Story Binder Printables e-Book (with 450+ pages of writing exercises, actionable advice, 100+ publishing resources, and now it’s FREE!)

This blog post was written by a human. 

Hi readers and writerly friends! 

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back, and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! I am so unbelievably excited to announce that I’m bringing the beloved Story Binder Printables Packet back, and it’s better than ever! After almost ten years, this much-needed, long-awaited redesign is finally here! Simultaneously updated and upgraded, the Story Binder Printables e-Book is the best version of itself yet. Keep reading for all the deets—(and the download link! 😉)

One of the biggest hurdles many writers (myself included) face, regardless of experience or skill level, is staying organized. Between character profiles, research notes, plot threads, and entire collections of inspo pics, it’s easy to end up lost in a chaotic mess of documents, digital files, and notebooks. I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a crayon and it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve tried it all—folders, notebooks, cloud-based word processing software, and even digital writing & notetaking apps. A controversial, yet brave opinion—keeping everything novel-related neat and accessible can feel just as overwhelming as dragging myself to my desk for my daily writing session. Is that just me? Doubt it. After years of trying (unsuccessfully) to force a hodge-podge of folders and notebooks and cloud storage systems to fit my unique writing process, I finally decided I’d had enough and created a customized solution to my creative conundrums.

For writers—or any other creative individual, for that matter—staying organized isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. An effective, reliable, and sustainable organizational system is essential for maintaining your creative momentum and actually finishing your novel.

It’s time to get organized, finish writing your novel, and get published.

If  your notes are scattered all over the place, or stored across several different mediums and platforms, the Story Binder is about to change your life. Did I just call you disorganized in a blog post? Maybe. It depends. Does the shoe fit? If so, sorry, not sorry. Because once you see how much easier writing becomes with everything in one place, you’ll never go back. The Story Binder helps you collect, organize, and navigate every part of your story with ease, so you can spend less time searching and more time actually writing. The Story Binder just works. I’ll say it louder for the readers in the back.

THE STORY BINDER WORKS.

Seriously. It keeps everything exactly where it’s supposed to be, so you can quickly find your notes and get right back to writing in record time.

When I first released the original Story Binder Printables Packet back in 2016, it was a modest little PDF packet: just 52 pages, 10 color options, and priced at $10. It was one of the first printables I’d ever designed and I released it back in my freshman year of college! In 2019, I overhauled and completely rebranded my business and website, which entailed tasks such as operating under a new business name, switching to a new domain, updating logos and other assets, redesigning the website, adding a few fun and fresh colors to my color palette and brand kit, to name a few. Pair that with ten years of freelance editing and publishing industry experience, and suffice to say that an updated version of the Story Binder Printables Packet that reflected these changes was long overdue. Fast forward to 2025, and the new version has transformed into a full-blown e-Book with over 450 pages! On that note, you’ll see me referring to the old printables as a packet and the new printables as an e-Book. I think a PDF with that many pages can no longer be considered a packet, so an e-Book it is!

And the best part? It’s FREE.

The updated and upgraded 2025 edition still includes the 10 original colors, but now offers 25 additional color variants to choose from and more to come in the future! Each one comes in both black-text and white-text versions to suit your preferences and your screen or printer settings. Whether you’re a visual minimalist or someone who loves a bold aesthetic, there’s a version that’ll fit your workflow perfectly. Currently, all 35 colors follow the same formula and format, but I am already brainstorming what new colors, styles, and patterns to include in the next update. Continue reading to check them out and if you have any requests or suggestions for designs in the next edition, feel free to let me know by sending an email to me directly at hello@PaytonHayes.com!

What’s so great about the Story Binder Printables e-Book?

• All of your notes are neatly contained in one place, making your daily writing practice more inspiring and encouraging and your writing process more mobile! Goodbye stuffy, old home office; hello fresh air and coffee shops!

• Specific novel notes are organized by category and they’re easy-to-find without disrupting your writing process to dig through old folders stuffed with coffee-stained, hastily-scrawled, handwritten notes…never again.

• Forget the boring digital Word Docs and the ruled loose leaf notebook paper.  The Story Binder is functional for sure, but did I mention how fabulous it is? With 35 color variants to choose from (not counting the black and white text colorways), these printables will reignite your writing passion and fuel you with inspiration every time you open your Story Binder!

• And best of all? 468 pages of actionable content that will keep you on track with your writing practice and will guide you to the finish line with your novel. Yes, I’ve spent all this time and webpage space ranting about how effective the Story Binder is at keeping your novel notes organized, but that’s just one reason why it’s so successful at helping writers finish and publish their books! 

The Story Binder Printables e-Book is an organizational tool, writing workbook, and publishing roadmap crafted with intention, for creative writers who want to finally finish writing and actually publish their novels.

When I say there’s 468 pages of actionable content inside the Story Binder Printables e-Book, I’m not just throwing in a bunch of buzzwords and keywords for SEO. Every single page sparks inspiration and encourages you to take action. Not only that, but it’s adaptable, practical, sustainable, guided action, informed by over a decade’s-worth of freelance writing and editing experience from yours truly. I went to college for creative writing and editing for the publishing industry. I’ve read dozens of writing craft books, editing manuals, novel planning and plotting guidebooks, and more and I’ve worked with a plethora of clients from fiction to nonfiction and everything in between. While I’m proud of my experience and education, I’m not just saying all this so I can brag to strangers on the internet. My point is this: if you’re looking for a blank canvas, the Story Binder isn’t it. It’s so, so much more than just a template for you to fill in the blanks. Every page was thoughtfully and meticulously designed, with 10+ years of writing expertise in mind.

Likewise, the Story Binder isn’t just a novel reference notebook. It’s a flexible, customizable and adaptable novel outline system made specifically for YOUR story. Think of it as your very own book bible. It’s your personal roadmap for writing and publishing a novel, complete with all the tools you need to stay organized, inspired, and on track from first idea to final draft.

With this new system your writing process and daily writing practice will have fewer barriers to entry, less friction keeping you from getting started, fewer distractions and ultimately less interruptions that pull you out of your flow state.  The Story Binder Printables e-Book will give you every tool you need in your toolkit to confidently complete your novel and get it published. The Story Binder will help you keep every detail of your novel in one place. No more digging through endless notes, cross-referencing various digital drafts, or worrying about losing crucial details to tech glitches. No more scrolling your search results for hours only to get stuck in a research loop of exploring the ins and outs publishing industry and being inundated with advertisements. No more halting your writing progress to search up a quick question about querying literary agents—that let’s face it: never ends up being quick. Just grab your binder, flip to the section you need, and get back to writing.

So what’s inside the Story Binder Printables e-Book?

The new and improved Story Binder Printables e-Book is a writing workbook, publishing roadmap, and a treasure trove of resources packed with nearly 500 pages of worksheets, templates, and trackers created for use in any genre, demographic, or at any stage of your writing process.

Inside the e-Book, you’ll find:

• A variety of Story Binder Covers in different styles, from bold to minimalist designs, to keep you motivated.

• Instruction Guide Sheets for setting up your binder in a way that actually works for you.

• Section Dividers (with and without headers), Section Tabs, and Page Number Tabs to help you organize your navigation your way.

• Author Ownership Page to designate your book bible as uniquely yours.

• Brainstorming Worksheets including a Mind-Map Sheet, Idea Keeper Sheet, and distinct sections for ordering and storing your Story Fragments and Deleted Scenes for later use.

• Motivational Daily Writing Activities from Writing Warm-Up Prompts to Story Exploration Exercises to Writing Challenges and more, to keep your writing practice fresh and fun.

• Plot Progression Worksheets (such as Chapter and Scene Lists, Scene Tracker Sheets, Scene Cards, Tension & Pacing Worksheets, Timeline Charts, and a Novel Storyboard Sheet)

• Author Voice, Style, and Tone Worksheets specifically designed to help you maintain a consistent and cohesive narrative throughout the novel, while preserving your unique writing style, authorly voice, and your characters’ distinct personalities.

• Summarization Worksheets, such as the general Novel Overview Sheet & Synopsis Sheets to help you see the forest for the trees in your story, from a bird’s-eye view, to the miniscule details at the ground level.

• Creative Companion Activities including a Novel Inspo Exercise, a Mood Board Activity, and a Story Soundtrack Worksheet to help get your creativity flowing and recharge your creative battery. 

• Character Development Worksheets including Detailed Character Profiles, Voice and Dialogue Exercises, Character Arc Outlines, Relationship Maps, Name Lists and Pronunciation Guides, Mainstream and Speculative Fiction Character Questionnaires, Backstory Studies, Character Sheets and Moral Alignment Charts (inspired by Dungeons & Dragons) to get you into the hearts and heads of your characters. 

• Visual Writing Progress Trackers  (including a 30-Day Word Count Tracker, Novel Progress Tracker, and a Writing Goals Exercise, to help you stay disciplined and keep you accountable to your daily writing practice.

• Setting & World-Building Exercises—from Setting Questionnaires to Map-Making Activities, Magic Systems Worksheets, Speculative Fiction Glossaries, and more—to help you transport readers to the wondrous world(s) in which your story takes place!

• Revision Roadmap that includes a step-by-step Editing Action Plan, a series of draft-by-draft Review Checklists, a strategic Self-Editing Checklist, and a variety Revision Reflection Prompts, giving you actionable editorial insight, progressively honing your writing skills, keeping you on course for completing your novel, and refining your story in each iteration!

• Publishing Prep Sheets that include Beta Reader Questionnaires and Comments & Critiques Forms, as well as Publishing Plans and Checklists  (for both traditional and independent publishing routes) to assist you in sharing your story with the world.

• Reflective Journal Prompts at the end worksheets to encourage critical and constructive examination, introspection, and mindful contemplation of your experience at every stage in your writing process. Reflective journaling allows you to pause, assess, and realign as needed, helping you track progress with your project(s), notice improvement in your writing skills, and stay focused and motivated to reach your creative goals.

Plus LIFETIME ACCESS To:

• All updates and future editions of the Story Binder Printables e-Book, including new color variations and designs.

• The upcoming online Story Binder Printables e-Book Resources Library, an ever-growing collection of writing, editing, publishing, and marketing resources (including but not limited to books, articles, guides, tools, software, and apps.) 

• An Exclusive, Subscriber-Only Discount on any editing services I offer—just for my loyal newsletter subscribers! (Yes! This discount can be combined with other applicable discounts. See the Discounts section on my Homepage for more information!)

Once I started using the Story Binder method for my own novels, everything just clicked. My writing process became smoother, faster, and more consistent. Years of working with clients, and going through trial and error with my own writing, taught me what works and what doesn’t. I’ve packed over a decade’s worth of experience into this 468-page toolkit (per color variant!) to help you write better, faster, and more confidently.

Yep, you read that right—each color variant includes both a black-text and white-text option. That’s 934 pages per color, and with 35 colors to choose from, you’ve got 22,416 possible combinations for creating your perfect Story Binder. And since the Story Binder Printables e-Book is a digital download, you can print and reuse it infinitely, across all your novels, short stories, and other creative writing projects!

Over 250 Story Binder Cover Options!

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Over 250 Story Binder Cover Options! 〰️

Are you thinking this sounds too good to be true?

I get it. You’ve probably seen a dozen polished websites with flashy sales copy and overpriced “limited-time offers.” I can assure you, this situation is different. I’m not asking you to buy or do anything. Let me explain. 🤗

The Story Binder Printables Packet has been available on my site for almost a decade, and hundreds of writers have purchased and loved it. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this post, I created this system as a solution for my own writing struggles and it ended up being an invaluable resource for so many other writers over the years. The new and improved e-Book version is backed by real publishing experience and years of working with other writers.

Throughout the process of revising, editing, and redesigning the Story Binder Printables e-Book, I came to the realization that I don’t want paywall to be the obstacle that stands in the way of helping other writers share their stories with the world. As an entrepreneur, I still have to earn sufficient income to afford my lifestyle, keep my business going, and pay back my student loans, so naturally, reducing my rates isn’t an option for me—especially not in this economy! 

That said, one simple way that I can give back to my beloved writing community is to make the Story Binder Printables e-Book accessible to all writers, no matter their writing experience or skill, notoriety, genre, audience demographics, or any other distinction. I believe removing the price tag will allow the Story Binder to inspire, encourage, and empower more writers than ever before.

As a professional book editor, I make a living from improving other writers’ work, but as a fellow writer, I make a life from helping others tell their stories. Therefore, both as a thank you for supporting my creative pursuits and freelance career, and because it is my mission to help people find connection, representation, and a sense of belonging through story—I’m offering the new and improved 2025 Story Binder Printables e-Book to you for free.

Well, almost free. 😅

Okay, so what’s the catch?

I’m not asking you to buy anything or do anything. I’m not asking you to spend a single cent of your hard-earned money or more than a minute of your time, if that.

All I’m asking for is your email address. That’s it. No payment, no commitment, no sharing required. (Though if you do share this with your own creative community, you might just become my new favorite person.😉)

I understand the hesitation you might be feeling. I used to get so many marketing emails I could barely keep up with my own personal email inbox (let alone my business inbox, so I know exactly how annoying email newsletters can be, if done the wrong way.) I’m not here to spam you. I’m here to connect with fellow creatives and build a community around writing, editing, publishing, and everything in between. That’s why I promise to treat your inbox with respect. I consider the space you make for me in your inbox and the time you set aside in your week to read my emails sacred and this is a unique opportunity for a creative, specific, productive, and ongoing conversation centered on topics such as writing, editing, freelancing, books, art, and all things to do with the publishing industry, to name a few.

So what happens when you join the email list?

• Your personal information is safe. I will never share, sell, or misuse your data.

• You’ll receive one thoughtful email per week, max. Topics range from writing advice and freelance editing tips to bookworm life and publishing industry insights. 

• You’ll be notified of any recent articles posted to my blog and given a link that’ll take you straight to the post. I believe that your time is just as valuable as mine, so I’ll never just copy and paste a blog post in an email and hit send. That would be suuuuper lame. But if you’d like a  condensed version with your new post notifications, be sure that the box in the form below is checked to join the “Bite-Sized Blog Posts, Please!” newsletter segment. If you’d rather skip the blog post bullet points, make sure the box is unchecked. You can change this at any time by sending me a quick email requesting a change to your email newsletter preferences.

• You can easily unsubscribe at any time. No guilt, and no hard feelings. 😎

• You’ll never receive anything offensive, discriminatory, or otherwise unprofessional in my newsletter emails. Likewise, I will never spam you. I care deeply about the kind of content I send out into the world and the volumes that content speaks about me both as an editor and as a person. 

• You can reply to any newsletter if you want to chat, ask questions, or give feedback—I love hearing from other creative peeps like you!

If the Story Binder sounds like something that could help you in your writing journey, I’d love for you to download it, use it, and make it your own. Even if you unsubscribe after downloading, that’s okay. My goal is to get this resource into the hands of as many writers as possible. But if you decide to stick around, I’d be honored to have you along for the ride. So what are you waiting for?

Drop your name and email into the sign-up form below and you’ll be directed to the Story Binder Printables e-Book download page immediately after!

If you made it to the end of this blog post, thanks for reading! And if you signed up for the newsletter using the form above, then you should have been redirected right to the webpage where you can download your all-new, super fabulous Story Binder Printables e-Book! If you’re still reading this, then the download link is on it’s way to your email inbox as we speak! I’m so excited to have you here and I can’t wait to see your novel on bookstore shelves very soon!

All photos used in this post were created using Canva or taken by Payton Hayes.

Related Topics

• Book Writing 101: How To Come Up With Great Book Ideas And What To Do With Them

• Book Writing 101: How To Write A Book (The Basics)

• Book Writing 101: Starting Your Book In The Right Place

• Book Writing 101: How To Choose The Right POV For Your Novel

• Book Writing 101: How To Achieve Good Story Pacing

• Book Writing 101: How To Name Your Book Characters

• Book Writing 101: How to Develop and Write Compelling, Consistent Characters

• Book Writing 101: Everything You Need To Know About Dialogue

• Info-Dumping in Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels by Breyonna Jordan

• How To Write Romance: Effective & Believable Love Triangles

• How To Write Romance: Enemies-To-Lovers Romance (That’s Satisfying and Realistic)

• How To Write Romance: 10 Heart-Warming and Heart-Wrenching Scenes for Your Romantic Thriller

• How To Write Romance: Believable Best Friends-To-Lovers 

• How To Write Romance: The Perfect Meet Cute

• Check out my other Book Writing 101 and  How To Write Romance blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

How To Overcome Writer’s Block

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! In this blog post, we’re discussing writer’s block and all it encompasses, how to overcome it, and how to keep it from interfering with your creativity. There's thousands of other posts and articles out there that explain this topic, to be sure. But I am diving deep and explaining my own personal experience with writer’s block, how I overcame it, and how you can too. This post will deconstruct the nebulous concept of writer’s block and break it down into easily understandable symptoms and actionable and effective steps for curing these symptoms. This post is a longer one, so grab your coffee, tea, and your notepad and let’s get into it!

What Is Writer’s Block? 

Writer’s block is the kryptonite to a writer’s superpower—creativity. Have you ever found yourself staring at a blank page, unable to write? Perhaps you feel paralyzed by fear or unable to begin the process. Perhaps you move your hands to the keyboard, or lift your pencil to the page time and time again, only to pull them away, thinking hmm, why won’t the words just flow? Writer’s block happens to nearly every writer; it’s inevitable. Writer’s block is the inability to freely dive into writing and the feeling that whatever words come from your fingertips aren’t worth writing in the first place or won’t be good enough.

What Does Writer’s Block Look Like?

It looks like a writer hunched over their keyboard or notebook with a furrow in their brow, a purse in their lips, and a blank page before them. It looks like a lack of motivation, inspiration, or consistency. It looks like notes and binders and word documents galore, but no completed book or short story to tie them all together. It looks like an untouched laptop or notepad gathering dust in the corner. Writer’s block presents itself differently for every writer, but the symptoms are often the same.  The bad news? You’ve diagnosed yourself with writer’s block. But the good news? It’s treatable and an obstacle you can definitely overcome. 

What causes writer’s block?

Writer’s block, while perhaps not a proper medical condition, is a creative hurdle that stops many writers in their tracks. It stems from inexperience, underdeveloped ideas, burnout, a lack of enthusiasm, motivation, or inspiration, fear of rejection or a feeling of inadequacy when it comes to a writer’s own abilities, and maintaining a lifestyle that does not support the habit of writing. Seasoned and aspiring writers alike can suffer from this roadblock in the creative process, but with time, practice, and perseverance, writers can push past this block and eventually leave it in the dust altogether. 

A woman working on a Macbook. Photo by Elisa Ventur.

Why Am I Experiencing Writer’s Block?

You may find the answer to this question below:

• Inexperience: Many novice writers do not know where to begin. They don’t know how to write a story, let alone develop and format a book. They don’t know the rules of writing and that inexperience can hold them back from unleashing their creative potential. If you want to be a writer, and a successful one at that, you must educate yourself on writing tools, best practices, and storytelling as an artform. This is the foundation of being an effective and knowledgeable writer. Read books about writing, take classes and attend workshops to build your skills with practice and feedback.  

