Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve given myself time to write and come away to Bali to do it. It’s scary and arguably not sensible (‘are you sure it’s a good idea to quit your job in this economic climate?’) but I couldn’t be happier about finally taking my dreams seriously.   I’ve stopped doing all the things I think [...]

Well, here we are again. Since my last retreat update, the Urban Writers Retreats have turned 3 years old! I can’t honestly say it’s been easy;  many times I’ve thought that if my aim was to create something cool and make a little money, I might have been better off getting a bar job and [...]

How would you feel if you wrote 25,000 words in a month?   Is that your normal routine or does it seem a long way off? For me, it feels like quite a stretch. It’s only 1,000 words a day, and even gives you a few days off, but have I been doing it regularly? [...]

For a long time this blog just held ‘useful stuff’, resources and tools. Then I found the first Urban Writers blog and remembered that I really enjoyed sharing something a bit more personal, so thought I’d post a couple of photos from yesterday’s retreat. I haven’t really taken any of people working or our breaks because [...]

How to achieve guilt-free procrastination! Well ok, maybe not 100% guilt free. But pretty close. Procrastination is part of the creative process, and berating yourself for being lazy isn’t helpful. In fact, using your willpower to force yourself do something leaves you exhausted and less likely to do it. I don’t have an answer yet for how [...]

How’s your writing going? Well? Or are you procrastinating? maybe feeling a little bit guilty about how lazy you are? I’ve been reading a book called Switch: How to change things when change is hard. In Switch, Chip and Dan use the analogy of a rider on an elephant to describe the relation between the [...]

So. By now you’ve heard about the fantastical procrastination-busty 4 weeks of online bootcamp goodness designed to get you writing again? The one in July? No? (what do you mean I need to calm down and stop making words up?) Well then go and look here. There’s a free little exercise to help you make time [...]

Here’s a question. Are you writing what you really want to write, or what you think you should write?     Answer these questions: 1. What book(s) do you wish you had written? 2. If I asked you to pull your 5 favourite books from your bookshelf (it can be an imaginary bookshelf, you don’t really have [...]

I’ve taken part in NaNoWriMo twice so far. 1,667 words a day when you haven’t a clue what you’re writing about is tough. The first time I completed the challenge (yay me!) but the second time round I got to 3 days and a manageable 7,000 words away from the end and… went out all weekend, got a hangover and didn’t [...]

One step, two step, three step, four… Last week we talked about breaking writing projects (and anything else really) down into little chunks and then further into bite-sized snacklets that are actually do-able. Om nom nom.    Lots of you thought this was a good idea, and so my question today is: did you do it? [...]