abuse will help someone else who is going through abuse. I know abuse well and I know the tactics abusers try. I love teaching others what to look for and helping them recognize abuse and also helping them recover from abusive relationships. Not everyone is happy when I write about abuse. I get plenty of arguments and warnings in my inbox and they leads me to question myself. When I question myself on writing about abuse, I always come back to two things: What if I write it and it makes a difference in one person's life? What if I don't write it and miss an opportunity to make a difference in one person's life? ...

I saw a post on another writing blog today which totally inspired me to write about reasons I write. The post I saw, here , was a Facebook post by The Writer's Circle and it said, "Why I Write #85 Because creating something that didn't exist before is as close to magic as I'll ever get." I love that! I also love to write but have never actually written out my reasons for writing. So, I decided to start a blog series on why I write. I suspect some reasons will need more explanation than others. These reasons aren't in any particular order, I'm simply listing them as I think of and realize them. Why I write #1: I write because I can. Growing up in an abusive home where I did not have many choices, writing was a choice I could make that no one could stop. If home wasn't conducive to writing, school was. If neither home nor school worked, my hollow tree down by the creek did. When the field was snow covered and the tree was unreachable, the hay...

Bloggers! STOP right there! Do not publish your next blog post without having it edited ! Over the past few months, I've noticed some blatant errors in some blogs I read. Those errors include: A February blog post from a direct seller which featured and highlighted January's specials. Too many run-on sentences to list. Too many uses of the same adjective: This is a gorgeous set that will add a gorgeous touch to your already gorgeous home. That and that and that and that and that.....using that too many times. "That" can be eliminated 99% of the time. A sentence like this: "You could of used one of these organizers..." which should read,  "You could have used one of these organizers..."  The list could go on, but you get the idea. Don't let this happen to your blog or newsletter! Hire an editor before publishing that next blog post or sending your next newsletter. Fiverr is a great place to start. W...

I didn't mean to take a break from this blog, it just happened because we were moving, I developed frozen shoulder, life got too hectic and I couldn't focus. I'm not sure I'm focusing any better than I was, but when I realized I had not posted anything on my writer's blog since Jan 2, I felt a bit of panic. I write nearly every day, regardless of what I post. My personal blog about how my theology shapes my everyday decisions, The Priscilla Principle Blog , has been more active than this writing blog. If you click on that blog link, you'll find there no pictures to represent the content of the blog. I was recently warned about using Google images for blogging and advised not to. I had just started doing that, and had used a Google image for that post, but I took the picture down. Apparently, a blogger was sued and had to pay over $5,000 for using a Google image. Ok. Lesson learned - from them. I will use my own photography or stock photos I've eith...

Happy New Year! It's always exciting to begin a new year. With the anticipation of all that 2016 can hold for you, make this the year you finally write that novel, memoir, short story, poem or e-book. This is your year to get published and I wrote a book designed to help you do just that. Writing for Publication is now available in paperback, in addition to the e-book. Writing for Publication is a simple, easy-to-read, comprehensive handbook on how to write for publication. In it, you'll learn why you shouldn't write the same way you talk, how to keep your audience in mind while writing, why grammar is so important and much, much more. My writing style is to the point with no frills. Just the facts. Just the plan. Just the way you like it. My students get published. As a personal writing coach, I've helped an 87-year-old great grandmother get published for the first time. I coached a 14-year-old girl who won the school writing contest she entered. I coach...

There's no reason you can't be the next wildly successful writer and my new e-book will show you how. I'm pretty excited about this new e-book and I hope you'll share my excitement by getting your copy now for the introductory price. Writing for Publication has been a long time coming in e-book form. I had published a shorter writing book, Write, then Publish. Today , but this new, revised version is the complete course, revised and updated just in time for the new year. This comprehensive course is an easy-to-read, to-the-point handbook for writers of all genres and all levels. As a private writing coach, I use these step-by-step methods in my coaching....and my students get published. From an 87-year-old great grandmother who wrote her first article in longhand on the back of a store ad, to a 14-year-old girl who wanted to enter a school writing contest, my students get published and win awards. I've coached pastors who wanted to be published in religious...

This half-hour long video of Taylor Swift meeting with some young kids discussing reading and writing is filled with sound advice for any writer of any genre. Taylor partnered with Scholastic to provide 25,000 new books for NYC schools. Taylor then donated her time to do this webcast with these great kids. This webcast is worth every minute of it's short 30-minute length and I highly suggest all writers listen to and watch the video .  A few of my favorite quotes from the webcast are: "Journaling is what made me discover that I loved poetry and poetry is so close to song writing in concept." "Writing your feelings down simplifies them." "If you make writing something you look forward to, who knows where it will take you?  Who knows if you'll start to think about story lines and you'll decide that you want to write a book someday?" "There are so many things you can discover about yourself if you write." ...