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The Power of ‘No’ for Writers
As a writer, we must always seek the word ‘yes’. We want editors to say ‘yes’ to those painstakingly-polished submissions. We want a ‘yes’ from the grant application for that great project idea. We want readers to say ‘yes’ when making the decision to buy our books or read our work. Likewise, we have learned…
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How Can Writing Help Your Mental Health?
A girl snaps on the bedside light and squints against its raw artificial glow. It is two o’clock in the morning. Already she’s dreading the next day at school: the laughter shuddering on a plume of cigarette smoke outside the gates; the laughter as she lurches clumsily onto the schoolyard and feels the deliberate thud…
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New Year, New You: Change the Way You Think About Your Writing Goals
What have you achieved this year? Intensified by the hyper-filtered, rose-tinted reel of social media, many of us spend an inordinate of time worrying whether we’ve achieved enough. Perhaps the novel you planned on completing by June is still no more than a 1500 word document you mostly forced yourself through in the first week…
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Is Perfectionism Blocking Your Writing Process?
I’ve written a few posts now on overcoming creative blocks and editing your creative work to get it ready for submission. However, a key part of the writing process I haven’t written about – and perhaps we as writers often hide from the outside world – is the whole messiness of the creative process itself.…
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Writing as Therapy: Invisible Illness as a Character in Writing My Second Book
I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for quite a long time. I’ve recently delivered workshops on the subject and with Small due to be released in October, I feel now is the time to share with you how I wrote it in the hope it can help you too. On an early run…
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Kindness in Crisis: You Matter Too
As I write this, I am overwhelmed. Completely and utterly overwhelmed. And this feels like such a selfish thing to admit. Bizarre, isn’t it? I’m overwhelmed with wanting to help so many people, but feel selfish for admitting I feel bad. Help Harder As we head towards another week of lockdown, for many of us,…
Natalie Ann Holborow 