• Underdeveloped ideas: Many writers find themselves unable to start writing because the ideas they want to write from are not fully developed. Brainstorming and research are crucial parts of the writing process. Writing from a vague idea is much, much harder than writing from a fully-realized idea. Depending on the genre you’re writing from, take all aspects of the story and cultivate them so they can grow from a budding seed of inspiration to a blossoming concept. For example, if you’re writing a fantasy story, write detailed descriptions of all the characters, settings, world cultures, religions, and histories, timelines, and events. These wordy descriptions will likely not make it into your draft, but they will serve as notes for you to expand and refine your ideas as you write. If you can see it so clearly in your mind’s eye, then you can write from it as if you were really looking at your main characters in their world, with your own two eyes. 

• Lack of enthusiasm: Some writers suffer from a lack of enthusiasm about what they’re writing. This can be a difficult hurdle to overcome especially if you write for work and don’t have much of a choice in the subject matter. For those who fall into this category, you have three choices: make some kind of personal connection to the subject matter, or find a new writing job, or write for pleasure instead. For those who have an idea they really like, but feel disconnected from it or as if they don’t know enough about the topic to write on it, go back to the Inexperience bullet point. Educate yourself on the topic thoroughly enough that you can confidently and accurately write about it without feeling like you’re writing in the dark.  

• Lack of motivation: Many writers feel a lack of motivation when it comes to writing. This symptom of writer’s block can be one of the hardest to push past. Writers who feel unmotivated should take a realistic look at their lives and consider why they may feel that lack of motivation. Do you feel like writing at all? Do you enjoy writing? Do you enjoy storytelling and developing ideas? Do you enjoy making connections with others and sharing experiences? Do you enjoy bringing an idea to life? If any of your answers to these questions were a no, why? Why do you dislike any of these steps?

  If you found yourself saying no, why are you writing —or not writing —in the first place? Why label yourself as a writer, if it's not something you actually want to do? Many writers never end up writing a book, but they don this title and put immense pressure on themselves to engage in an activity that truly doesn’t resonate with themselves. Dig deep and determine if you want to write, why you want to write, and why you are a writer. This why is your reason for doing what you do and it’s going to help you shift your mindset in a big way. If writing is your passion and purpose and being a writer is part of your identity, it will help excite and motivate you to practice writing, because it's what you do. Find your personal connection to writing and take it with you into every writing session. 

• Lack of inspiration: Many people who want to write a book feel as if they have nothing to write about. While a strong feeling, this idea couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every single person has a unique perspective and worldview. Every person has a unique experience. No two lives are identical and in turn, no two stories are the same. Your unique existence is valid and so is your story. If you feel like you don’t have a story or idea to write about, write from real life. Write from your experiences and memories. If you don’t want to write about your personal experiences, write fictional stories that you wish were true about your life. Go back to the Inexperience and Underdeveloped Ideas bullet points and follow those steps. Read other books from the genres you want to write from. Research topics, themes, and ideas, then develop them further into elements you can craft a story from. I like to think the writing process is like building sand castles on the beach —you have billions of grains of sand to work from, but for the castle to take shape, you must sculpt, carve, mold, chisel, and join those grains together. You must work those grains of sand until they form the shape you’re going for. 

Diagnosing & Treating Writer’s Block. Graphic by Payton Hayes.

• Fear of rejection: Many writers struggle with the fear of rejection whether they are aware of this or not. It comes from a combination of Inexperience, Underdeveloped Ideas, and a low self esteem as a writer. These writers may feel confidence in other areas of their lives —they may do well in school or their jobs, they may feel confidence in their physical appearances, they may be aware of other activities they excel at, but when it comes to writing, they don’t believe in themselves or their abilities. The key to overcoming this struggle is practice. Practice, practice, practice. For many writers, the process of writing is very personal and tied closely to their identity. For this reason, it can be difficult for writers to put themselves and their work out there. However, this can be one of the most freeing experiences and is vital to your growth as a writer. When I started seriously writing, I kept my fantasy stories close to my heart. I never let my friends or family read them because I didn’t want them to actually know what my writing was like, for better or worse. They knew I was a writer, but they didn’t know if I was a good or bad writer, and I clung to that uncertainty. I didn’t put my writing online or allow others to read it until much, much later, when I was in college and was somewhat forced to let others into my thoughts, emotions, and written words. From discussion posts in my online courses to writing workshops and critiques in my creative writing classes, to instructor feedback, I was required to put my writing out there, in some form or another.

  What I came to realize was that I should have done this much, much sooner. I would have never broken out of my shell as a writer and a person, had I not been vulnerable and put my work out into the world for others to see, read, like, dislike, criticize, judge, compliment, and tear apart. I was terrified that someone would read my stories and think wow, this is truly poor writing. The reality is that any artform is subjective. We hear this a lot when it comes to visual art, but the same is true for writing. Subjective means “based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions” and when it comes to writing, this means readers will bring their own unique perspectives, worldviews, emotions, experiences, and opinions into the work, whether they are aware of it or not. There is nothing writers can do to stop readers from doing this, and they shouldn’t try to. As a writer, you must allow this fact of life to free you from the confines of wanting to please everyone. Allow yourself to let go of the desire to control other people’s opinions and interpretations of your work. It’s an impossibly unrealistic, unattainable, and unhealthy expectation. Whenever I find myself worrying over how others will react to my writing, I try to remember two things: Buddhism and peaches.

  Let me explain.

  Look, I’m not a Buddhist and I’m not telling you to convert to Buddhism. However Buddhists do practice the art of surrender. This concept is based on letting go of what one cannot control. You cannot control how others react to your writing. You cannot make them like it. You cannot please every single person with your writing, so just let this go. One of my favorite quotes is from Dita Von Teese who said, “You can be the ripest, juiciest, peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” There will always be someone who doesn’t like peaches and there will always be someone who can find something they don’t like about your writing. Free yourself from the desire to be liked by everyone, by being okay with rejection. Embrace it. Allow yourself to be disliked, criticized, and unaccepted. Allow yourself to produce bad writing. Allow yourself to fail. By doing this, you remove the pressure to be perfect and allow yourself to be. You allow yourself to write, no matter what comes of it. You allow yourself to grow as a writer and a person. 

• Writing conducive lifestyle: Many writers have a hard time writing because they do not lead a life that aligns with being a writer. To be a writer, you must have time to dedicate to reading, researching, studying, writing, editing, and honing your skills. Being a writer in practice rather than name, is more than just writing. To be a writer, you must live a life that supports the regular practice of writing and all that process entails. Writing is not only an activity, it is a lifestyle and a long-term practice. It takes years of dedication, consistency, and practice to result in expert, well-honed writing skills. If you have children or a busy life, you may find it quite difficult to carve out time to write, but it is paramount to being a good writer, let alone finding success in writing. If you answered the questions in the Lack of motivation bullet point, then by now, you should know whether or not you really want to continue writing. If the answer is no, you should probably look into something else. However, if you do, then your next objective is to set aside time every day to improve your writing. Make this a realistic and attainable goal and track your progress as you go. Start out simple and ensure your path is the one of least resistance from both yourself and others in your life. 

How To Defeat Writer’s Block. Graphic by Payton Hayes.

How Do I Overcome Writer’s Block?

If you read through those lengthy bullet points, then by now, you know what must be done. You know what writer’s block is, what it looks like, how it affects writers, where it comes from. Now that you understand writer’s block, it is time to take action. I’ve listed several ways you can combat writer’s block. Practicing these steps will help you build the muscles you need to defeat writer's block whenever it rears its big ugly head. I have also designed a printable flier for you to put up in your writing area, so you can always have these tips equipped and at the ready when writer’s block strikes. 

• Writing everyday: If you are a writer, make writing a priority. The choice is up to you. If you’ve decided writing is your purpose, then make it a daily practice and make no exceptions. Tell yourself the affirmation: Writers write. I am a writer, and I am going to write. Set aside a specific time each day that you sit down and write. You will likely need more time to research, brainstorm, read, and do other writing-adjacent activities, but make sure you write every.single.day. Start with five, ten, fifteen, or thirty minutes at a time, depending on your experience and ability. If you haven’t written in months or years, set aside five minutes each day to write. Find some writing prompts or writing exercises and set a timer, then write until the timer beeps. Chances are you will feel compelled to continue writing past the time you set, but don’t force yourself to do so. If you want to spend five minutes each day working on the same writing project, you can do that too. Gradually increase your writing time as you strengthen those writing muscles and build the habit into your life. It takes twenty-one days to build a habit. That comes out to 1.75 hours across three weeks. When broken down into manageable chunks, a consistent, daily writing practice becomes more possible and over time, it becomes less like a manual task and more automatic. Five minutes every day. That’s all it takes!

• Writing workspace: To make your daily writing practice easier, design a workspace that makes you want to write. Invest in a comfortable desk chair or a standing desk if necessary. Turn on soft lighting and play some instrumental music to help relax your mind while you let the creative juices flow. Make sure you have snacks and a nice warm beverage on hand. You can train your brain to get into writing mode by doing the same thing at the same time every day and employing all five senses to reinforce the habit. For example, if you want to write for ten minutes every day, starting at 7:00 p.m., start by playing your favorite song or an instrumental track you enjoy to remind yourself that it's time to write. Bonus points if you set an alarm to go off at 7:00 p.m. with the song, so it's automated and not on you to remember. While the song is playing, make yourself a cup of tea, grab a fruit or bag of chips, and get your workstation and timer ready. When you’re ready to go, start writing, and don’t stop. Remember, you’re not writing the most amazing, perfect words ever put together on earth. Just write.

• Establish a rewards system that incentivizes you to write. We all enjoy different things—some of us enjoy shopping, others enjoy playing video games, and some enjoy eating delicious food. Without being counterproductive to your other goals or negatively impacting your health, come up with a rewards system that will help you reach your writing goals. If it’s your goal to write so many words each week, set a reward that will encourage and excite you to sit down to write and accomplish that goal. For example, I would like to buy a new book or two. I won’t get a new book until I finish reading one I already own, so I don’t have a bunch of unread books on my shelf. The same principle goes for writing. If you want to reach that weekly word count goal, write for the reward. You don’t have to write perfectly, just get those words onto the page. 

• Take care of yourself and your health: This advice is not just for writers, but because writing is so personal and tied to our mental and emotional health, self-care is an important step in creating a lifestyle that supports writing. Get plenty of quality sleep, practice good hygiene, maintain a healthy diet, and exercise regularly. For people with disabilities, mental illness, or neurodivergence, get any necessary assistance if you haven’t yet. 

Some Additional Tips For Combatting Writer’s Bock

• Try morning pages or a brain dump. Before you sit down to write or work on an ongoing project, try freeing your mind. The concept of “Morning Pages” comes from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and can be an effective strategy for getting all the mental distractions out of your way before you actually start writing. Like the name suggests, brain dump pages or morning pages are simply a page or two of everything on your mind that you want to offload so you can think clearly. It can be total nonsense, a to-do list, a stream of consciousness, a series of mad ramblings —whatever it is, get it out of your head and onto the page so you can make room for the real writing. 

• Let yourself write garbage. If you’re struggling with perfectionism and overcoming your judgmental internal editor, let yourself be okay with writing garbage. Create a new draft and title it “trash draft” if you like. Then write with reckless abandon. You can write about whatever you like or you can work on a project you’ve been writing. Make your internal editor take a backseat to your internal writer and watch as the story takes shape on the page. No writer creates perfection in the first draft, so stop telling yourself the rough draft is bad. A garbage page is better than nothing. You can create treasures from a pile of trash, but you cannot edit a blank page.

• Get involved in a writing community. If external accountability is more effective for you, get connected with other writers. Network with writers, editors, publishers, and published authors for advice, craft tips, editorial news, and external motivation to keep writing. Sometimes, having a writing community can be more powerful for combating writer’s block that a routine or paycheck. Writing communities are a great way for writers to celebrate one another’s accomplishments and receive truly helpful feedback on writing. 

Writer’s Block As A Result of Burnout

If you’ve made it this far, then the next piece of advice will sound quite contradictory to everything said thus far. If you’re experiencing writer’s block as a symptom of burnout, take a break. Stop writing. I know, it sounds crazy! First, I’m telling you to write, then telling you not to write. Trust me. 

If you’ve done everything advised so far and nothing has worked, don’t force yourself to write when you just can’t. I’m not saying give up, but give yourself time and patience to recover from the burnout before jumping back into writing. When it is time to dive back in, do so slowly and with grace. Stick your toe in the water before diving in headfirst. If you’ve been stuck on a book for years and nothing you do can make you want to continue writing it, try writing something else. Take a break. When it’s time, you’ll come back to it. And if it’s time for you to pivot, don’t judge yourself for doing so. It may be time for a change. 

Thinking Realistically About Creativity

Creativity sometimes comes from a spark of inspiration, the elusive mystical muse that chooses to strike at random. But most often, creativity is a skill you practice regularly, and it’s not as glamorous as the media makes it seem. Writing is hard work and it requires a healthy lifestyle, commitment, vulnerability, and consistency rather than artistic brilliance. Either you’ve chosen to be a writer, or writing has chosen you. If this is indeed the path you wish to take, you must go all in. I’m not telling you it’s always easy, but it does get easier with time, practice, and perseverance. When I first started out, I went years between working on chapters of the same book. Now, I write multiple blog posts each week. I still struggle with feeling motivated or excited to write. Whenever I’m dragging myself to my writing desk rather than running, go through the steps to ensure I am doing everything in my power to get myself to write. It usually works, and then once in a while it doesn’t and I know it’s time for a break. Give yourself some grace as a writer and as a human. There's a million things out there that could affect you or get in the way of your writing practice. But if you’re dedicated, determined, and willing to put in the effort, you can be a writer, and your writing will improve with every session. 

You’re a writer. Writing is what you do. It’s in your bones. It is your purpose and your reason. Writing is your destiny. Now write.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it helped you to better understand yourself as a writer, the struggle of writer’s block, and how to overcome it and become a better writer. If you enjoyed this post or if it helped you in some way, please leave me a comment! I’d love to know your thoughts! If you’d like to read more writing advice from me, please check out the recent posts from my blog below!

Bibliography

• Ventur, Elisa. (@elisa_ventur) “a business woman who is frustrated because she is working too much.“ Unsplash photo, May 12, 2021 (Thumbnail photo).

• Hayes, Payton. “How To Overcome Writer’s Block.” Shayla Raquel’s Blog, February 7, 2023. 

• Hayes, Payton. “Diagnosing & Treating Writer’s Block.” Graphic created with Canva, February 7, 2023. 

• Hayes, Payton. “How To Defeat Writer’s Block.” Graphic created with Canva, February 7, 2023. 

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book! 

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• Self-Care Tips for Bookworms

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• 8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• Know The Rules So Well That You Can Break The Rules Effectively

• Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages: How To Beat Writer’s Block

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Let’s Talk Amateur Author Anxiety: 7 Writer Worries That Could Be Holding You Back 

• Why Fanfiction is Great Writing Practice and How It Can Teach Writers to Write Well

• Screenwriting for Novelists: How Different Mediums Can Improve Your Writing

• Experimentation Is Essential For Creators’ Growth (In Both Art and Writing)

• 20 Things Writers Can Learn From Dreamers

• Check out my other Writing Advice blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

Find Your Exact Genre, Find Your Lifelong Book Ambassadors by Shayla Raquel

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new here, thanks for stopping by! For this post, fellow Oklahoma Freelance Editor Shayla Raquel is taking over the blog to tell you all about how to not only grow your audience but how to transform readers into lifelong ambassadors of your book! This post shows you exactly how to gain a clear understanding of your genre and target audience to grow an enduring, loyal readership! Be sure to leave her a comment and check out her website and other socials!

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A best-selling author and public speaker, Shayla Raquel teaches people the ins and outs of writing, publishing, and marketing their books. Her in-person and online classes focus on author branding, self-publishing, book marketing, and the craft of writing.

She is the author of the Pre-Publishing Checklist, “The Rotting” (in Shivers in the Night), The Suicide Tree, The 10 Commandments of Author Branding, All the Things I Should’ve Told You, and “Savage Indulgence.”

In her not-so-free time, she studies all things true crime and obsesses over squirrels. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three fur babies.

More recently, Shayla has served as the founder of an incredible non-profit organization based in McLoud, Oklahoma, called Crime & Compassion Inc., through which she helps incarcerated women find their voices and share their stories with the world through their writing.

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Follow & Connect With Shayla On These Platforms:

Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | Goodreads | LinkedIn | Website

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Shayla Raquel, best-selling author, public speaker, and book editor.

Why Do I Need To Know My Target Audience?

Investing time and money into social media, email newsletters, Amazon ads, podcast interviews, and blog posts will net you very little ROI if you do not know your precise genre. 

Because if you don’t know exactly what book you wrote, then, my friend, you don’t know your audience.

And if you don’t know your audience, what good is all that time and money you’ve put toward marketing your book?

My goal today is to teach you how to determine your exact genre as a novelist so you can pinpoint your target audience. Once you do that, you can have lifelong book ambassadors: people who fangirl over your book and tell the world about it.

Amazon Kindle Categories. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

So, What Is Your Genre?

If I ask an author, “What book is your genre?” and they reply “Fantasy,” I get a little worried. 

Go to Amazon.com and toggle the search bar from All Departments to Kindle Store. On the left-hand side of your screen, select Kindle eBooks. (We don’t need the newsstand or singles or anything like that.) 

Next, select Categories. It’s easy to miss sometimes because Amazon doesn’t make it prominent, but it’s usually under the search bar or off to the left-hand side. 

Next, for this purpose, select Science Fiction & Fantasy. Narrow it down once more by selecting Fantasy. There are over 50,000 e-books in the Fantasy category alone. That’s a lot of competition. 

Now you have to determine where your novel fits in the world of fantasy. Before I explain, I have a very important note: I desperately wish authors would do this exercise before writing their novels. If they did, then they’d ensure their story fit within the expected storylines of, let’s say, Gaslamp Fantasy or Arthurian Fantasy. 

Next, select Fantasy. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

My point: Your novel will be difficult to sell if you wrote it without knowing its genre. You can figure it out, but it’s a little bit tougher because there’s a chance there are several genres packed into one story. (I did this with my first novel, so don’t be like Shayla!)

Okay, now that you have a warning to heed, let’s move on to subgenres.

So here you are in the Fantasy genre for Kindle e-books with all this competition. Where does your book fit? If your subgenre is Action & Adventure, that’s more specific than just saying Fantasy, but could you niche it down even more by mentioning the types of characters? (Amazon gives us a handy checklist for various genres.) If you have Elves or Fae, that officially means you’re only competing with 1,000 e-books now! 

Elves. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

Your genre would be, let’s say, Fae Action & Adventure Fantasy.

Let’s shift to Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. If you’re going to find your niche, I suggest looking into Moods & Themes (another handy checklist). If I write Crime Fiction (50,000 e-books in this genre), I have several subgenres within that too:

• Heist

• Kidnapping

• Murder

• Noir

• Organized Crime

• Serial Killers

• Vigilante Justice

Crime Fiction. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

But I have the opportunity to get super specific by selecting a mood or theme, such as Action-Packed. Therefore, it would be: Action-Packed Heist Crime Fiction. 

Action Packed. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

It gets better! I can also look into Settings (beaches, islands, mountains, etc.) and Characters (amateur sleuths, British detectives, gay protagonists, etc.) on the Amazon checklist. 

