Can Noise Help You Write Better?

Does Being in a Coffee Shop Help You Write Better

It seems counterintuitive that noise would help a writer write better and/or faster, but I find a specific kind of focus only when I’m in coffee shops. What could be the special kind of motivation here? The obvious culprit seems to be the energy boost provided by my caramel macchiato or vanilla latte.   But you can easily make coffee …

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How to Stay Consistent When Writing a Novel

How to Build Writing Consistency While Drafting a Novel

There’s a persistent myth about writing novels that I’ve never quite related to: the idea that writers are carried forward by inspiration alone.  If the idea is good enough, the words will come easily and consistently, and momentum will sustain itself. While that does happen, in many cases, that’s rarely how it works. I recently found myself in a strong …

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Can You Be Creative Under Pressure?

“Is it possible to be creative under pressure?” One of my stressed-out friends asked me this a few weeks ago and it led me to remember something that happened when I was in secondary school. When I was 16, I was commandeered, to write a poem. Yep, you read that right. My boarding school was having a creative arts competition …

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