What did you do about it? — This is a recent writing prompt from the Medium Creators Hub about burnout. Here’s the prompt: Have you ever felt burnt out? “Burnout” is a buzzword we see a lot, but it can feel different for everyone. What did burnout feel like to you? What caused it? How did you…

You write about not wanting to write — I’ve been sitting all day trying to be productive writing. I have 2 draft article ideas sitting just waiting to be written — one about the future of the retail industry (thanks to Michael M-C for the suggestion!) and one about the future of pandemics. But, and picture a little…

AKA How to not be a sellout — 1. Write what you love As a writer I’m sure you’ve heard that old adage ‘write what you know’. Well that’s just shit advice. Because writing what you know will only give you so much and can’t get you too far. No offense, but there’s only so much someone can write about a specific area…

18 books I’ve read from December 2020-March 2022 — Before my mom died at the end of 2015, I just read fiction books — mostly fantasy, or dystopian/post apocalyptic. Sometimes paranormal. But after my mom died, starting with getting a giant pile of books on grief and loss from the library, I switched and started to read self-help books…

What’s the mysterious secret? — I was nearing 200 articles and I had not been distributed at all, not even once, until I wrote about a piece about How To Get More Out of Your Day, and it was chosen for further distribution with the topic of Mindfulness. Huh. …

Submission Guidelines — What’s in a name? Why is this publication called Penny Press you might be wondering? It’s three-fold. One, the motto is ‘a penny for your (mindful) thoughts’. Two, it is named after my dog Penny who was our beloved rescue dog that my husband and I sadly lost in December 2021 after just two…

But you should say it anyway — No man is an island — wait, that’s no good. How is the ghost of John Donne haunting me from my Grade 12 English Literature class? How do I love thee? Let me count — scratch that; that’s not me either. Once upon a midnight dreary — crap, that’s that…

Comparing Medium, Vocal, Simily and Elephant Journal — I wanted to write about the pros and cons of the various writing platforms I’ve used since I discovered these sorts of platforms back in December 2020 (which feels like a whole lifetime ago!). I started off with writing on Elephant Journal, the website platform focused on the ‘mindful life’. …

damn our attention spans and wanting results NOW! I’ve been here on Medium for four months and I’ve already read what feels like a bazillion different articles on how to: Increase your followers! Increase your views! Increase your claps/comments/interactions! Which is all great…But you know what else I’ve realized? …

But without needing to join or actually submit anything? — Hello, fellow writers (and readers)! I first want to wish you all a very Happy New Year and 2022! Here’s hoping that next year (or this year if you’re in the future of the southern hemisphere) will be an improvement on the last two! Secondly, I recently started a personal…

And the stark earning differences — So back at the end of August 2021 I joined Vocal.Media because a friend on Facebook had been using it and sharing a few posts here and there. So I joined. It was a few months before that, that a different friend had told me about Medium and writing on…

And be free to publish with other pubs? — Okay, so maybe I’m telling a teensy fib here with my title. Maybe I should word it, do you want your writing to feature on my publication with no submission rules? So you can easily get your articles to other eyeballs featured in a special column on my Inkslinger Magazine…

The struggle is real for wanting control of my own ideas, thoughts, stories — I’m fairly new to Medium. Just started this whole malarkey in September. Not the writing thing. I’ve been writing since I was like 5, and I’m 42 now, so I haven’t just started writing. I’ve just started the whole being on Medium malarkey. At first, I started out just publishing…

my new personal publication Hello and welcome to my brand-spanking new (personal) publication — Inkslinger Magazine! I was wanting to just call it Inkslinger, but unfortunately, that’s someone else’s Medium ID, that’s of course long-unused irritatingly, so that was a no-go. Suffice it to say, the Magazine was born. At…

Words of writing inspiration — As a writer, one of my favourite quotes is: Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart by poet extraordinaire William Wordsworth. It reminds me why I write, and what writing means to me. Writing, whether fiction or non, is all about getting out what is deep inside you…

On Imposter Syndrome Hey writer! Yes, you. Has anyone told you lately? You suck. Those words above? They will most often come from yourself — that caustic, mean little voice in your head otherwise known as the Inner Critic. But they also come from other people. Writers, it seems, have…

can we make the serialized novel popular again? When I was a kid, and I used to visit my grandparents, I remember reading serialized fiction stories in the newspaper — I seem to remember things like Charles Dickens or some such, and I used to love waiting for the next…

The benefits of the ‘write life’ Okay, so that headline might be a bit of an exaggeration. Writing can’t literally save your life if you’re bleeding out in some dark alley somewhere. Unless maybe you’ve managed to write a note that says “HELP! Call 911!”. But figuratively it certainly can…

How it REALLY works! (or not) — Have you ever done National Novel Writing Month? (affectionately referred to as NaNoWriMo by those who know it and do it (note, I didn’t say love it). Essentially, it’s a motivation tool — something to get you writing every day for 30 days in November, so that by the end…

Yes, you ARE worthy! I’ve come to realize there’s a pretty big and obvious demon that a lot of us writers are burdened by and that is weighing us down — and that is self-doubt. Or I should say Self Doubt. This is totally understandable because, well, we’re writers. And…