Setting. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

Characters. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

If your story has some love in it, you would go to the Romance category and narrow it down to, maybe, Time Travel. On the left-hand side, take a look at Romantic Heroes and Romantic Themes (originally called Tropes). By narrowing the genre down to Viking Time Travel Romance, I have certainly found a very specific group of readers!

Vikings. Photo by Shayla Raquel.

Now What?

Now that you know some tricks for finding your exact genre, you have a foundation for marketing your book to the right audience. And marketing it well. 

But how do you get book ambassadors to see your book? 

It depends on the platform, of course. If you label your categories and keywords properly through Amazon KDP and Amazon Author Central, you’ve just made your life way easier. (To learn how to request 8 additional categories and how to find keywords, read 5 Freakishly Helpful Amazon Tricks Every Author Should Use.)

Outside of Amazon, your blurb (back cover copy and Amazon product description) must reflect your genre. In addition to a steller book cover, a blurb helps sell your book. It’s your big flashy billboard: it’s meant to suck the reader right in.

When writing a blurb, follow these steps:

1. Drop the Hook — A hook is meant to entice the reader to bite. I love this hook from The Martian by Andy Weir: “Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.”

2. Dangle the Characters — Reel them in with intriguing characters.

3. Dive into Conflict — Show them what this book is all about. What’s the plot? Why should the reader buy this book?

4. Determine the Consequences — What hangs in the balance for your characters? Formula: Conflict (“Character must do this”) + Stakes (“Or this will happen”) = Consequences.

5. Dine on the Big Question — End your blurb on an intriguing question or a point of tension—something that will convince the reader to take a chance on buying your book.

For the complete how-to, read Writing Compelling Book Blurbs.

If you’ve got these things down (genre, Amazon, and blurb), you need to spend quality time putting your book in front of people on various platforms to determine where you get the most bites (from readers who want to chow down on your genre). It could be through any one of these avenues:

• Social media (especially TikTok)

• Email newsletter (your own)

• Podcasts (interviews specifically)

• Book promotion newsletters (Book Gorilla, Many Books, Book Rebel, etc.)

• Amazon ads

• Social media ads

• Book reviewers (YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are full of reviewers)

• Blogs 

Some platforms work better than others for a variety of reasons, but you won’t know until you try and stay committed long enough to determine if it’s worth the ROI. If you write sexy stories, there is a community with 4.2 billion views on TikTok called SmutTok just waiting for you. If you want your book to be reviewed, there are loads of BookTubers on YouTube ready and willing to geek out over your book. 

If you will do the hard work of determining exactly what you write, it will be smoother sailing when it’s time to find your readers.

Best of luck!

Thanks for reading Shayla’s guest blog post! I hope you enjoyed it and found her advice useful and actionable! If you liked this post, please leave us a comment below and don’t forget to check out the other posts on the blog!

Bibliography

• Raquel, Shayla. “Find Your Exact Genre, Find Your Lifelong Book Ambassadors.” Blog Post article and photos, February 3, 2023. 

• furkanfdemir. “Classic wooden shelves with assorted books in store” (Thumbnail photo). Pexels photo, December 28, 2020.

Further Reading

• “Writing Compelling Blurbs: Book Descriptions to Entice Your Reader.” by Shayla Raquel, June 28, 2022. 

• “How Not to Launch a Self-Published Book: 7 Easy Steps for Indie Authors.” by Shayla Raquel, October 18, 2022. 

• “Bad Book Marketing: Three Things Authors Need to Stop Doing Immediately.” by Shayla Raquel,  March 20, 2022. 

• “5 Freakishly Helpful Amazon Tricks Every Author Should Use (2022).” by Shayla Raquel,  January 17, 2022. 

• Or you can just check out all of Shayla’s blog posts about book marketing here!

• Crime & Compassion Inc.—Literature written by those who were written off—a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit in Oklahoma.

More Like This

• 8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• 20 Tips and Tricks for a Successful Email Newsletter

• Book Marketing 101: Everything Writers Need To Know About Literary Agents and Querying

• See all Marketing blog posts.

Related Topics

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Why Fanfiction is Great Writing Practice and How It Can Teach Writers to Write Well

• Check out my other Writing Advice blog posts!

Before You Go

• Looking for your next read? I've got you covered. See my Reading Recommendations and Reading Challenges for ideas about what to read next!

• Oh, and don't forget to Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

How To Write Poems With Artificial Intelligence (Using Google's Verse by Verse)

This blog post was written by a human.

*Please note that exclusively using AI to write and publish text-based content is unethical and should not be done under any circumstance. In this post, I demonstrate how to utilize AI as a tool for writing practice, but I do not condone the use of AI to produce text without extensive editing and human intervention. In fact, I highly advise against it. In absolutely no cases should AI-written content be submitted to editors, agents, or publishers, nor should it be published online or in print materials. AI should never be used to replace the art of writing and storytelling through text. This is just a fun, light-hearted post that shows how writers can experiment with AI to help get their creativity flowing, much like warming up with writing exercises. Please keep in mind that AI use poses various ethical and environmental ramifications. I strongly encourage you to do your own research before trying out the techniques in this blog post for yourself. 

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by, and if you’re a returning reader, it’s nice to see you again! In this post we’re going to explore writing poetry using artificial intelligence (AI).  I heard about this from an article a few years ago. I tried to find it, but so many others have come out discussing the same topic since then and it seems it’s been buried in the search results. However, I have linked some particularly interesting articles at the end of this post for further reading. All other articles quoted in this post will be linked at the end as well.

Artificial Intelligence

Before we can create poetry using artificial intelligence, we must first understand what the term means in definition as well as what it means for the future of humanity. Artificial intelligence is changing the world in ways no one can yet fully predict.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) of Oxford University Press defines artificial intelligence as:

“Noun. The capacity of computers or other machines to exhibit or simulate intelligent behaviour; the field of study concerned with this. Abbreviated AI.” (OED 2008)

Artificial intelligence can also be described as the theory and development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, translation between languages, and other tasks that normally require human intelligence. Initially, AI included search engines, recommendation algorithms such as those used by YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix, computer programs that could play games like chess with users. In the last decade, we have seen an emergence of AI applications that can complete a myriad of tasks that typically require human intelligence. These applications include understanding and responding to human speech (apps such as Siri and Alexa), self-driving cars (such as Tesla), and even art making and poetry writing programs (such as the infamous Lensa app and Verse by Verse by Google).

In his article, “Can AI Write Authentic Poetry?” cognitive psychologist and poet Keith Holyoak explores whether artificial intelligence could ever achieve poetic authenticity. In the article, he makes the comparison of AI to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:

“On the hazier side of the present horizon, there may come a tipping point at which AI surpasses the general intelligence of humans. (In various specific domains, notably mathematical calculation, the intersection point was passed decades ago.) Many people anticipate this technological moment, dubbed the Singularity, as a kind of Second Coming—though whether of a savior or of Yeats’s rough beast is less clear. Perhaps by constructing an artificial human, computer scientists will finally realize Mary Shelley’s vision.” (Holyoak 2022, par.6)

Despite the bleak predictions of how AI may one day replace all human activity, the reality is that this technology is simply not there yet. While AI can simulate human intelligence successfully in many tasks, it is still lacking in the poetry writing department and requires humans to be the editors and final decision makers in the outcome of a poem. Holyoak explains this current iteration of poetry AI being a system that “operates using a generate-then-select method” (Holyoak 2022, par.10).

In his article, Keith Holyoak ponders the validity of AI poetry, functionalism, the Hard Problem of consciousness, and the critical essence or subjective experience within poetry. I have linked his article at the end of this blog post, and I highly encourage you to read it if you’re even remotely interested in these topics.

Users can select up to three poets to serve as their muses. They will provide suggestions as you write. Photo by Payton Hayes.

Google’s Verse by Verse

Verse by Verse is a powerful poetry-writing AI created by Google that produces suggestions line by line, inspired by famed classical poets such as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The tool allows users to select up to three poets they want to mimic from a list of twenty-two classical poets.

Google’s about section on the Verse by Verse demo page says this of the software:

“Verse by Verse is an experiment in human-AI collaboration for writing poetry. We have created a cadre of AI poets, trained on the poems of many of America's classical poets, to work alongside you in writing poetry.

Each poet will try to offer suggestions that they think would best continue a poem in the style of that given poet. As such, try working with different poets to see whose style best meshes with your own.

Explore what works best for you when composing the poem. You can try using the poets' suggestions (including editing them to better match your style!), or write your own inspired by what they suggest.” (Google)

I conducted a little more research to gain a better understanding of how the AI operates and how best to use it for writing my own poetry. The article “Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ can help you write poetry” by Aditya Saroha provides insight into how the muses provides suggestions based on classical poets. Saroha said, “Google explained that Verse by Verse's suggestions are not the original lines of verse the poets had written, but novel verses generated to sound like lines of verse the poets could have written. To build the tool, Google’s engineers trained models on a large collection of classic poetry. They fine-tuned the models on each individual poet’s body of work to try to capture their style of writing” (Saroha 2021, par.8-10). So, the poetry that the tool’s muses provide the user with were not actually lines crafted by classical poets, but rather inspired by their individual bodies of work.

In the article, “Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ Lets You Imitate Writing Style Of Your Favourite Classical Poet” by Rudrani Gupta, provided quotes from one of Google’s software engineers, Dave Uthus where he explained how the AI was trained to write like classical poets. She said, “The suggestions of the new verses are possible because the tool has been ‘trained to have a general semantic understanding of what lines of the verse would best follow a previous line of verse,’ said engineer Dave Uthus. ‘Even if you write on topics not commonly seen in classic poetry, the system will try its best to make suggestions that are relevant,’ he added” (Gupta 2020, par.4). By training the AI in this fashion, the tool allows modern poets to write about modern topics, themes, and concepts, while imitating classical style and voice.

While this software can prove to be a useful writing too, it isn’t intended to replace talented poets. Saroha concludes his article by noting that the tool is meant to aid poets rather than replacing them. He said, “Through the tool, Google aims to ‘augment’ the creative process of composing a poem. Google said Verse by Verse is a creative helper, an inspiration and not a replacement” (Saroha 2021, par.11 ).

Google’s Verse by Verse, an AI poetry-writing tool. Photo by Payton Hayes.

I First Used Verse by Verse In 2020

I was first introduced to Verse by Verse in 2020 and I tried it just to see how effective it could be. At the time, I was really getting into my own religious deconstruction and exploring overt sexuality and expression. As a result, my writing at the time certainly reflected my interests and spiritual journey. I typed in words such as holy, prayer, pleasure, love, lust, sex, worship, devotion, god, and church. The poets I selected as my muses were Whitman, Emerson, and Poe and as I wrote each verse on the left, they provided me with inspiration from the column on the right.

I do not have the original poem the AI created when I first did this exercise in 2020 however, from that, I ended up with the following poem:

PRAYER

"Oh God," she says, hands clasped together, fingers entwined, knees bent.

He doesn't answer; he does.

he answers with earnest, continued, devoted worship

head bowed, eyes closed, his mind devoid of all else but this

—this soul-shaking, earth-shattering pleasure, this blessed communion between man and woman,

the Holy Spirit an undoubted voyeur through the candlelight,

this holy practice wherein they do some of their finest praying. (Hayes 2020)

Revisiting Verse by Verse in 2022

To show you how this AI writes poetry and how it’s suggestions can be effective for your own poetry writing, I decided to give it another go in 2022. Below is a gallery of screenshots from the tool as I entered each verse/line at a time. As you can see, my muses Emerson, Poe, and Whitman all provided me with interesting and unique suggestions to include in my poem.

I used words and phrases that came to mind, without rhyme or reason. I typed out ten verses and my chosen muses produced three lines each to help inspire my poem. Below are the twenty-seven lines from each poet in the right column (totaling eighty-one lines among my muses).

Ralph Waldo Emerson Muse

Tides of the hands of the bold,

Tides of the North wind, and to woods

Tides of the hands of the snow;

Hearing a weary weary voice at happy eve,

Hearing a happy poet recount

Hearing a weary poet high

Whilst upper wits, and for their memory ave

Dwarfed for thy harp to willing hand;

Victor over war’s enchanted lid

Spreading their scent through a ian gold;

House in for the blood of their delight,

Bright with homage to their well-known delight!

Wield these young honey wine for their delight:

Escort and beauty for their sick delight:

Their shining beauty to each youthful lamp  

Knew that their roar and pulse of kindred air:

Wield these first tones that shine through speak;

Bright with homage to their well-known delight!

Soothes with their shining sorrow;

Mixed with sand by other true delight.

Scent with thy summer horn.

Spreading their scent through fancy and desire;

Stream through thy friendship to the upper air,--

Beer and cup from every cottage beams–

Freedom and beauty for a delicate beams.

Strewed the wide wave with their enchanted maids;

Mixed with sand by other true liberty.

Walt Whitman Muse

Entering my feet over the prairies,

Wherein each stands or sweeps in the though,

Entering my feet upon the prairies

Splashing the waves with a yellow light,

Splashing the waves over the beach at night,

Splashing the river with a mystic midnight light,

Gave up the mighty and diverse hand

Rose the old drunkard, with a long side,

Making the young land tremble for the soul;

Wherein I feel so certain and happy,

Wherein all women pass from the world,

Encircled by a servant at hand;

Encircled by a servant at hand;

Making a song of a open air;

E’er lashes and clothes without wealth.

Thunder on stride on stride on lean words:

Rich greenish drift and the measureless light;

Wherein I understand each breath and the age;

Encircled by a delicate mouth and hand.

Mighty and perfect pour through the night.

Perfume the white arms of the summer night

Rich with ample forms and barbarian words,

Rich and perfect play for other globes!

Light the world with a mystic motion;

Encircled by a world in other bay;

Encircled by a perfect float in the air;

Encircled by a perfect float in the air:

Edgar Allan Poe Muse

Which fall’st into this world like rain

When in an happy Runic rhyme,

Wherein my youth and dreams and words,

Light as the lavas of summer air

Drowning a wild feeling with the sound

Tempting and dreaming in this passionate light

Filled with deep thoughts of thee.

Brought a silver, silken rest.

Brought a silver silken veil of light,

Beside the dames that gilded each bright noon,

Filled with light of life and light!

Brought down the world to me with their delight;

Put my own solace to a golden light,

Brought a silvery silken veil of light,

Hold about my fingers with their delight,

Divulge this secrets of that lovely isle!

To breathe those voice of thine. The lovely light

Nor ask the riches of the summer air;

To breathe those kisses of the summer air.

Sorrow with its own light eye.

Filled with light of many eyes.

A fountain of light. No living light

Hold about my fingers with their delight

Hold about my fingers as a crown.

Brought on a throne in their elysian air;

To breathe those kisses of the jewelled air;

To breathe those voice of thine.The lovely light

So, the muses definitely wrote…something. It’s not necessarily poetry —yet.

From those lines, I narrowed them down to my favorites in the following lines:

Wield these young honey wine for their delight:

Their shining beauty to each youthful lamp  

Splashing the river with a mystic midnight light,

Wherein I feel so certain and happy,

Encircled by a delicate mouth and hand.

Light the world with a mystic motion;

Tempting and dreaming in this passionate light

Brought a silver silken veil of light,

Put my own solace to a golden light,

Brought a silvery silken veil of light,

Hold about my fingers with their delight,

To breathe those kisses of the summer air.

Here, you could put these lines back into the AI to see what you get. I decided to rework them myself to make them less abstract. The lines crossed out above, I ended up using below. I kept my first verse, “feminine beauty dressed in light” and used that as the first line for the poem.

Feminine being dressed in light

To breathe those kisses of the summer air

Held about her fingers my delight

Washed softly away my every care

Encircled by a delicate mouth and hand

Wherein I feel so happy and certain

Her shining beauty imprinted in the sand

She is most deserving of devotion

You don’t have to use all of the lines the muses provided you with. As you can see, I have only used a handful here. This poem isn’t complete, but you get the idea. I’m going to set these lines aside for use with another poem later.  The suggestions from the muses in the tool may not have been completely sensible or eloquent, but its a great starting point for poets who may be stuck. It’s also a great way to practice mimicking your favorite classical poet’s writing style if you’d like. Although AI cannot yet write poetry that is indistinguishable from human poetry, it can certainly serve as a useful tool in your own poetry practice.

The next time you find yourself stuck on a line, try using AI to help you finish out your poem! If you try this, leave your work in the comments below! What was your favorite line the muses came up with? Let me know below!

Thank you for reading this blog post and if you’re interested in reading more about AI poetry or delving deeper into the sources I mentioned above, check out the bibliography and further reading sections below! Additionally, if you’d like to read similar posts, check out the related topics section. Lastly, if you want to read more posts from me, check out my recent blog posts.

Bibliography

• Saroha, Aditya. “Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ can help you write poetry.” The Hindu, November, 28, 2021. (Paragraphs 8 and 10-11).

•  Google, “Verse By Verse” Google AI: Semantic Experiences. (AI Writing Tool and About Section). 

• Hayes, Payton. “Google’s Verse by Verse.” Photos, January, 16, 2023 (Photo Gallery).

• Holyoak, Keith . “Can AI Write Authentic Poetry?” The MIT Press Reader, December 7, 2022. (Paragraphs 6 and 10).

• Oxford English Dictionary, third ed.  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), s.v. “artificial intelligence, n.” 

• Danilyuk, Pavel.  (@pavel-danilyuk), “Robot Holding a Red Flower.” Unsplash photo," May 28, 2021. (Thumbnail photo). 

• Gupta, Rudrani. “Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ Lets You Imitate Writing Style Of Your Favourite Classical Poet.” She The People. November 26, 2020. (Paragraph 4). 

Further Reading

• “Can a machine write better than you?—5 Best (and worst) AI Poem generators.”by Sara Barkat,  September 27, 2022. 

• “How I Use Artificial Intelligence as a Conversation Partner to Write Poetry.” by Lance Cummings, September 9, 2022. 

• “Google’s New AI Helps You Write Poetry Like Poe.” by Matthew Hart, November 24, 2020. 

• “Can AI Write Poetry? — Look at the Examples to Decide.” by Kirsty Kendall,  May 4, 2022.  

• “Why Tomorrow’s Poets Will Use Artificial Intelligence.” by Lance Cummings,  July 1, 2022.  

• “What Happens When Machines Learn To Write Poetry.” by Dan Rockmore,  January 7, 2020.

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• 25 Strangely Useful Websites To Use For Research and Novel Ideas

• “Twenty Little Poetry Projects” Writing Exercise by Jim Simmerman

• Writing Exercises from Jeff Tweedy's Book, How To Write One Song

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• Self-Care Tips for Bookworms

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• 8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages: How To Beat Writer’s Block

• Know The Rules So Well That You Can Break The Rules Effectively

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Let’s Talk Amateur Author Anxiety: 7 Writer Worries That Could Be Holding You Back 

• Why Fanfiction is Great Writing Practice and How It Can Teach Writers to Write Well

• Screenwriting for Novelists: How Different Mediums Can Improve Your Writing

• Experimentation Is Essential For Creators’ Growth (In Both Art and Writing)

• 20 Things Writers Can Learn From Dreamers

• Check out my other Writing Advice and Artificial Intelligence (AI) blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

Info-Dumping in Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels by Breyonna Jordan

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by, and if you’re a returning reader, it’s nice to see you again! For this post, Breyonna Jordan is taking over the blog to tell you all about info-dumping in science-fiction and fantasy novels! Leave her a comment and check out her website and other socials!

