by Michael Mahin | Blog, Children's Writing, Creativity, Picture Books, Story Development, The Writing Process, Writing Advice, Writing Exercises, Writing Tips
Plotter? Panster? Planster? When I first started writing, I was really obsessed with getting it right. I thought there was a right way and a wrong way to write. So I spent a lot of time reading about how the best writers do it. And it turns out, they do it in as many... 
by Michael Mahin | Blog, Creativity, Story Development, The Writing Process, Writing Advice, Writing Exercises, Writing Tips
If you’re like me, you love writing. And…you hate it. Sometimes at the same time. We writers are full of contradictions when it comes to writing. We savor our alone time, yet we want to be loved by our peers. We want to create art, yet we want to be on the bestseller... 
by Michael Mahin | Blog, Creativity, The Writing Process, Voice, Writers on Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Exercises, Writing Tips
Like most of us, Ray Bradbury was a lover of stories. Dime novels, comic books, anything with words. But as he wrote in his classic memoir on the craft of writing, Zen in the Art of Writing, this love of stories made it hard for him to find his own writing voice: “I... 
by Michael Mahin | Blog, Book Reviews, Creativity, The Writing Process, Writers on Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Tips
REVIEW: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield (Black Irish Books, 2012). Resistance is the name that best-selling author Steven Pressfield gives to writer’s block and those things, both internal and... 
by Michael Mahin | The Writing Process, Writers on Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Tips
Okay! I said I’d post my own goals for the coming months and here they are! Remember, these goals serve the overall “vision” statement I made in my previous post. If you haven’t read that post, you should. It explores novelist and writing teacher James Scott Bell’s...
