One persistent piece of writing advice is to write every day. There are a number of reasons for this that make a lot of sense. Then again, a related persistent piece of advice is that if you do this, you’ll eventually run out of writing ideas.  Many people think that writing everyday will lead to…

There are an infinite number of ideas floating around in the universe, from truly terrible ones to those that could change the world. But, how do you know if your idea is one of the latter? Sadly, plenty of perfectly good ideas never come to fruition. So, how do you recognize what makes a beautiful…

It might surprise you to learn I abandon my writer’s notebooks every so often. Whenever life gets too confusing, I ditch those sacred, spiral-bound graveyards of half-baked epiphanies that seemed genius at 3 AM but read regrettably pedestrian in daylight. But these days, I cling to those pages, primarily digital these days for many reasons,…

Upon reading through many of my older essays, I often pause and ponder over the myriad questions it might raise for the reader. Sometimes, I’m not entirely sure what question I was trying to answer to begin with, leaving myself with more questions than answers. So, when I go to rewrite older content and freshen…

At times, I get this nagging thought which puts a damper on me writing anything new. I find myself pondering the question: haven’t I written enough?  Whenever I find my creative process stalling, I find myself also asking, “Don’t I already have enough content that I could just reimagine, rehash, and regurgitate forever?” Have you…

The hardest part of writing is knowing what not to write. Writing is often as much about what you leave out as what you include. It’s much like sculpting; as a sculptor removes pieces of marble to reveal the form within, a writer discards words to uncover the true essence of their message. When you…

As someone who has written on thousands of subjects in many different niches over the years, I’ve amassed quite a writing archive. It occurred to me recently that I wasn’t sure what was worthy of carrying forward into my present. Tending to be one to go down rabbit holes on a whim, I started digging…

I was taught to believe that by being an active reader, you can become a far better writer. While that is certainly true, it’s only one major component to becoming a “formidable writing professional.” Of course, the most important part to being a good writer is simply pursuing the act of writing as often as…

It’s no surprise that it’s far easier to discover bad writing than it is to find good writing. Many pieces out in the world are “good” and “bad” objectively speaking. But, when we search for “good writing,” we’re looking for stand-out writing, something perhaps even exceptional. In my Writing 102 course in my freshman year…

Have you ever found yourself thinking: I should go back and edit some of my old stuff! While I’ve often encountered some resistance to this idea, it’s actually a good idea, and something I do often. In fact, sometimes revisiting old posts and rewriting them can be good for a great many reasons. If the…