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Breyonna Jordan loves exploring new frontiers—underground cities, mythical kingdoms, and expansive space stations, to be exact. As a developmental editor, she relishes every opportunity to help world-builders improve their works and learn more about the wonderful world of writing. She enjoys novels that are fresh, far-reaching, and fun and she can’t wait to see your next book on her TBR list.

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Follow & Connect With Breyonna On These Platforms:

Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Website

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Breyonna Jordan is a developmental editor who specializes in science-fiction and fantasy.

What is Info-Dumping? 

When writing sci-fi or fantasy, there’s a steep curve on how much the audience needs to know—a world of a curve in fact.

You may have pages and pages of elaborate world histories that readers must be filled in on—the current and past ruling monarchs, failed (or successful) uprisings, how natural resources became so scarce in this particular region, or why a military state exists in this country, but not in the surrounding lands. 

Alternatively, you may feel the need to include pages of small details concerning the settings and characters your readers are exploring. While it’s important to include specific details in your writing—the reader can’t possibly know that the night sky features four moons unless you convey these details—oftentimes, the excess exposition can be overwhelming to readers. 

This info-dumping can be a pervasive problem in fiction, maybe even the problem that stops you from finding an awesome agent or from obtaining a following on Amazon.

So, below I’ve offered some tips for spotting info-dumping, reasons for and the potential consequences of info-dumping, as well as several tips for avoiding the info-dump. 

How Do You Identify Info-Dumping In Your Manuscript?

A section of your work may contain info-dumping if you find: 

• you are skipping lines while reading (Brotzel 2020),

• the paragraphs are very long,

• there is little action and conflict occurring,

• your voice (and not your characters) has slipped in,

• that it looks like it was copied directly from your outline

To help you get a better idea of what excessive exposition can look like, here are two examples of info-dumping from the first chapter of a sci-fantasy manuscript I worked on: 

“Hawk was guarding the entrance to the cave while Beetle went for the treasure. These were not their real names of course but code-names given to them by their commander (now deceased) to hide their true identities from commoners who may begin asking questions. Very few people in the world knew their true names and survived to speak it. Hawk and Beetle knew each other’s true names but had sworn to secrecy. They were the youngest people on their team. Beetle was seventeen with silver hair and had a talent for tracking. Hawk was twenty-one with brown hair which he usually wore under a white bandana. He was well-mannered and apart from his occupation in burglary was an honest rule-follower. Beetle and Hawk had known each other since they were children and were as close as brothers.”

“It is one of the greatest treasures in the entire world of Forest #7. This was thought only to have existed in legend and theological transcripts. This Staff was powered by the Life Twig, a mystic and ancient amulet said to contain the soul of Wind Witch, a witch of light with limitless powers.”

Why Do Writers Info-Dump and What Impacts Does It Have On Their Manuscripts?

As a developmental editor who works primarily with sci-fi and fantasy writers, I’ve seen that info-dumping can be especially difficult for these authors to avoid because their stories often require a lot of background knowledge and world-building to make sense. 

In space operas, for example, there may be multiple species and planetary empires with complex histories to keep track of. In expansive epic fantasies, multiple POV characters may share the stage, each with their own unique backstory, tone, and voice.

Here are some other reasons why world-builders info-dump:

• they have too many characters, preventing them from successfully integrating various traits,

• they want to emphasize character backstories as a driver of motivation,

• their piece lacks conflict or plot, using exposition to fill up pages instead, 

• they are unsure of the readers ability to understand character goals, motivations, or actions without further explanation,

• they want to share information that they’ve researched (Brotzel 2020),

• they want readers to be able to visualize their worlds the way they see them

A Hobbit house with wood stacked out front. Photo by Jeff Finley.

Though these are important considerations, info-dumping often does more harm than good. Most readers don’t want to learn about characters and settings via pages of exposition and backstory. Likewise, lengthy descriptions:

• distract readers from story and theme, 

• encourage the use of irrelevant details,

• make your writing more confusing by hiding key details,

• decrease dramatic tension by boring the reader,

• slow the pacing and immediacy of writing,

• prevent you from learning to masterfully handle characterization and description 

Think back to the examples listed above. Can you see how info-dumping can slow the pace from a sprint to a crawl? Can you spot all the irrelevant details that detract from the reader's experience? Do you see the impact of info-dumping on the author’s ability to effectively characterize and immerse the reader in the scene?

Info-dumping is a significant issue in many manuscripts. Often, it’s what divides the first drafts from fifth drafts, a larger audience from a smaller one, a published piece from the slush pile. 

What Techniques Can Be Used to Mitigate Info-Dumping?

That said, below are three practical tips to help you avoid and resolve info-dumping in your science-fiction and fantasy works: 

1. Keep focus on the most important details. You can incorporate further information as the story develops. This will allow readers to remain engrossed in your world without overwhelming them. It will also help you maintain a robust setting in which there’s something new for readers to explore each time the character visits. 

2. Weave details between conflict, action, and dialogue (Miller 2014). This will allow the reader to absorb knowledge about your world without losing interest or becoming confused. An expansive galactic battle presents the perfect opportunity to deftly note the tensions between races via character dialogue and behavior. A sword fighting lesson can easily showcase new technology (Dune anyone?). A conversation about floral arrangements for a wedding can subtlysubtely convey exposition. Just make sure to keep the dialogue conversational and realistic. 

3. Allow the reader to be confused sometimes. Most sci-fi and fantasy readers expect to be a bit perplexed by new worlds in the earliest chapters. They understand that they don’t know anything, and thus expect not to learn everything at once. Try not to worry too much about scaring them off with new vocabulary and settings. They can pick up on context clues and make inferences as the story progresses. handle it. If you’re still concerned about the amount of invented terminology and definitions, consider adding a glossary to the back matter of the book instead. 

Of course, this all raises the question…

Is It Ever Okay to Info-Dump? 

You might think to yourself, “I want to stop info-dumping, but it’s so difficult to write my novel without having to backtrack constantly to introduce why this policy exists, or why this seemingly obvious solution won’t end the Faerie-Werewolf War.” 

If you’re a discovery writer, it might be downright impossible to keep track of all these details without directly conveying them in text which is why I encourage you to do exactly that. 

Dump all of your histories into the novel without restraint. Pause a climactic scene to spend pages exploring why starving miners can’t eat forest fruit or how this life-saving magical ritual was lost due to debauchery in the forbidden library halls. 

Write it all down…

Foggy woods illuminated by a soft, warm light. Photo by Johannes Plenio.

But be prepared to edit it down in the second, third, or even fourth drafts. 

Important information may belong in your manuscript, but info-dumps should be weeded out of your final draft as much as possible. 

Additionally, as I mention often, I am a firm disbeliever in the power and existence of writing rules. There are novels I love that use info-dumping liberally and even intentionally (re: Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams). Most classics use exposition heavily as well and they remain beloved by fans old and new. 

However, what works for one author may not work for everyone and modern trends in reader/ publisher-preference regard info-dumping as problematic. Heavy reliance on exposition is also connected to other developmental problems, such as low dramatic tension and poor characterization. 

If you are intentional about incorporating large swaths of exposition and it presents a meaningful contribution to your work, then info-dumping might be a risk worth taking. If the decision comes down to an inability to deal with description and backstory in other ways then consider reaching out to an editor or writing group instead. 

What are some techniques you’ve used to avoid info-dumping in your story? Let us know in the comments!

Bibliography

• Brotzel, Dan. “Get On With It! How To Avoid Info Dumps in Your Fiction.” Medium article, February 12, 2020. 

• Finley, Jeff. “Hobbit House.” Unsplash photo, February 28, 2018.

•  Gililand, Stein Egil. “Beautiful Green Northern Lights in the Sky.” Pexels photo,   January 7, 2014 (Thumnail photo).

• Miller, Kevin.“How to Avoid the Dreaded Infodump.” Book Editing Associates article, April 14, 2014.

• Plenio, Johannes. “Forest Light.” Unsplash photo, February 13, 2018.

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• Book Writing 101: How To Come Up With Great Book Ideas And What To Do With Them

• Book Writing 101: How To Write A Book (The Basics)

• Book Writing 101: Starting Your Book In The Right Place

• Book Writing 101: How To Choose The Right POV For Your Novel

• Book Writing 101: How To Achieve Good Story Pacing

• Book Writing 101: How To Name Your Book Characters

• Book Writing 101: How to Develop and Write Compelling, Consistent Characters

• Book Writing 101: Everything You Need To Know About Dialogue

• How To Write Romance: Effective & Believable Love Triangles

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• How To Write Romance: 10 Heart-Warming and Heart-Wrenching Scenes for Your Romantic Thriller

• How To Write Romance: Believable Best Friends-To-Lovers 

• How To Write Romance: The Perfect Meet Cute

• Check out my other Book Writing 101 and How To Write Romance posts.

• Book Marketing 101: Everything Writers Need To Know About Literary Agents and Querying

• How To Submit Your Writing To—And Get It Published In—Literary Journals

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

Experimentation Is Essential For Creators’ Growth (In Both Art and Writing)

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by, and if you’re a returning reader, it’s nice to see you again! Experimenting as an artist, creator, or writer is a crucial step in your creative career. Practicing experimentation early and regularly throughout your artistic life keeps your work fresh, innovative, unique, and engaging for both you and your audience. Aspiring or amateur artists should not commit to any one specific style until they’ve had time to experiment with different styles, themes, and mediums. And once they’ve landed on a signature style they enjoy, it is wise to continue experimenting from time to time.

An experiment is a scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact. In science, this is true, but it is also the case for art and for writing. When creating art, there are many aspects of the artistic process that can be changed or played with to provide different results.

Vandy, in his article 'Should Artists Experiment?', stated, 'In the world of art, often when we say experiment we think of a psychological process of working out what we like and don’t like about the act of making art and the final result' (Massey, 2020).

For example, in resin art, the artist can use alcohol ink, watercolor, acrylic, pigment, glitter, gouache, sharpies, beads, charms, cabochons, or just about any material between each layer of resin or submerged inside the resin. This example alone shows how much creative freedom we have with just one medium. Consider how you can experiment with different tools as a painter or sculptor. In what ways can you experiment with different colors, saturations, inversions, scales, and shading? In what ways can an artist explore the same subject across multiple mediums? How will an artist’s concept change from pen and paper to digital drawing on a tablet? The possibilities are truly endless and every artist’s experiments will naturally be unique.

I’ve been making art since 2010, and writing since well before then, and I still experiment with my work.Although I now have a style I tend to stick with, that wasn’t always the case, and for most of my artistic practice, my works looked as if each one came from a different artist—you’d never know my hands had created them just by looking at them.

Experimentation helps encourage creativity, freedom to try new things, and broadens your perspective as an artist and creator.

In her article, “Why Artists Must Experiment,” Kathleen Kralowec said “Recognizing an act as an experiment releases it from a lot of seriousness, a lot of demands of perfection. The outcome of experimentation is knowledge, and failure is just as valuable as success, because one has expanded one’s awareness of one’s own abilities, one’s deeper ideas, the potential of a media, a process, a genre, an art-form” (Kralowec 2019).

Art studio filled with canvases and murals done in many different styles. Photo by Matthieu Camoy.

Experimenting with style

Before committing to a signature style or aesthetic, experiment with a wide array of different styles. Try experimenting with patterns, colors, shapes, themes, mediums and styles. No two artists' works are the same and even derivative works can be unique in their own way. Conduct style studies to practice techniques you admire or those outside your comfort zone. For example, try drawing the same sketch ten times, each time emulating a different artist's style to familiarize yourself with various techniques.

Below are a few examples of the Style Challenge artists have been partaking in across social media. The challenge is for an artist to draw something in their own style and then replicate it several more times in other popular animated art styles such as anime, Disney, cartoons, and comic books styles.

Never settle on a specific style; instead continue to always experiment, innovate, and evolve your art, whilst retaining an underlying current of your own style.

Art style challenges on social media

“draw different styles” by p0kky.

“Style Challenge” by emzdrawings.

“Hijabi” by XenoPurple_Art

“Art Style Challenge” by erinleedani.

“Art Style Challenge” by Yulaukira

“Style Challenge” by Mcseal.

Experimenting with themes and motifs

Art studio filled with colorful canvases depicting different styles and themes. Photo by Dom J.

Consider using different themes and subject matter in your work. If you typically write about nonfiction topics, consider writing a short story or poetry. If you usually paint realistic animals, try painting people or still-life paintings instead. If you usually draw geometric forms in your work, try experimenting with realism or surrealism instead. If you typically write comedy, consider painting something with a more political message behind it. If you typically draw geometric or abstract sketches, try drawing something inspired by another work you like such as a Swan Lake ballet performance or a video game character. Experiment with various themes and messages and see how art with similar concepts is translated across different mediums.

Experimenting with techniques

A myriad of techniques can be used across many different art styles and mediums. Creatively mixing and matching techniques with different styles, mediums, and themes, can result in interesting, unique, and engaging art. It also strengthens your skills and creativity as an artist—having to try new things, troubleshoot, and make creative decisions to reach your desired outcome.

In her blog post, Rebecca of the Rebecca Art Tutor blog explains how she instructed students on a variety of techniques and required they use them to illustrate a textured object in a new and interesting way, leaving the creative decisions up to the students. She said, “We had learnt layering paint, dry-brush, different types of brush strokes, scratching into, lifting off, splatter, dots, impasto and more. We then did an exercise where we had to select a textured object (wood, fur, feathers etc.) and represent it with a painting technique….Although still slightly confused by the idea that …[the student] had the answer to ‘how to do fur’... [and] started representing fur with the fan brush in a very effective way…. I had taught the general techniques but allowed the learner to make the connection of how these techniques could be used.” (Rebecca 2022)

This is a fantastic example of how experimentation can result in effective use of techniques to produce interesting and unique outcomes.

Experimenting with size and scale

If you’re an artist who typically paints large-scale works such as signs, murals, and backdrops, consider downsizing to practice your hand at details. Both large and small scale art has it’s upsides; small scale art focuses more on details and large scale art focuses more on the big picture. Experiment with size and shape in your work and you’ll find you prefer one over the other and its freeing to focus on other aspects of an art piece from time to time.

Artist looking through her canvases depicting many different themes, styles, and subjects. Photo is a still from a video by Antoni Shkraba.

Experimenting with different mediums

If you’re a sketch artist, try working with watercolor, ink pens, markers, colored pencils, or crayons. If you’re a sculptor, try creating sculptures from mixed media such as plastic, wood, metal, paper, paper mache, yarn, or stone. If you’re a novel writer, try experimenting with poetry, nonfiction, or screenwriting. If you’re a digital artist, try your hand at video editing or animation. The examples are endless, but the advice is the same: experiment across different mediums to see what you enjoy using and to strengthen your skills as an artist.

Kralowec said that by experimenting, we can learn what kind of space we work best in, learn what kind of daily practice, pace, or goal-structure we thrive in, learn about the rules and how to effectively break them, and we can stumble on new genres, approaches or styles: the creation of something truly new.

In my sophomore year of college, I did an art capstone class, where the final project was to produce a large fine art piece that could be sold in a gallery. One crucial step of this project process was to produce a test piece prior to working with our fine art materials and larger-scale canvases. The pieces I submitted for the final grade were 2ft (L) x 2ft (W) (test piece) and 3 x 2ft (L) x 4ft (W) (final project triptych). I was working with ink and wood and it was essential that I do a test piece to ensure my materials worked well together. After all, the test piece came out better than the actual final project, in my personal opinion. But I learned a valuable lesson in art through that project; art has a mind of its own and all the planning in the world can still result in the unexpected. Experimentation frees us from the turmoil we feel when our creative visions do not turn out quite like we’d planned.

Experimentation and innovation in art is an important skill to build for any creator. Artists should not box themselves into any one style or medium and instead look for new ways to breathe life and intrigue into their work. They will become a stronger, more diverse, artist for it. Writers should do the same. Writers should challenge themselves by working across different storytelling mediums, genres, and styles whilst retaining their own unique voice between the lines.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post about experimentation in art. This advice can be applied to any creative skill and is encouraged for artists of all genres, mediums, and walks of life. If you already do experiment in your work, let me know in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Comoy, Matthieu. “Art studio with wall graffiti.” Unsplash photo, July 26, 2017. 

• Dom J “Horse and figure paintings.” Pexels photo, October 5, 2017.

• bodobe “Paint supplies” Pixabay photo, September 2, 2015 (Thumbnail).

• emzdrawings. “Style Challenge.” Deviantart post, Jul 24, 2019.

• erinleedani. “Art Style Challenge.” Instagram post, accessed November 7, 2022. 

• Kralowec, Kathleen. “Why Artists Must Experiment” Medium article, June 12, 2019.

• Massey, Vandy. “Should Artists Experiment?” Vandy Massey Studio blog post, August 5, 2020. 

• Mcseal. “Style Challenge.” Medibang.com, ArtStreet post, 2019. 

• p0kky. “draw different styles.” Deviantart post, June 21, 2019.

• Rebecca “The Importance of Experimenting in Art” Rebecca Art Tutor blog post, accessed November 7, 2022. 

• Shkraba, Antoni. “Woman looking at paintings.” Pexels photo,  June 2, 2020. 

• XenoPurple. “Hijabi.” Deviantart post, October 25, 2015.

• Yulaukira. “Art Style Challenge.” Medibang.com, ArtStreet post, 2021.

Related Topics

• “Twenty Little Poetry Projects” Writing Exercise by Jim Simmerman

• Writing Exercises from Jeff Tweedy's Book, How To Write One Song

• Why Fanfiction is Great Writing Practice and How It Can Teach Writers to Write Well

• Screenwriting for Novelists: How Different Mediums Can Improve Your Writing

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages: How To Beat Writer’s Block

• Know The Rules So Well That You Can Break The Rules Effectively

• Let’s Talk Amateur Author Anxiety: 7 Writer Worries That Could Be Holding You Back 

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• Self-Care Tips for Bookworms

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• 8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• 20 Things Writers Can Learn From Dreamers

• Check out my other Writing Advice blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

8 Reasons Why Having A Creative Community Matters

Two writers working on their projects together. Photo by Windows.

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

If you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by, and if you’re a returning reader, it’s nice to see you again! In this post, we’re discussing eight reasons why it is not only beneficial but also why having a writing community is essential for helping writers break out of their shell, embrace criticism, and grow as storytellers. When we hear the word “writer,” the image that comes to mind is that of a hermit holed up in their office or writing room, hunched over their desk, writing at all hours, alone. However, this is often not the case when it comes to successful writers. While writing itself is often a solitary activity, there's a lot of other people involved in the publishing process from mentors, to beta readers to editors, to critique groups, to agents and publishers. The process of writing, editing, and publishing a manuscript isn’t done alone.

However, many writers still forget this crucial part of writing. Writing partners and critique groups serve as excellent sources for feedback, critiques, and writing advice. Many writers avoid writing communities and try to do it all alone. Without other writers around to encourage you, support you, and hold you accountable, it’s easy to give up on your goals.

1. Support

A writing community can provide essential support to both seasoned and aspiring writers alike. I am part of a couple of Facebook writing and editing groups and just scrolling through their posts provides me with an abundance of motivation and support to keep doing what I do. It feels amazing just seeing what everyone else is working on and reading supportive comments from fellow group members. There are many stages of the writing process where writers give up. The difference between an unfinished draft and a published book is a strong writing community.

