...and take on the StoryADay Challenge. In this week's podcast I ask: What if the thing standing between you and writing success is your unwillingness to risk looking a little foolish? In this episode I make the case for embracing your inner fool. And, since I take metaphors seriously, I donned the greasepaint and grabbed my juggling balls, to illustrate the point! (You're welcome.) Watch on YouTube | Listen to the Audio Underneath all the silliness, there's a serious point: writing...

You know that moment when you’re reading submission guidelines for your latest story and run into the phrase ‘standard manuscript format’? It’s one of the tiny obstacles that can derail your efforts to submit more stories. So I made a video training that shows you exactly what ‘standard manuscript format’ means, what editors expect to see, and how to set it up in Word or Google docs. I also included ‘power user’ tips on how to fix some of those annoying formatting habits that creep in (either...

The other day I sent a survey asking what you love about writing a story. I wish I could share all the answers with you because the fierce passion that poured out of my monitor was genuinely thrilling. You people are alive with joy for the process of creating something that simply didn’t exist before you sat down to write. You are more in touch than anyone else I’ve met, with the deep satisfaction and pride that comes when you can point at a story and say, "That? Yeah, I did that." Many of...