2. Accountability

A writing community can hold you accountable to your goals. If you’re already great at meeting objectives and reaching your goals, then maybe you can show someone else how to. Many writers still struggle with meeting deadlines and achieving their goals. Having a writing community to fall back on is immensely helpful. Even when you don’t feel like writing, their commentary and advice is motivating and inspiring.

3. Feedback

We’ve all gotten feedback from friends and family, and it’s just not as helpful or constructive as advice from other writers. They don’t understand the genre, demographic, subject matter, or other story elements and provide biased feedback when asked their thoughts. Having a writing community means you have access to constructive, actionable, relevant feedback and in turn, you can provide the same for your fellow writers.

4. Advice

Much like feedback, useful writing advice is essential, and non-writers aren’t equipped to provide it. Writers can recommend books, blogs, guides, YouTube videos, speakers, podcasts, and tons of other useful content to each other through their writing communities.

5. Reaching Readers

Writing communities do not have to be exclusive to just writers; readers are a big part of writing communities too. Take beta readers for example —they enjoy reading novel drafts and providing readers with feedback relevant to their genre. Readers can provide vital advice and critiques to writer’s works without the writer’s lenses. A community of dedicated readers or your target audience can be extremely beneficial to you as a writer, especially during the marketing phase.

6. Inspiration

Group of writers cheering each other on in the library. Photo by Yan Krukov.

Inspiration is an important part of the writing process and watching your fellow writers grow and succeed in their craft can serve as crucial motivation and inspiration to keep you on track with your craft as well. The same reason writers read books from their genre or works from their favorite writers, they can also take feedback from their writing community as inspiration.

7. Helping Others

Helping other writers learn and grow in their craft is a wonderfully rewarding feeling. If you’ve got experience writing, you can share it with your writing community and maybe teach someone something they didn’t already know. Writers often post questions in community forums or groups on Facebook seeking advice for specific struggles in the writing process. Helpful answers from fellow writers can be more useful and actionable than simply asking a friend for their opinion or having to sift through a long blog post to answer a quick question.

8. Tribe

Last but not least, having a writing community means that you have a tribe to belong to. Writers from all walks of life come together for a common goal: to write a book, leave a legacy, and make their mark on the world. Having a connected, empowering, inspirational, constructive community is essential for writers of every genre and level of expertise and having a tribe to belong to is important for anyone regardless of if they are readers or writers.

I’ve included some examples of writing communities that I am a part of below.

Bonus Tip: Check Out The Writing Communities Online and Near You

Oklahoma Writing Communities

Below are a few of the writing communities in Oklahoma:

• Yukon Writer’s Society

• Red Dirt Writers

• The Golden Pony Writers Guild @ The University of Oklahoma

• Writers of Oklahoma Facebook Group

Writer’s Societies at UCO

Below are a few of the writer’s societies I am a part of at the University of Central Oklahoma:

• The English Society At UCO

• The Golden PonyCreative Writers Guild

• The Language Society at UCO

Facebook Writing and Editing Groups

Below are a few of the editorial groups I am a member of on Facebook:

• Authors and Writers Helping Each Other Grow

• I Need A Book Editor

• Ask A Book Editor

• Women Writers, Editors, Agents, and Publishers

• Writers Helping Writers

• Developmental Editor Connection Group

• #WriteTip: Writing Tips, Tricks, Tools, Techniques and Theories

• Proofreading and Editing Services

• Business + Professional Development for Editors

• BetaReader Connect Facebook Group

• Beta Readers Facebook Group

Reddit Writing Communities

• Writers Reddit Community (r/Writers)

• Writing Reddit Community(r/Writing)

• Keep Writing Reddit Community(r/KeepWriting)

• Fan Fiction Reddit Community (r/FanFiction)

• Writing Prompts Reddit Community(r/WritingPrompts)

Online Writing Forums and Communities

• Wattpad

• Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• Critique Circle

• Scribophile

• BetaBooks

• Goodreads Beta Reader Groups

• Reader’s Favorite

•  Absolute Write Water Cooler

•  NaNoWriMo Forums

• Mythic Scribes

• Reedsy Discovery

• Writer’s Café on The Next Big Writer

Other Spaces To Build A Writing Community Online

• Twitter/X–Use hashtags like #BetaReaders, #WritingCommunity, #SeekingBetaReaders or #AmWriting to find potential readers.

• Discord Servers–Join writing servers like The Writing Community or BetaReader Connect for live feedback.

• TikTok–Connect with and engage with fellow TikTokers in the BookTok Community.

That’s it for my list of 8 Reasons Why Having Writing Community Matters. Do you have a writing community? How has it helped you in your writing practice? What are some of your favorite writing communities online and in your area? Let me know in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Goodman, Jason. “five person by table watching turned on white iMac photo.” Unsplash photo, March 14, 2019 (Thumbnail photo).

• Krukov, Yan. “Group of People Smiling and Standing Near Brown Wooden Table Raising Hands.” Pexels photo, June 3, 2021. 

• Windows. “3 women sitting on chair.” Unsplash photo, April 22, 2020.

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• Check out my other Writing Advice and Author Advice blog posts!

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

For Content Creators and CEOs with ADHD: Strategies to Succeed Despite Overwhelm and Distractions

This blog post was written by a human. 

Hi readers and writerly friends!

As someone with severe adult ADHD, I personally know how this neurotype can affect one’s personal and professional life. ADHD is a neurodivergence, not a disorder, and worth looking into whether or not you have been diagnosed with it. Readers and writers, I’ve created a list of tips and tricks (ADHD friendly) that can help you in your business whether neurotypical or neurodivergent, like myself. If you’re in a rush, check out the headers and sections in bold to get the most out of skimming this post.

Note: Some of the advice in this blog post is from my own personal experience, tips and tricks from other people I know who have ADHD, and the book, Mastering Your Adult ADHD: A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Program, Second Ed. Client Workbook by Steven A. Safren. Any quotes from the workbook are cited in-text and at the end of this post (Safren 2017)

Rearrangeable Corkboard Calendar. Photo by Monica Sauro.

Calendars, Planners, and Daily Task Lists

As per the workbook and my own experience, having a toolkit of simple, practical, sustainable, and daily organization and planning tools is key to combatting prioritization-confusion, time-blindness, and forgetfulness in general. This is true for people with and without ADHD. Having a 3-step planning system ensures consistency and employs repetition —a useful tactic for remembering important tasks day-to-day, week-by-week, and month-to-month. I’ve been using this system for three months now, and it has changed how much I can get accomplished in a single day. I’m not advising you go overboard with adding tasks to your plate and burn yourself out. But you’ll be amazed at the productivity and action you can achieve by employing a simple planning routine that can be scaled up or down and modified in many ways to fit many different lifestyles and stages of life.

How to execute this planning strategy:

• Use a Calendar for a monthly view. This can be paper or dry-erase calendar, but make sure its simple and big enough to write 1-3 important tasks, appointments, or events in each day’s space.

• Use a Planner or weekly agenda for keeping up with tasks throughout the week. Realistically plan your days so that you can get your professional and personal work done in a timely manner without overworking yourself. Unless you can consistently produce quality results, stick to no more than 3-5 tasks a day until this becomes a habit. Pick out a planner that you like and avoid choosing frills over functionality. The more space the better. I prefer just a plain planner with a calendar view for each month and a few lines for each day of the month in an agenda format. Ensure the planners size can accommodate your handwriting as well as portability, because this will be your middle-man between your home calendar and task list as well as your point of reference when away from home.

• Use a Daily Task List for daily task planning and organization. Again, limit your responsibilities to reflect your true capability and slowly add more tasks onto your plate when you feel comfortable doing so.

Pro Tip: Use the same color-coding system in your planner and task list as you do on your monthly calendar. Get colored pens that match your expo markers so that you can peek at either tool and read it at-a-glance, ensuring ease of understanding and consistency. Only use a color-coding system if it will benefit you, though. If you’re worried it will become too complicated, take too much time to set up, or you’ll get hung up on perfectionism, opt for 3 colors max, or skip this step altogether.

For Digital Planners: I would love to be more eco-conscious and go paperless, but the repetition of writing plans down 1-3 times helps me remember when and what I’ll be doing each day. This process also helps me to catch any discrepancies between one of my planning tools and I can catch mistakes (such as an event written on the wrong day of the month) much easier and usually before the event. However, if you’re really not one for writing things down and would prefer to go the digital route, there’s a few tools you can use to achieve the same 3-step planning system mentioned above.

Tablet displaying a virtual weekly planner. Photo by Jess Bailey.

• Pick a good virtual calendar such as Google Calendar. Color-code events as needed and try to keep colors consistent across all apps and devices.

• Use a good digital planner as well —below, I mention Notion as a great resource for note-taking but it can also serve as a fully-customizable virtual planner/agenda as well. If you’re overwhelmed by the customization, there’s a ton of other free and paid virtual planning/productivity apps out there!

• Use a simple virtual notes app or list app such as Google Keep Notes or Google Tasks. Notes has more formatting options but Tasks has a satisfying check-off function for when you’ve completed tasks.

If you’re going the virtual route, use digital alarms to help you stay on track! The Pomodoro Technique is a great strategy for getting both quality work and breaks done in a timely manner. If you’re not going digital, keep hand-held timers around your house or at your desk in the office to use to help with time management.

The workbook provides some rules for effective use of the calendar and task list:

Rules for the Calendar and Task List

The calendar and task list system replaces ALL pieces of paper

• Pieces of paper just get lost.

• Instead of keeping an appointment slip, a business card, or anything like this, copy the information onto the task list or enter it directly on your calendar.

Phone messages from voice mail or other places go on the task list.

• Log every phone message (from voice mail and so forth) on the task list as a to-do item.

• If you date when you have completed the task, you will then have a record of having done it in case anyone asks you about it in the future.

All appointments go on the calendar.

• No appointment slips that can easily get lost!

All tasks must go on the task list.

• Task list items should be looked at EVERY DAY, and revised accordingly.

Do not obsess about trying to get a perfect system.

• Many individuals want to have the perfect calendar and task list systems. Do not fall into this trap! This will just result in not having any systems.

• If you cannot decide on the “best” system, then just use a simple calendar and task list system.

• Remember it’s important to give your system a fair shot! This means keeping one system for at least three months, long enough to get used to it.

Use a system that is within your comfort zone.

• There are many options for calendar and task list systems—including paper systems, applications on smartphones or tablets, and multiple computerized applications. Many of our clients ask us which is the “best” system, and this is not really a question that we can easily answer. The question for you to ask yourself is this: “What’s the best system for me?”

— (Mastering Your Adult ADHD, 29-30)

Manageable chunks

Downsize overwhelming parts into manageable chunks. Make step-by-step processes for tasks that seem daunting and go one step at a time. This will help you manage overwhelm, anxiety, and, unnecessary busy work. Make a list of items and order them according to due date or priority, and try to get them done as soon as possible. Do not wait until the last minute, no matter how tempting that next episode of Orange Is The New Black may be. Make a reasonable, executable game plan for your goals or project, and proceed one step at at time. Don’t get hung up on the details or perfectionism, just start.

“A good plan executed right now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” —George S. Patton.

Woman looking through her weekly planner. Photo by Covene.

Task Prioritization with the A,B,C’s

Now that you know of an effective and sustainable planning strategy and you know to break overwhelming tasks up into more manageable steps, it’s time to prioritize. As mentioned earlier, without prioritizing tasks, its easy to get caught up in busy work. Getting a lot of tasks completed and crossed off your to-do list feels good, but is it really getting you closer to your goals? By being overly productive with mundane tasks, are you actually getting any important work done?

That’s where the A,B,C’s come in. I learned this strategy in the workbook as well:

List all of your tasks. Then assign an “A,” “B,” or “C” rating to each task:

• “A” Tasks: These are the tasks of highest importance. They must be completed in the short term (like today or tomorrow).

• “B” Tasks: These are lower-importance, longer-term tasks. Some portions should be completed in the short term, but other portions may take longer.

• “C” Tasks: These are the tasks of lowest importance. They may be more attractive and easier to do, but they are not as important.

Be very careful not to rate too many items as “A”!

Practice doing all of the “A” tasks before the “B” tasks and all of the “B” tasks before the “C” tasks.

— (Mastering Your Adult ADHD, 34-36)

When first going over this concept, my therapist put it this way: “A” tasks must be done on the day they’ve been assigned to. “B” tasks can be moved to other days but not move more than a week away from their original date. “C” tasks can be infinitely moved and do not require a defined date/time. An “A” task might be going to a doctor’s appointment. A “B” task might be getting your car’s oil changed. A “C” task might be finishing a book you’re reading for pleasure. This prioritization strategy will look different for everyone, especially at different stages of life.

Just remember the priority: “A”= Highest importance, “B”=Medium importance, and “C”=Lowest importance. Avoid overwhelm and burnout by strategically spacing “A” tasks throughout the week if possible. Try to limit “A” tasks to no more than 1-3 things a day until you feel comfortable with this system.

Color-coding tasks instead: If you’d rather use a color-coding system for prioritization, traffic light colors Red, Yellow, and Green make a great color-combination for action! Red= Stop what you’re doing and do the most important tasks first. Yellow=Be cautious of time and complete the lesser-important tasks next. Green= Go! on tasks of lowest importance once you’ve completed Red and Yellow tasks first!

Just “Eat the Frog” or “Start”

Have you ever heard of someone eating the frog when it comes to content creation, their personal to-do list, or professional positions? This means to start with the hardest item or most difficult item on the to-do list. This item is typically something that requires research, planning, and time to execute. It is a task that requires more energy and time to complete. Often these tasks are called ”frogs” because they’re hard to swallow, or hard to get done and often include a lot of planning and/or procrastination. By getting them done early, one can look forward to the “downhill” slope throughout the day/list. Get the hardest task out of the way and it will be easier as the day goes on.

If you’re more of a “work your way up” to the hardest task from the easiest tasks, that’s okay too! Not everyone feels comfortable starting with the “frog".” Just make sure you’re not doing busywork or deluding yourself with a false sense of productivity. Ensure your actions and “warm-up” tasks are actually moving the needle, and getting you closer to your goals.

Make use of versatile apps and devices

I’m saving for an iPad and Apple Pencil so I can do digital artwork, digitize my existing physical artwork, and start creating unique animations for my YouTube channel. I’ve seen some pointillism artists doing dotwork with tattoo guns on paper, saving their hands the trouble and repetitive stress. Utilize the technology we have today to save time tomorrow.

Clickup’s Blog has tons of great resources for productivity and combatting ADHD. Greg Swan’s post “10 Best Mind Mapping Software (Pros, Cons, Pricing)” explains how mind-mapping can be a useful tool for productivity and breaking tasks down into actionable steps:

Mind map software lets you create a diagram or flowchart of your ideas. This helps you easily illustrate the relationships and hierarchy between concepts. 

Most mind mapping tools come in different sizes to suit various needs, offering other functionality. Generally, your average mind map maker falls under one (or more) of these categories:

• Diagramming: a technical diagram such as engineering flowcharts, architectural designs, network diagrams, etc.

• Brainstorming: problem-solving sessions to organize and present an idea visually

• Business intelligence: visualize data as charts by importing it from business applications

• Software development: prepare site map diagrams, software wireframes, etc.

— (Swan, paragraphs 5-8)

Checkbox to-do list on paper. Photo by Thomas Bormans.

Take notes

When it comes to conventions, panels, educational videos, courses, classes and other avenues for creative information, remember to take notes —and not just cover vocabulary. Let’s get honest for a second, aesthetically pleasing notes make studying that much easier, for sure, but it’s not a necessary effort. As long as your notes are legible and cover important topics that will likely come up later (or for students, will be in the exam) then you are good to go. Feel free to digitize or edit your notes later. First, focus on jotting down as much information as possible.

Pro Tip: If you don’t feel confident in your ability to type as fast as the professor or speaker talks, then feel free to record the panel or discussion. Make sure you get permission/clearance before recording someone else. When you have time, type up and refine the notes into easily-digestible, succinct, effective, and at-a-glance notes. Put them on the wall, your vision board, or bathroom mirror to see them frequently until their concepts and advice is cemented solidly in your brain. Then, file your notes away in an organized fashion and make sure to refer back to them regularly.

Notion and other note-taking apps

I genuinely enjoy this app and the features it provides users. Notion has an almost overwhelming number of features and useful elements. I personally use the application to create lists, blog post rough drafts, flesh out poems, and to tack down other ideas, but this barely scratches the surface of Notion’s versatility. This post is not sponsored by Notion, nor am I affiliated with them.

Celebrate milestones, big and small

Don’t forget to celebrate hard work and milestones. Go out every once and a while to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work you’ve done. If the work is online, it can be especially hard to quantify successes or measure productivity, so go out every now and again and celebrate the small and big wins! Don’t. Skip. On. This. Even if you don’t drink, are veggie, or have a tight curfew, make sure you allow time for you to, celebrate both the small and big wins and really soak it in. When your supervisor gives you a compliment, treat yourself to a nice coffee, or when you meet a work or personal creative deadline early, grab that chocolate-chip muffin as treat (as long as your not on a diet, lol —look into other rewards systems if you’re alcohol-cruelty-gluten-free, etc.!”

FAQ pages

For entrepreneurs and creatives with websites, this page can save you a lot of time and trouble. Although it’s pretty self-explanatory, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) page serves as a buffer between you and your reader’s repetitive, previously answered/address queries. Link the FAQ page in the footer or contact section of your website and put 5-20 of the most frequently asked questions there, to help avoid repetition and wasted time re-addressing the same questions over and over again.

Lead magnets

Sometimes called freebies, lead magnets are the little juicy bits of content that readers subscribe to your content in order to access. For cooking blogs, it may be a 20-page mini cookbook. For writing blogs, it may be a short guide for combatting writer’s block or a writing checklist. Just about any website can have a lead magnet and it’s the easiest, most automatic way to obtain an email address from a visitor to your site. Lead magnets are powerful, effective, enticing marketing tools and they’re very easy to create. Design a unique, actionable, useful piece of downloadable/printable content with an editor such as Canva and upload it as a downloadable file into your newsletter block on your website. Once the reader enters his or her email into the box and hits the subscribe button, they’ll be prompted to download the content they signed up for. Now you’ve unlocked another potential customer who you can market to, straight to their inbox, and they just gave you that access!

Minibatch and time-batch tasks

Similar to prioritization and chunking tasks into more manageable steps, minibatching tasks can serve as a useful strategy for planning, organization, optimization, and execution. To do this, break your larger tasks down into smaller, doable steps, then put those smaller tasks onto your calendar or planner, according to the type of activity required to complete the task. For example, if your car needs several maintenance tasks done, schedule a time to look at and order car parts, make appointments to the alignment shop and oil-change shop, and plan a day to get all the car work done. Another example, if you need to record videos, take photos, or hop on webcam, schedule these tasks all on the same day if possible. You’ll save yourself the time and trouble of getting ready for each individual appointment and get the most wear out of your outfit/makeup/hair-styling too!

Have frequent co-working sessions

Schedule in regular co-working sessions with friends, partners, and colleagues. These sessions are for working collaboratively on projects and brainstorming and are an amazing resource for creatives and office-workers alike. Friends can help you pick paint samples and the interior design of your living room, while colleagues can help you come up with new strategies for success in the workplace. Who says you can’t have coffee in the morning with a client in the morning and meet up with your bestie for lunch in the afternoon?

Schedule “people days”

Much like the time-batching tasks, schedule all of your face-to-face appointments, coffee-shop meet-ups, conferences, phone calls, and co-working sessions in the same day, when possible. This will save you time getting read for each appointment and once you’ve made it through the first meeting, you’ll be ready to tackle the next meeting as your confidence and productivity high snowballs you throughout the day.

ADHD management and CBT therapy

Regardless of if you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD or not, these tips can be useful for anyone who gives them an honest try because they’re practical, scalable, sustainable, effective, and simple. However, these tips may not be enough if your life is a hot mess like mine was in 2020-21. After having done my own ADHD management program and CBT program for PTSD, I can truly say it has changed my life for the better. I would recommend anyone struggling with ADHD symptoms to reach out to your primary healthcare provider and discuss options for treatment with them. Depending on the severity, you may require therapy, management, medication, or lifestyle changes in order to manage any debilitating or annoying symptoms you may have. I’m not a doctor —I just know this process helped me understand and embrace myself and gave me the patience and grace to work through my challenges without shame, fear, or judgement. Please do not diagnose yourself. If you feel you may be struggling with ADHD, contact your doctor or counsellor and have a formal assessment and diagnosis done.

Thank you so much for reading this blog post! If you liked this post, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below, and please check out my other posts! If you have any other actionable tips for productivity as a creative with ADHD, drop a comment below!

If you’d like to see more of my blog posts, consider subscribing below to get updates as soon as a new blog post is published! You’ll also gain exclusive subscriber-only access to the new and improved Story Binder Printables e-Book! Feel free to check out the recent blog posts linked at the end of this post as well!

Bibliography

• Bormans, Thomas. “Free Pen Image.” Unsplash photo, August 30, 2020. 

• Covene. “woman in white long sleeve shirt, holding pen, while writing on paper.” Unsplash photo, May 21, 2021. 

• Fernandes, Nuberlson. “Man in white crew neck shirt wearing black framed eyeglasses.” Unsplash photo, February 27, 2021 (Thumbnail). 

• Notion Labs Inc. “Notion - notes, docs, tasks.” Google Play Store, accessed 11, 2022. 

• Safren, Steven A. Mastering Your Adult ADHD: A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Program, Second Ed. Client Workbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

• Sauro, Monica. “Brown calendar photo.” Unsplash photo, May 16, 2019.

• Swan, Greg. “10 Best Mind Mapping Software (Pros, Cons, Pricing)” ClickUp Blog. October 13, 2022.

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• Get Things Done With The Pomodoro Technique

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• 5 MORE Ways To Stay Organized As A Writer Or Freelancer

• 20 Tips and Tricks for a Successful Email Newsletter

• Self-Care Tips for Bookworms

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• Check out my other Productivity & Organization Writing Advice, Freelancing, and Content Creation blog posts!

Recent blog posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

Book Writing 101: Everything You Need To Know About Dialogue

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi Readers and writerly friends!

This week in Freelancing, we’re discussing dialogue tags and how to properly format them. Consider this as your new intensive, all-encompassing guide for doing fictional dialogue well.

No matter what genre you write in, learning how to write dialogue effective is an essential part of any writer’s toolkit. Poorly-written dialogue can be distracting or worse —it could cause your readers to close the book in disgust. However, dialogue that is done well can transform your characters into truly believable people and you readers into satisfied, lifelong fans. Of course, the best kind of dialogue isn’t just believable conversation between characters. Good dialogue provide exposition, involves distinct language true to the voice of the speaker, and most importantly, helps move the story along. Dialogue is directly tied to pacing, plot, and tension, and can make or break your story just as much as lame characters or a sagging plot.

This guide is separated into three parts for your convenience: 1) Dialogue Basics, 2) Punctuating Dialogue, and 3) Dialogue Tags—and is filled with cheat sheets, quick-reference-guides, examples, and more to help you with your writing! (This post took me a long time to write, so if you found it helpful, please consider leaving a comment and sharing this with your writerly friends!)

Of course, this is just my own experience as well as examples of other writers who have done dialogue well, but this is by no means a rulebook for dialogue. I’m simply a proponent of the idea that if you know the rules of the writing world well, you can effectively break them well.

Dialogue Basics

Enter late, leave early.

If you’ve been around the writing world for a moment, you might have heard this phrase tossed about when discussing scenes, pacing, and dialogue. It’s a helpful saying for remembering to start a scene at just the right time instead of too early or too late.

Alfred Hitchcock once said that “drama is life with all the boring bits cut out.” Hinging on that, you could say that good dialogue is like a real conversation without all the fluff, and one of the best/easiest ways to cut out that boring fluff is to enter the conversation as late as possible.

Think about it: How many times have you heard someone in real life or in media say, “I hate small talk.” It is the same for your readers. They don’t want to be there for every single “Hi, how are you doing today?” or “I’m doing great, how are you? Thanks for asking. The weather is lovely, isn’t it?” This is a fine and good, but its not interesting dialogue, and it’s highly unlikely that this would move any story’s plot along in a meaningful way. The same goes for other kinds of small talk that usually occurs at the beginning and end of a scene. In order to avoid this kind of slow-paced dialogue, simply enter late and leave early.

Keep dialogue tags simple.

Dialogue tags are the phrases in writing that indicate who is speaking at any given time. “I want to write a book” Layla said. In this case, “I want to write a book” is the dialogue and “Layla said” is the tag. Of course, there are plenty of other dialogue tags you could use besides “said,” such as “stated,” “exclaimed,” or “declared” and so on. When writing dialogue, you generally should keep these elaborate tags to a minimum. Think of it this way, to the reader “said” is boring and simple, but its virtually invisible. Readers expect you to use “said” and because of this, it isn’t distracting to the reader.

Remember the KISS method —Keep It Simple, Sweetie? Remember that for dialogue tags. It’s always better to air on the side of caution than risk potentially distracting your reader with overly complicated, elaborate or convoluted dialogue tags.

As American novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard put it:

“Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But ‘said’ is far less intrusive than ‘grumbled,’ ‘gasped,’ ‘cautioned,’ ‘lied’” (Leonard 2021).

“Intrusive” is the operative word here. You want to bring readers into your scene and make them feel like firsthand observers, like one of the characters in the background, without drawing attention to the fact that they’re reading a book. Wordy dialogue tags are a surefire way to yank your readers out of the immersion of a story and snap them back to reality. When you raid your thesaurus for fancy dialogue tags, you risk taking readers out of the scene for a fleeting display of your verbal virtuosity. This is true for any writing where you use convoluted language where you would be better served using simple language instead. If it serves a purpose to use uncommon or elaborate verbiage, then by all means, do so, but if its just for the sake of using big words, the practice of using “wordy” language is best avoided.

Additionally, in some instances, dialogue tags can be removed altogether. If there are only two or three people present in a conversation, dialogue tags aren’t always necessary to keep track of the speaker, especially if their voices are distinct convey a character’s personality to the reader.

Descriptive action beats are your friend.

Action beats are descriptions of the expressions, movements, or even internal thoughts that accompany the speaker’s words, and are included in the same paragraph as the dialogue to indicate that the person acting is the same person who is speaking. Action beats help illustrate what’s going on in a scene, and can even replace dialogue tags, avoiding the need for a long list of lines ending in “he said,” or “she said.”

Check out the fourth part of this guide for an example of how to use action beats to strengthen and vary your dialogue structure.

Character voices should be distinct.

Another key aspect of writing realistic and engaging dialogue is make each character sound distinctly like “themselves.” This employs the use of a number of different linguistic elements, such as syntax and diction, levels of energy and formality, humor, confidence, and any speech-related quirks (such as stuttering, lisping, or ending every sentence like it’s a question). Some of these elements may change depending on the circumstances of the conversation, and especially when it comes to whom each person is speaking, but no matter what, there should always be an underlying current of personality that helps the reader identify each speaker.

Example: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

In the very first piece of dialogue in Pride and Prejudice, readers encounter Mrs and Mr. Bennet, the former of whom is attempting to draw her husband, the latter, into a conversation of neighborhood gossip.

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

     Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

     “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”

     Mr. Bennet made no answer.

     “Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.

     “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

     This was invitation enough.

     “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.” (Austen 2002)

Austen’s dialogue is always witty, subtle, and packed with character and is never simple or convoluted. Readers instantly learn everything they need to know about the dynamic between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet from their first interaction: she’s chatty, and he’s the beleaguered listener who has learned to entertain her idle gossip.

Develop character relationships.

Dialogue is an excellent tool to demonstrate and develop character relationships throughout your story. Good dialogue establishes relationships, but great dialogue adds new, engaging layers of complexity to them.

One of the best ways to ensure your character’s dialogue reflects their personalities and relationships is to practice some dialogue writing exercises. It’s likely that you won’t actually end up using the products of these exercises in your writing, but they’re an easy, low-pressure way to practice developing your characters and their relationships to one another.

For this kind of practice, I’ve found that exercises like “What Did You Say?” are particularly helpful.

Pretend three of your characters have won the lottery. How does each character reveal the big news to their closest friend? Write out their dialogue with unique word choice, tone, and body language in mind.

If the lottery isn’t interesting enough, consider changing things up. Maybe three of your characters have a role to play in a murder investigation. Each one knows a different take on what happened. Lottery or murder investigation aside, developing your character’s relationship will teach you more about your characters themselves, their stories and circumstances, and how to write dialogue that best fits within that framework.

 Find similar exercises here.

Developing character relationships alongside and through dialogue is an excellent opportunity to work on both simultaneously. In this exercise, there are a number of characteristics that will affect how each character perceives and delivers the news that they’ve won the lottery (or that they’ve been involved in a murder investigation).

These characteristics might include whether a character:

• Is confident and outgoing vs. shy and reserved

• Takes things in a lighthearted manner rather than being too serious

• Has lofty personal aspirations or doesn’t

• Couldn’t care less or wants to help others

• Thinks they deserve good things or not

Carefully consider each of your characters and which of these categories they fall into. This should help you determine how they all relate and react to each other in the context of such news.

Show, don’t tell.

We’ve all heard this slice of writing advice, probably more times than we can count, but it’s for good reason. Much like the “enter late, leave early” saying, you’ve probably seen or heard this phrase making rounds throughout the writing world. It’s a sliver of advice that creatives like to use as a buzz phrase in writing communities, but there may be a golden nugget of wisdom to be found in it.

Readers enjoy making inferences based on the clues the author provides, so don’t just lay everything out on the table. This doesn’t mean be cryptic —on the contrary. It basically means you should imply information rather than outright stating it.

Take the dialogue below for example. Even if this is the first instance the reader encounters of Jones and Walker, its easy to deduce that they are police officers who used to work together, that they refer to each other by their last names, and that Jones misses Walker — and possibly wants him to come back, despite Walker’s intentions to stay away.

 Hey, Jones. Long time no see.”

“Heh, Yeah, Walker, tell me about it. The precinct isn’t the same without you.”

“Well, you know I had good reason for leaving.”

“I do. But I also thought you might change your mind.”

However, cloaking this information in dialogue is a lot more interesting than the narrator simply saying, “Jones and Walker used to work together on the force. Walker left after a grisly murder case, but now Jones needs his help to solve another.”

Of course, sometimes dialogue is a good vehicle for literally telling — for instance, at the beginning or end of a story, it can be used for exposition or to reveal something dramatic, such as a villain’s scheme. But for the most part, dialogue should show rather than tell in order to keep readers intrigued, constantly trying to figure out what it means.

Bounce quickly back and forth.

When writing dialogue, it’s also important to bounce quicky back and forth between speakers, like in a tennis match. Consider the ping-pong pace of this conversation between an unnamed man and a girl named Jig, from Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants".

It might seem simple or obvious, but this rule can be an easy one to forget when one speaker is saying something important. The other person in the conversation still needs to respond. Likewise, a way to effectively break this rule is to intentionally omit the other character’s response altogether if the plot warrants it. Sometimes, leaving the other character shocked proves to be just as effective on the reader. 

On the other hand, you don’t want lengthy, convoluted monologues unless its specifically intended and needed to drive the plot forward. Take a close look at your dialogue to ensure there aren’t any long, unbroken blocks of text as these typically indicate lengthy monologues and are easily fixed by inserting questions, comments, and other brief interludes from fellow speakers.

Alternately, you can always break it up using small bits of action and description, or with standard paragraph breaks, if there’s a scene wherein you feel a lengthy monologue is warranted.

Try reading your dialogue out loud.

It can be tricky to spot weak dialogue when reading it on the page or a computer screen, but by reading out loud, we can get a better idea of the quality of our dialogue. Is it sonically true to the characters’ distinct voices? Is it complex and interesting, conveying quirks and personality beyond plot? Does it help drive the plot in a meaningful way or is dialogue being used to fill space? If it is the latter, it should be removed, but more on that next.

For instance, is your dialogue clunky or awkward? Does it make you cringe to hear it read aloud? Do your jokes not quite land? Does one of your characters speak for an unusually long amount of time that you hadn’t noticed before, or does their distinct "voice" sound inconsistent in one scene? All of these problems and more can be addressed by simply reading your dialogue out loud.

Don’t take my word for it, take John Steinbeck’s! He once recommended this very strategy in a letter to actor Robert Wallston: “If you are using dialogue, say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.”

Remove unnecessary dialogue.

Dialogue is just one tool in the writer’s toolbox and while it’s a useful and essential storytelling element, you don’t have to keep all of the dialogue you write in your first or second drafts. Pick and choose which techniques best tell your story and present the interior life of your characters. This could mean using a great deal of dialogue in your writing, or it might not. Carefully consider your story and the characters and whether or not it makes sense for them to have dialogue between one another in any given scene. Just because dialogue can be brilliant, doesn’t mean it’s always integral to a scene, so feel free to cut it as needed.

Format and punctuate your dialogue properly.

Proper formatting and punctuation of your dialogue makes your story clear and understandable. Nothing is more distracting or disorienting within a story than poorly formatted or improperly punctuated dialogue —well, except for an excess of wordy dialogue tags instead of “said,” but I digress! Likewise, knowing when to use quotation marks, where to put commas, full stops, question marks, hyphens, and dashes will make your text look polished and professional to agents and publishers.

How to format dialogue:

• Indent each new line of dialogue.

• Put quotation marks around the speech itself.

• Punctuation that affects the speech’s tone goes inside the quotation marks.

• If you quote within a quote, use single rather than double quotation marks.

• If you break up a line of dialogue with a tag (e.g. “she said”), put a comma after the tag. However, if you put a tag in between two complete sentences, use a period.

• Speaking of tags, you don’t always need them, as long as the speaker is implied.

• If you start with a tag, capitalize the first word of dialogue.

Avoid these major dialogue mistakes.

Tighten up your pacing and strengthen your dialogue by avoiding these common dialogue issues. Although the differences in some of these examples are subtle word choice, usage frequency, and arrangement play a big part in dialogue delivery. Consider how these small changes can make a big difference in your writing.

Too many dialogue tags

As you might have guessed, the most contradictory advice you can receive and most egregious errors you can make when writing dialogue have to do with dialogue tags. Do use them. Don’t use them. Don’t use “said.” Do use “said.” Do use interesting tags. Don’t use too elaborate tags. How does the lowly writer win?

Consider this: good storytelling is a delicate balance between showing and telling: action and narrative. So, how does one do dialogue well? Craft and maintain a sustainable balance between action and narrative within your story. I can’t tell you when and when not to use elaborate dialogue tags or when  to cut tags out altogether, but I can suggest that when you examine your dialogue, keep this idea in mind and consider it when you sense the balance of action and narrative has skewed slightly (or dramatically) to one side or the other.

Constantly repeating “he said,” “she said,” and so on, is boring and repetitive for your readers, as you can see here:

So, keep in mind that you can often omit dialogue tags if you’ve already established the speakers, like so:

One can tell from the action beats, as well as the fact that it’s a two-person back-and-forth conversation, which lines belong to which speaker.  Dialogue tags can just distract from the conversation — although if you did want to use them, “said” would still be better than fancy tags like “declared” or “effused.”

Lack of structural variety

Much like the “too many tags” issue is the lack of structural variety that can sometimes arise in dialogue. It’s an issue that most commonly presents itself in narrative but can occur in dialogue as well. Not sure what I’m talking about? Take a look at these sections again:

Now, action beats are great, but here they’re used repeatedly in exactly the same way — first the dialogue, then the beat — which looks odd and unnatural on the page. Indeed, any recurrent structure like this (which also includes putting dialogue tags in the same place every time) should be avoided.

Luckily, it’s easy to rework repetitive structure into something much more lively and organic, just by shifting around some of the action beats and tags:

Another common dialogue mistake is restating the obvious — i.e. information that either the characters themselves or the reader already knows.

For example, say you want to introduce two brothers, so you write the following exchange:

This exchange is clearly awkward and a bit ridiculous, since the characters obviously know how old they are. What’s worse, it insults the reader’s intelligence — even if they didn’t already know that Sherri and Kerri were thirty-five-year-old, twin sisters, they wouldn’t appreciate being spoon-fed like this.

If you wanted to convey the same information in a subtler way, you might write it like:

This makes the dialogue more about Indiana Jones than the brothers’ age, sneaking in the info so readers can figure it out for themselves.

Unrealistic smooth-talking and clichés

In your quests to craft smooth-sounding dialogue, don’t make it flow so smoothly that it sounds fake. Unfortunately, this is a weak point of sounding your dialogue out aloud because even though it may sound good, it may not sound believable. Consider reading dialogue with a friend or critique partner to see if it sounds believable coming from someone else. If it doesn’t sound any better read by your friend, it might be an indicator that your dialogue needs some work. It can also be helpful to record dialogue (with the participants’ permission, of course) and study it for natural speech patterns and phrases. (Feel free to leave out any excess “um”s and “er”s that typically accompany authentic dialogue.) Authentic-sounding written dialogue reflects real life speech.

Likewise, you should steer clear of clichés in your dialogue as much as in the rest of your writing. While it’s certainly true that people sometimes speak in clichés (though this is often tongue-in-cheek), if you find yourself writing the phrase “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” or “Shut up and kiss me,” you may need a reality check.

For a full roster of dialogue clichés, check out this super-helpful list from Scott Myers.

Disregarding dialogue completely

Finally, the worst mistake you can make when writing dialogue is… well, not writing it in the first place! Circling back to one of the first points made in this guide, dialogue is an integral part of storytelling. It’s an important element in any story, no matter the genre because it provides exposition, indicates, personality, and character relationships, and can even be used to reveal a major plot twist during the climax.

So, what do you think of this guide? I will be adding to it periodically, so make sure to bookmark it and join my newsletter to get notifications when updates go live! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin Books, 2002. Amazon.

• Du Preez, Priscilla. “sihouette of three people sitting on cliff under foggy weather photo.” Unsplash photo (Thumbnail photo), March 5, 2019. 

• Leonard, Elmore. “Elmore Leonard: 10 Rules Of Writing.” Fs blog post, accessed June 27, 2021.

• Myers, Scott. “The Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue.” Medium article, March 8, 2012. 

• Reedsy. “A Dialogue Writing Exercise.” Reedsy blog post, accessed June 27, 2021. 

Related Topics

• Get Your FREE Story Binder Printables e-Book!

• Book Writing 101: How To Come Up With Great Book Ideas And What To Do With Them

• Book Writing 101: How To Write A Book (The Basics)

• Book Writing 101: Starting Your Book In The Right Place

• Book Writing 101: How To Choose The Right POV For Your Novel

• Book Writing 101: How To Achieve Good Story Pacing

• Book Writing 101: How To Name Your Book Characters

• Book Writing 101: How to Develop and Write Compelling, Consistent Characters

• Info-Dumping in Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels by Breyonna Jordan

• How To Write Romance: Effective & Believable Love Triangles

• How To Write Romance: Enemies-To-Lovers Romance (That’s Satisfying and Realistic)

• How To Write Romance: 10 Heart-Warming and Heart-Wrenching Scenes for Your Romantic Thriller

• How To Write Romance: Believable Best Friends-To-Lovers 

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• Check out my other Book Writing 101 and  How To Write Romance blog posts!

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Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: August 30, 2025

8 Questions Writers Should Ask Themselves When Setting Goals and Resolutions For The New Year

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

Setting goals and resolutions is an important part of getting ready for the start of a new year and new decade and asking yourself a few critical questions can get the creative ball rolling. Consider these eight questions when outlining your goals for 2020 and think about what achievements and improvements you made in 2019 compared to 2018 and how you’ll bring that momentum forward into the new year.

What is your single biggest priority as a writer in 2020?

Do you want to finally publish your  novel? Are you still writing the story? Are you in the editing phase? Will you self-publish or traditionally publish the story? What part of the process are you currently in and what preparations need to be made to make this goal a possibility in 2020?

A photo of a writer working at a laptop in a living room decorated for autumn. Photo by Vlada Karpovich.

As creative individuals, writers often juggle a million different passion projects at any given time, but to effectively execute any one task, we must focus out efforts on one project at a time. What project makes the most sense for you in 2020?

Take it from me —someone who has been officially diagnosed with adult ADHD—when I say I know how hard it is to focus your energy on one thing, but it’s equally as important as it is difficult. I don’t necessarily believe in the Jack of All Trades, Master of None sentiment, but I know if you have too many irons in the fire, you certainly will get burned one way or another.

The truth is that we just don’t have enough time and attention to do EVERYTHING. So, I challenge you to tackle the biggest, scariest project this year, and better yet, early in the year,  to get yourself up over that dreaded hurdle and keep the killer momentum going.

How many books do I want to release in 2020?

This question isn’t just for traditionally published authors with book deals and advances. You know what they say about dressing the part? It’s the same with writing—if you want to be a published author with all those shiny book deals and advances, you must start acting like one now, and moreover, writing like one. If you can write an entire book, move it through several stages of revisions and edits and produce a polished, final copy that’s a feat of strength on its own, especially if you can do it in one year. Additionally, it’s even more incredible if you can do that a few times each year, but that’s what it takes to become a traditionally published and professional writer—consistency, dedication, patience, and perseverance. So, whether public or private, how many books will you release this year? 

How much time will I devote to my writing each day, week, or month in 2020?

Part of being a dedicated and consistent writer is building time into your schedule for writing. This is the key to conquering writer’s block and harnessing your creativity and it’s crucial for any writer wanting to turn their passion into a full-time career. Consider when and for how long you will write every day. It might be a trial and error process but try a few different schedules and see what works for you. You might not be a “Wake up to write at 5 am” person like Amy Landino, but you might be able to squeeze in an hour every night before bed or something similar and less intense. Start with just 20 minutes a day and gradually increase the time so that you reach your desired time block for writing while building the daily writing habit without throwing your existing schedule into chaos.

How much money will I invest in my craft in 2020?

Consider what route you will take and start doing research. Maybe you are self-publishing—one avenue that isn’t cheap. You’ll have to pay for editing, layout and cover design, and marketing. Perhaps it’s time you got you’re a writing services listed on a proper website rather than you’re your LinkedIn profile? Hiring a developer, or at the very least, a designer who will put together your site using  a hosting platform such as Squarespace or Weebly, will set you back a few hundred, depending on the complexity of the site. Maybe you want to learn more about writing by taking a few master classes. Add up all the different ways you can invest in your brand as an author and budget for these expenses so your creative growth in 2020 isn’t gated by money or lack thereof.  

What are my weaknesses as a writer?

A photo of a woman working on a laptop in a cozy living room. Photo by Vlada Karpovich.

We all have strengths and weaknesses and there are a few different methods of determining what your weaknesses as a writer are:

• Have your manuscript professionally critiqued/reviewed.

• Open up your manuscript to beta readers.

• Participate in a critique group for feedback on your writing.

• Have a friend who is well-versed in your genre read your manuscript

Post parts of your manuscript on free reading sites like Wattpad (I wouldn’t post the entire thing for free. Consider posting the first third of the story and adjust visibility as needed. Even though your writing is protected by US Copyright Law, it can be hard to know when someone breaks the law if they aren’t caught. This will better protect your writing against plagiarists.)

Once you’re aware of the trouble areas in your writing, you can work to improve them in 2020.  Writers can have several strengths and weaknesses. Maybe narrative is your forte but dialogue…not so much. Maybe you need to learn how to employ the senses and imagery to create a more immersive and engaging reading experience. Maybe you need to improve your openings or endings. There are plenty of writing exercises to help you build your skill and strengthen these weaknesses.

What are my weaknesses as a marketer?

Many writers cringe at the thought of marketing their writing but it’s not really as scary as it initially seems. It just takes a little doing to get familiar with how marketing works but once you get it, it can be fun. To determine how familiar, you are with marketing what strengths and weaknesses you have, you can do the following:

• Hire a marketing professional or schedule coaching call with one.

• Join author groups online and in person and see how the other members market their work.

• Read books and articles on marketing and follow tutorials on YouTube.

• Research how other authors in your genre have successfully marketed their own novels.

How can I get involved in my writing community?

While marketing is an important aspect of successful businesses in 2020, it’s also important to take care of yourself, both in an out of your craft. I’m not going to get all self-care-lecture-y on you, but you should, for your own sanity, get involved in the writing community both online and locally. I know it’s sort of become a mood to lock yourself away with your coffee and keyboard (or typewriter) and write all day long, but it’s important to have a constructive crew of like-minded creatives to surround yourself with. Other writers can act as sounding boards, sources of inspiration, and often, they have plenty of useful advice and information to freely give. Not only that, but by having critique partners, you strengthen each other’s writing because every manuscript can benefit from a second set of eyes.

Some ways to get involved in the local writing community:

• Join a local writing group

• Joining or forming a local book club

• Attending local or regional writers’ conventions, conferences, retreats, or workshops

• During NaNoWriMo, check for local Come Write-Ins in your area

• Some ways to get involved in the online writing community:

• Join Facebook writer groups

• Join Betabooks.co to connect with beta readers and become a beta reader yourself

Engage with writers and readers in your genre on Twitter and Instagram by using relevant hashtags and commenting frequently on posts you truly love/connect with.

How can I grow my tribe in 2020?

This shouldn’t come as a surprise but like marketing, growing your community’s engagement is going to take some doing. Remember it isn’t and should never be just about the numbers. You want to make real connections with people and develop a group or true fans that will support you. This is your tribe and if cultivated carefully and correctly, they’ll stick around for a long time, through the thick and thin. They in turn will help grow the tribe and the wonderfully vicious cycle repeats.

So how do you grow the tribe? Some ways to inspire engagement on your platforms are:

• Engage with other users on social media, especially in your genre and medium.

• Provide quality, valuable content to readers via newsletter marketing My blog post for how to craft a successful email newsletter is linked in the Further Reading section below.

• Pay for targeted adds through Facebook and Google (these are proven to be effective due to their highly skilled algorithms)

And that’s it for my 8 questions that writers should ask themselves in 2020. Of course these are just a few guidelines for narrowing down your goals for 2020 and it’s just a starting area. If you’d like to see more questions like these, and if you enjoyed this list, let me know! What are your goals and/resolutions for 2020?

Bibliography

• Karpovich, Vlada. “A person working from home on a couch.” Pexels photo, uploaded on October 20, 2021. Accessed September 1, 2025. 

• Karpovich, Vlada. “A person using a laptop.” (Thumbnail photo). Pexels photo, uploaded on October 20, 2021. Accessed September 1, 2025. 

Further Reading

• Spring Cleaning for Writers: 10 Things Every Writer Should Do Before 2020 

•  5 Actionable New Year’s Resolutions For Writers In 2020 

• 20 Bookish New Year’s Resolutions for 2020

• 20 Tips and Tricks for Successful Email Newsletters

• Bookish End of the Year Survey (2022)

• Book Wrap Up & Rating All The Books I Read This Year (2022)

• How to Read More Books

• 21 Bookish Resolutions for 2021

• Bookish End of the Year Survey (2020)

• 20 Bookish Resolutions for 2020

• 10 Tips For Planning Your Reading Challenge 

• 5 Actionable New Year's Resolutions For Writers

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• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• 5 MORE Ways to Stay Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• Get Things Done With The Pomodoro Technique

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• Self-Care Tips for Readers and Writers

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• The 4 Most Useful FREE Apps for Writers in 2022 (Sync Across Multiple Devices, Not Only iOS)

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025

5 Actionable New Years’ Resolutions For Writers

Photo by Ivan Samkov.

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends! This week in Freelancing, we’re going over my top 5 actionable New Years’ Resolutions for Writers, so you can make the most of the New Year season!

1. Share your writing with others more often

It can be hard as a writer to be vulnerable and open to criticism, but it is crucial to our growth and improvement to feel comfortable putting our work out into the world, despite what others say. Always use your best judgment when dealing with criticism to determine if it was constructive or just negativity. But by opening up and letting the world into our stories, we grow and gradually become used to having other eyes on our work. Coming to terms with this is essential for aspiring writers desiring professional writing work.

2. Try a new writing style or medium for telling stories

Do you usually write in a certain POV or tense? Do your stories typically take on a humorous or satirical tone? What voice do you normally write in? Is your target audience the same every time? Change it up by writing new stories in different ways.

Another way to freshen up the writing process is to work with different methods of storytelling. Of course, audio-visual mediums can be used for storytelling and often are, but I’m specifically referring to the written word—poems, plays, short stories, novelettes, novels, articles, blog posts, and reviews. Consider writing in a different medium to explore and learn new techniques, styles, and practices.

3. Watch, read, and write stories in genres you’re unfamiliar with

This one likely requires some research but by branching out into a new genre, you learn all kinds of different storytelling techniques and styles that were gated by your own genre. By stepping out of your comfort zone, you open up your craft to new growth. Diving into new genres can seem unappealing at first, but you’ll find all kinds of hidden gems in other genres and the challenge will breed new creativity.

4. Make creativity part of your everyday routine

I written extensively on consistency and building in time for writing but the gist is this: writing every day makes you a better writer because a) practice does make perfect and b) it acts like exposure therapy by bringing you face-to-face with the fear associated with the writing process (fears of inadequacy or imperfection) often enough that you get used to it and overcome this obstacle.

Photo by Ivan Samkov.

As someone who was incredibly busy and believed in the idea that creativity strikes only at certain time, I used to think this was impossible, but I can assure you it is achievable. Consider one of the previous options such as writing in a new medium. By writing new blog posts for this blog, all the time, I am exposing myself to the writing process and therefore making it increasingly easier to write in my passion projects.

 The blog takes off the looming pressure of trying to achieve constant perfection and allows me to just write freely. Then, when I sit down to write fantasy, it’s easier every day, and since I’m all warmed up from writing blog posts, I can produce better quality work.

5. Learn to enjoy the writing process and not just the end result

How does that quote go? It’s all about the journey, not the destination? Writing is exactly like that. Our novels and stories are for others to enjoy and the process itself is for us to enjoy. It’s the intimate, scared process of bleeding onto the page, of pouring out our souls, and manufacturing stardust into the written word, and therefore it should be enjoyed.

Writers should completely and fully feel the fear, pain, sadness, confusion, satisfaction, happiness, excitement, and fulfillment, as well as all the other emotions that come with writing. They should wholeheartedly appreciate and understand the process of taking a fleeting thought and sculpting it into a living, breathing idea that takes root in the mind of others. They should value and hold dear the writing process because it is as integral to their being as air to the human lungs.

Photo by Ivan Samkov.

It’s never about the destination, the end product—because it’s not meant for us—it’s meant for our readers. It is however, about the process, the journey, the steps we take to get there and everything we experience along the way—the learning, the reckoning, the weaving of words to form a story. Most writers have a love hate relationship with the writing process and this is as it should be. However, we should also recognize the value and the wild, seemingly untamable beauty in the process.

Alright, let’s liven things up a bit, shall we? Sorry to get all mushy about writing on you there for a second. It’s something I hold dear to my heart so any chance I get, I am going to take the time to discuss the writing process.

That’s it for my 5 Actionable Writing New Year’s Resolutions for 2020! I really love all of these goals because they’re practical, actionable, and sustainable. I know those seem like buzzwords people just toss around, but I do really think these writing resolutions are ones that we all can stick to year-round!

What do you think of my writing resolutions? Do they overlap with your own writing resolutions? What would you add to this list? Comment below and let me know what you think!

Bibliography

• Samkov, Ivan. “Woman working home office.” (Thumbnail photo). Pexels photo, uploaded April 25, 2020. Accessed September 1, 2025.

• Samkov, Ivan. “Woman writing in notebook. Pexels photo, uploaded April 25, 2020. Accessed September 1, 2025. 

Related Topics

• Spring Cleaning for Writers: 10 Things Every Writer Should Do Before 2020 

• 8 Questions Writers Should Ask Themselves In 2020

• 20 Bookish New Year’s Resolutions for 2020

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• 5 MORE Ways to Stay Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

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• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• Self-Care Tips for Readers and Writers

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Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025

Spring Cleaning For Writers: 10 Things Every Writer Should Do Before The New Year! (2019)

This blog post was written by a human.

Hi readers and writerly friends!

Spring cleaning isn’t always fun but it’s something we have to do if we want to start the year off on the right foot. This is also true for our digital lives and as writers we have a lot of important files to keep track of so maintenance and organization are imperative. I’ve prepared a list of 10 things you can do to spring clean as a writer! This list includes everything from organization to automation to social media and more!

Clean up your digital work space

Of course, you want to make sure your physical desk is tidy and neat before you get to writing—I mean, outer order is inner calm, am I right? (Gretchen Rubin fans, comment below!) But you also want to make sure your digital work space is organized as well to avoid loss and distractions.

Four things you can do to tidy up your digital work space are:

• Sorting through old files, organizing the documents to be kept, and emptying the recycle bin

• Using apps like Folder Colorizer to help better sort files and make certain folders easily recognizable

• Defragmenting your hard drive and updating your computer (only defrag if you have a Hard Disk Drive since Solid State Drives automatically do this progress regularly)

• Uninstalling old and unused/unnecessary programs

Back up all the important things

There’s nothing worse than spending weeks, months, or years on a project and losing it to bad back-up practices—trust me, I know—I lost 37 chapters of an early edition of my novel to file corruption. It’s discouraging, painful, and easily avoidable. Use the cloud or get an external hard drive to store important files so loss doesn’t set you back in your writing.

Update all your passwords and keep your accounts secure!

Pink rubber-gloved hand holding a red and yellow cleaning spray bottle against an aqua background. Photo by Jeshoots.com.

This is often given and often overlooked advice but it’s important to maintain at least the bare minimum when it comes to passwords and account security. As an author with a brand to protect, you should regularly be updating passwords, so malicious users don’t get access to your accounts and content. Also, make sure your passwords aren’t the same across multiple platforms! Most security breaches that make it past bank-level encryption usually happen because members use the same passwords for several accounts and spyware on the other sites gain access to sensitive information when they log in. Don’t be this person. Keep passwords separate and secure.

Update your social media and website!

This includes about sections and bios, photos, job history, and any other content that might have changed and should be updated. Surely a few things have changed since the beginning of 2019, so make sure you’re starting the New Year with up-to-date socials. Have made any accomplishments? What projects are you working on that you can share? Include fun little snippets of your life in your about and bio sections. Also, ensure your profile pictures are current. If you haven’t had a professional head shot taken in a while, consider hiring a photographer to get new photos for your social media.

Update pinned posts on Twitter and Facebook

Another part of updating your socials is ensuring your pinned posts/tweets are up-to-date as well. Check any Facebook groups that you manage, your Facebook author/business page, your Twitter profile, and anything else that allows you to pin content. When was the last time you pinned that post? Whoa—my pinned tweet was from 2017! There’s nothing  that screams inactivity like an out-of-date pinned tweet or Facebook post! Keep pinned content updated just like you would your profile picture or bio!

Unsubscribe from others’ emails.

It’s 2020 and there is no reason you should be stuck on someone’s email newsletter list if you don’t genuinely enjoy the content, you’re having delivered to you email inbox. Unsubscribe from all the stores you don’t want to get promotional emails from and all the people you don’t even know. Look at your email inbox with your editorial glasses on and unsubscribe from any emails that don’t offer you any value as a writer. If you signed up for a newsletter once and all that influencer is doing is sending you emails about products, then unsubscribe!

Pro Tip: If the unsubscribe button is not located on the email or you have to take a long, convoluted path to unsubscribing from the newsletter, then mark the email as spam. Influencers or brands that don’t have the decency to comply with the CAN-SPAM act don’t even deserve your email on their list to begin with. Unsubscribe, sister.

Update your own emails!

Update all of your automated emails from newsletter confirmations to deliverables and any other kind of emails so that your automated emails are up-to-date. Make sure your email signatures are updated and displaying accurate contact information and socials.

Aqua and yellow notebooks with green pen. Photo by Chimene Gaspar.

Check your newsletter open rates to see exactly how many of your subscribers actually open your emails.  How are people responding to your emails?  Do subscribers like the freebies and other content you’ve given them? Do they download said content?

Consider updating the media in your emails so that graphics, photos, illustrations, fonts, and other decorative elements are not only new and refreshing but they are consistent and uniform with other social media.

Pro Tip: Canva is an excellent tool for crafting high-quality vector graphics that can be used in a wide array of projects. I use Canva for thumbnails in my YouTube videos, blog post thumbnails, and site buttons! Click here to check out Canva.

Update your website’s contact form and email links!

You can save so much time by making your contact form work for you! Avoid tons of unnecessary emails by requiring answers to detailed, specific questions. This allows you to gain as much information about the person trying to contact you, all in the first email. It will give you a better understanding of his/her needs and how to address the situation.

Here are a few fields to include in your contact form to help you get the most information in one go:

• Ask specific questions about the project in question (if applicable)

• Offer options for the reason they chose to reach out

• Get a referral name—who sent them your way? How did they find you?

• Get their website URL

• Depending on your work—either writing or editing or something else, you might want to have different options for different guests who might reach out. You can include a check box for guest bloggers, literary agents, or fans, or you can set up links to separate forms for these different types of visitors.

Keep track of your stats and watch the numbers grow!

From your email newsletter stats to Facebook groups to Twitter to your website, you should know your stats. Create a spreadsheet or write them down and keep track of them each month. Don’t take the numbers personally, they’re just a metric. Increases and decreases in subscribers or followers tell you all kinds of useful information—what’s working and what’s not, where you should back off, and where your content is thriving. Use these numbers to help you grow as a content creator. When the numbers start going up, you’ll find it’s quite fun keeping track of the steady increase!

Here’s where I keep track of my stats:

• Facebook Business Page

• Twitter

• LinkedIn Analytics

• Instagram

• MailChimp subscribers

• MailChimp campaign open rate

• Squarespace Analytics

• YouTube Analytics

Go over your goals for 2020 and make sure they’re specific, realistic, actionable, and sustainable. What did you do right in 2019? What big and small wins did you have in your creative field? What strengths and weaknesses do you have as a content creator and what did you learn from them? How can you improve in 2020?

Plan your attack for 2020

Have a serious conversation with yourself about what you’ve accomplished in 2019 and how you can use that momentum to do even more in 2020. Come up with an action plan based on your goals and needs. Take into account all of the resources you’re going to need to execute your action plan such as finances, education, support, time, preparation. Consider what you want your year to look like as a whole, from month to month, and over a week’s time and what you will need to make that vision a reality.

Spring cleaning is equally important digitally as it is physically and mentally. As a writer you should start the year off the right way by making sure your workspaces are organized, all of your online social media platforms, emails are up-to-date, all important content is backed up in the cloud or on an external device, your workstation is updated and passwords are changed regularly. These things will prepare you for 2020 and all the awesomeness the new decade has to offer your creative career.

That’s it for the 8 things all writers need to do before 2020 hits! What did you think about my Spring Cleaning for Writers list? Is there anything you’d add? Do you already practice these items? I’d love to hear your thoughts

Bibliography

• Jeshoots.com. "Person holding yellow plastic spray bottle." Unsplash photo, uploaded on July 18, 2019. December 27, 2019 (Thumbnail image).

• Gaspar, Chimene. "White and teal notebook" Pexels photo, uploaded on June 16, 2018. Accessed on December 27, 2019.

Related Topics

• For Content Creators and CEOs with ADHD: Strategies to Succeed Despite Overwhelm and Distractions

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• 5 MORE Ways to Stay Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

• Get Things Done With The Pomodoro Technique

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• Self-Care Tips for Readers and Writers

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• The 4 Most Useful FREE Apps for Writers in 2022 (Sync Across Multiple Devices, Not Only iOS)

• 20 Tips and Tricks for Successful Email Newsletters

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025

Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

A photo of the newsroom, FA 115, Rose State College, 2018. Photo by Payton Hayes.

This blog post was written by a human.

Hello readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! In this blog post, I’ll be outlining how working as a journalist taught me that being successful a successful writer means maintaining a daily writing practice. Just like with playing sports or being an opera singer, writers have to put in the practice to perfect their craft. Basketball players practice shooting hoops and dribbling so they can control the ball when its game time. Opera singers practice their scales and warm up their vocal chords to keep their voices clear and strong for performances. Writers must write every day to work out their writing muscles and keep the creativity flowing. In this post, I will go into detail about how working as a journalist got me into the practice of daily writing and what it taught me about deadlines and discipline.

After working as both a social media coordinator and a features writer at a local newspaper, I learned the writing process isn’t as complex as some make it out to be. This job taught me that I don’t have to wait for the right moment for creativity to strike or for the creative muse to grace me with its presence. For years, I believed I could only write during ungodly late hours of the night, when I was in the writing mood, or when I was in the right headspace to do my best work. The truth is that I was a) just procrastinating writing and postponing the growth of my craft and b) was never going to create my best works on the first draft anyways.

The latter has to be one of the hardest concepts to grasp as a writer and I’ve made multiple blog posts addressing it because was probably the biggest hurdle for me to overcome as a creative mind. I don’t doubt that thousands of other writers out there, struggle with this same problem—that writer’s block will pass and when it does you will do your best writing. The thing is—perfection is overrated. Even established, best-selling authors can expect poor quality writing in their rough draft. Its just a fact of the craft that a writer cannot create a perfect draft in the same breath as their first draft. You can read more about this topic in my blog post about blank pages versus bad pages here.

Not only have I learned that I shouldn’t set such high expectations for first drafts and that I should just write instead of waiting for the right moment, but I have also learned that with enough diligence and patience, I can harness and master creativity in an everyday routine. Working at the newspaper required me to adhere to strict deadlines and write on a routine to ensure each step of the publishing process was completed in a timely manner so that the paper made it to the press on time. This was a demanding job, but it taught me a lot about the writing process, even if it was journalism. Journalistic writing often requires you to write way a head of schedule so multiple edits can be made, and fact checking can be done before print. Demystifying the creative process has helped me to overcome writer’s block and the fear that comes with writing. It is certainly possible to commit to creative deadlines and longer projects.

Being a successful, professional writer means you can and must write consistently. Publishers and agents are looking for writers who write because it’s what they do and not how they feel. If all the great American writers stopped writing when they felt writer’s block begin to set in, the list of the Top 100 Books Everyone Should Read would be much shorter than a hundred books.

Another thing is, that if you write every day, you will become a better writer. The more you write and edit your work, the more familiar you become with the writing process. This not only removes the fear that comes with writing, but it is exactly as they say—practice makes perfect. By consistently practicing writing, you are effectively honing your skill and making yourself a better writer.

Over the years, I've learned that writer's block takes two forms; it appears as the lack of motivation to write or the lack of inspiration. While these two forms sound incredibly similar, there's an important distinction—motivation is the reason someone feels compelled to do something while inspiration is the sudden, brilliant creative idea that person feel compelled to create or bring to life.

Lack of motivation typically comes from burnout, wavering between the writer and editor mindset, feelings of inadequacy, and procrastination. Lack of inspiration comes from stagnancy, lack of stimulation, and lack of challenge. The key difference between the two is this: a writer cannot be inspired and unmotivated simultaneously, because inspiration acts as an entity of motivation. When a writer feels inspired, they may push through these negative feelings in order to achieve their goal and see their creation to the end. A lack of feeling inspired might stem from an environment that isn't conducive to growth, lack of stimulation, and lack of challenge.

I was inspired to write the blog post because of the sheer number of comments I get from writers who claim they can only write when they feel inspired or in the right frame of mind, when that is simply not true. What any prolific writer will tell you is that they’ve achieved success because of consistency, patience and dedication. If you truly love your craft and the art of storytelling, you owe it to yourself and your writing to honor these values.

Bibliography

• Hayes, Payton. “A photo of the newsroom, FA 115, Rose State College.” March 26, 2018. 

• Hayes, Payton. “Study Tips To Slay Finals, My Article From The 15th Street News, April Issue.” April 10, 2017 (Thumbnail photo). 

Related Topics

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• 5 Reasons Why Most Writers Quit

• When Writing Becomes Difficult 

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• Know The Rules So Well That You Can Break The Rules Effectively

• Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages: Overcoming Writer’s Block When The Editor Brain Is At War With The Writer Brain

• 7 Amateur Writer Worries That Keep You From Taking The Plunge (And Ultimately Don't Matter) 

• 8 Reasons Why Having Writing Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• Self-Care Tips for Readers and Writers

• 20 Things Writers Can Learn From Dreamers

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• For Content Creators and CEOs with ADHD: Strategies to Succeed Despite Overwhelm and Distractions

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025

Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages: Overcoming Writer’s Block When The Editor Brain Is At War With The Writer Brain

This blog post was written by a human.

Hello readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! In this post, we’ll be discussing how writing and editing at the same time can become a writing roadblock. Obviously, the “writer brain” and the “editor brain” aren’t official psychological terms but that’s how I personally like to think of it when I catch myself actively editing and rewriting lines I’ve just drafted. You can also think of it this way: when you’re writing, you’re wearing you writer hat; when you’re editing, you’re wearing your editor hat. You can’t wear both at the same time, though. Well, I suppose you technically can wear two hats at once, but neither will be effective and you’re going to look and feel quite silly doing so. Instead, simply don the writer hat and hang up the editor hat until its time to move on to the editing stage.

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” —Jodi Picoult

One thing writers will tell you is that writer’s block is alive and well in most of us, but the reality is that those who claim to experience writer’s block haven’t build up to proverbial muscle memory of writing without editing and it is easier to repeatedly fall victim to bad habits than to take time out to build new ones. Everything comes down to this: writer’s block is defeated by writing. Simple as that. So, why am I telling you all of this? Because once you realize that bad pages are better than blank pages, it will get exponentially easier for you to write despite writer’s block, and eventually it won’t be an issue for you anymore.

What is writer’s block?

Writer’s block, as per Merriam Webster, is the problem of not being able to think of something to write about or not being able to finish writing a story, poem, etc. However, in recent years, the noun has become synonymous with the problem of not being motivated to write, or not being in the right head-space to do your best writing. Subsequently, this has been the definition of writer’s block I’ve come to know well, as it was the version that plagued me.

Blonde woman in a grey sweater, looking at blank pages in an unlined notebook. Photo by John Schnobrich.

Let’s talk about rough drafts

See, here’s the issue with writers that cling to that second definition—everyone’s rough draft is supposed to be ROUGH. There’s a reason that’s why we call them rough drafts. Even New York Times’ bestselling authors and prolific writers create rough drafts. It is foolish to think that your best writing would come from your very first, second or even third drafts. This is why writing is a process and not temporary—it takes time, and usually several iterations to get to the best, most polished version of the work.

Write it first; edit later

The reason so many writers struggle with cracking out that crusty rough draft and that’s because they have a hard time separating their writer and editor brains. These two modes of thinking are exactly as they sound—the writer brain is the creative one credited with using the creative process and is the one usually struck by the muse and the editor brain is the corrective one that is often employed during the editing and polishing process. The thing is—these two thought processes can’t coexist. This is why it is important to separate the two when you sit down to write, because it is nearly impossible to be creative when you’re using your editor brain, and it is likewise nearly impossible to effectively edit with your writer brain, since the two are diametrically opposed.

Blank pages or bad pages? Which one is worse?

Blank pages are meant for the writer brain and bad pages are meant for the editor brain, specifically in that order. You must write first, then edit later if you want to effectively move through the writing process and better your craft. If you’re only ever stuck on blank pages because the editor brain won’t get out of the way, you won’t grow as a writer and the stories inside you will suffer because of it. However, if you can learn to write despite the writers block, by separating the two modes of thinking, you will find it increasingly easier to pick up the pencil (or keyboard) each time, and your rough drafts will get better over time.

And that’s it for my hot take on Blank vs. Bad pages and how the wearing both the writer hat and editor hat simultaneously can cause writer’s block! What do you think? Have you ever had writer’s block? Do you agree with this argument? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Picoult, Jodi. “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” Goodreads Quotes, accessed September 12, 2019. 

• Schnobrich, John (johnishappysometimes). “Woman wearing sweater opening blank book.” Unsplash photo, January 11, 2018 (Thumbnail photo).

Related Topics

• 5 Healthy Habits For Every Writer

• 5 Reasons Why Most Writers Quit

• When Writing Becomes Difficult 

• How To Overcome Writer’s Block

• Know The Rules So Well That You Can Break The Rules Effectively

• Writing Every Day: What Writing As A Journalist Taught Me About Deadlines & Discipline

• 7 Amateur Writer Worries That Keep You From Taking The Plunge (And Ultimately Don't Matter) 

• 8 Reasons Why Having Writing Community Matters

• The Importance of Befriending Your Competition

• 20 Things Writers Can Learn From Dreamers

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

• For Content Creators and CEOs with ADHD: Strategies to Succeed Despite Overwhelm and Distractions

• 8 Ways To Level Up Your Workspace And Elevate Your Productivity

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized as a Writer or Freelancer

Recent Blog Posts

This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025

Oversaturation In A World of Overconsumption (There's No Such Thing)

Laptop displaying site analytics. Photo by
Carlos Muza.

This blog post was written by a human.

Hello readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! In this blog post we’re discussing oversaturation in the digital era, especially as it relates to content creation and social media. If you’re a writer, artist, entrepreneur, or content creator, you may have heard someone utter this quote before, or maybe you’ve even said it yourself: “The market is over-saturated.”

This statement has been discussed widely in many entrepreneur circles and how its a major roadblock in many people’s road to success. However, its just not true. Yes, the idea of over-saturation is a roadblock, but over-saturation doesn’t really exist, especially not in the digital era where over-consumption of media is a prominent part of society.

One great example of this is easily found in your own YouTube subscriptions. Most, if not, all of us have been in the scenario where we’re left waiting for our favorite YouTube creator to come out with a new video. If they stick to a regular posting schedule, then we know when to expect to see their videos out, but it doesn’t mean that in the meantime, we’re not eager for those notifications. This is also true for other social media platforms, primarily Twitter and Instagram.

Here’s the tea. There’s no such thing as over-saturation in a world where viewers and subscribers are consuming content faster than it is being created. Creators often describe the process for videos, podcasts and even blog posts such as this and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into crafting content that will only be viewed for a few short moments. It’s hard to think about pouring all of that time and energy into a project that might not even capture someone’s attention for more than a few seconds.

This isn’t entirely a bad thing, though. While it can be a challenge to create compelling content that will engage an audience in a world filled with hand-held distractions, it can also be an advantage. In this digital age, people are consuming content faster than ever. It only takes a few minutes to watch a YouTube video and even less time to read a new Twitter post, which means that consumers are devouring content so rapidly, that the demand for new content is at an all time high. If you’re going to start your YouTube channel or your motivational podcast, there’s no better time than now, to do it. Social media markets may seem over-saturated due to the vast amount of creators posting on platforms, but this industry is still in its infancy. Over-Saturation doesn’t exist.

Gary Vee even supported this argument on Matt D’Avella’s podcast, the Ground Up Show, episode 101. when he said, “…fragmentation of attention across all of these mediums has created a scenario where you can't have overexposure.” (D’Avella)

Let me know what you thought about this hot take on oversaturation! Do you think this is an issue that poses a real threat to influencers and content creators or is it more of a non-issue? Why? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

Bibliography

• Muza, Carlos. "Laptop displaying site analytics." Unsplash photo, April 17, 2016. Accessed April 2, 2019.

• D’Avella, Matt. “Episode 101” The Ground Up Show. Access April 2, 2019.

Further Reading

•  The Ground Up Show is now defunct and has been replaced with The Three Rules Podcast

• Check out episode 101 of The Ground Up Show by Matt D’Avella ft. Gary Vaynerchuck

Related Topics

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This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025

Freelancing Basics

This blog post was written by a human.

Hello readers and writerly friends!

If you’re a returning reader, welcome back and if you’re new to the blog, thanks for stopping by! In this blog post we’re discussing what it takes to get started as a freelance editor in the publishing industry. Freelance editing can be just as rewarding and fulfilling as editing for a traditional publisher, but likewise, it can be just as difficult getting started. I’ve put together a few lists to help you get started with your freelance editing business. If you’re not into freelance editing, that’s okay! Many of these tips can be applied to freelancers in other industries!

Getting started as a freelance publishing professional

These tips are specifically for freelance editors (hello—speaking from experience here!) but feel free to tweak each bullet point as needed, to fit your industry and niche.

• Apply to internships while still in school and even after, to build your real-world experience in the industry, as well as your experience working with industry-standard programs and editing techniques.

• Take masterclasses specializing in the different degrees of manuscript editing, grammar, and the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS.)

• Aim for editing certifications to show your education and qualifications.

• Join editorial associations to build connections with other editors in these networks and build your repertoire of resources in the editing industry.

• Read all the books you can—on industry, writing, style and everything in between. Seriously. (And novels in your specific genre too, of course!) I have an ever-growing list of my favorite craft books. These are so helpful, not only for becoming more familiar with the editorial industry, but they will help you read and think more critically as an editor as well. I’ve linked some resources in the Further Reading section at the end of this post!

Notebook next to black eyeglasses and a cup of pens. Photo by Suzy Hazelwood

Finding work as a freelance professional

• Collaborate with other editors online and in-person to gain new perspectives, techniques and successful practices of others.

• Connect with literary agents and other editors for their “reject” clients to build experience and make connections with artists who are just getting started. (reject clients may include clients the other editors and agents simply didn’t vibe with our didn’t have time to take on the projects of and does not necessarily;y refer to clients that are incompetent or lacking.)

• Offer services both online and in your community to increase your experience.

• Apply to any business or person with an online presence. Writing online copy is just as important as manuscript editing, especially in the digital age.

• Specialize. Don’t try to do everything when you’re just starting out. Try a couple of different types of editing to see what you like and stick with that for a while. You’ll hone your skills and be more experienced in that niche.

Brown suede couch draped in leopard print throw blankets. Photo by Erik Mclean

Working from home as a freelancer

• Time batch similar tasks. Freelance Editor, Mollie Turbeville, from Molliereads on YouTube, and bestselling author, award-winning speaker and entrepreneur, Amy Landino are both uber-successful boss ladies, living their best lives and managing their time with time-batching. The key to this is to schedule similar events and tasks on the same days, to eliminate wasted time. One way they use this practice is on days when they film for their channels, they will film several videos in one day while their “film-ready” or they’ll schedule several meetups in one day at the same coffee shop to cut down on time spent getting ready and travelling.

• Keep looking for work. While your schedule may dance between being busy and slow work days, it’s important to keep multiple projects lined up. In this industry, its best to prepare for situations out of our control, such as when a writer backs out of a project.

• Plan realistic hours for your work. It’s important to keep busy, but it is likewise important to create a meaningful and sustainable schedule for yourself. As an editor, burnout comes more often and destructive than for other occupations. Similarly, it is important to remember that when it is time to work, you must be responsible for yourself and your time. Editors cannot wait for motivation or creativity to strike because most projects are time-sensitive. Set realistic hours and stick to your schedule.

• Create a workspace conducive to successful business practice. Environment is everything for freelance editors. For the same reason it is important that students don’t sleep where the study or study where they sleep, freelancers need a workspace that can be differentiated from their home environment. In the student example, it’s easy to see where the mental lines become blurred if one studies in their bed. This has been proven to decrease study effectiveness and degrade students ability to stay on task and alert in an area they associate with sleep. Similar to this example, freelances must be able to separate work life and home life to avoid burnout and to avoid blurring the lines between work and play. This may mean implementing a physical distinction, such as a divider or even setting up a home office separate from sources of entertainment. This distinction should make it so that when you’re in your workspace, you aren’t distracted or tempted to procrastinate and when you’re in your home, you don’t feel the pressure of work when it’s time to wind down.

Bibliography

• Sikkema, Kelly (@kellysikkema). “White printer paper on brown wooden table.” Unsplash, September 1, 2020 (Thumbnail photo).

• Hazelwood, Suzy (@suzyhazelwood). “Close-up photography of  notebook near pens.” Pexels photo, June 6, 2018. 

• Mclean, Erik (@introspectivedsgn). “Deer painting over brown fabric sofa with reading torchiere on corner.” Unsplash photo, March 28, 2019. 

Further Reading

•  15 Misconceptions About Freelancing

• Payton’s Picks (20+ books on writing, editing, marketing, and publishing books, publishing industry insiders, and freelancing tips)

• How To Organize Your Digital Life: 5 Tips For Staying Organized As A Writer Or Freelancer

• 5 MORE Ways To Stay Organized As A Writer Or Freelancer

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• For Content Creators and CEOs with ADHD: Strategies to Succeed Despite Overwhelm and Distractions

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This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.

Written by Payton Hayes | Last Updated: September 1, 2025