My heart nearly stopped when I read the subject line of the email:

Readers Reports: Graveyard of Safe Choices

The email from the university press I'd been waiting for all summer was finally here.

Catch up on the previous steps in my publication journey here.

I scanned the email:

Happy news.

Both readers recommend publication.

I put my head in my hands and started to cry. 

After 4+ years and I don't know how many drafts, it looks like my memoir has found a home.

It's not a done deal yet—there's still a couple of approvals left to go and one more semi-substantial revision to address the very helpful comments from the peer reviewers—but I think this thing is going to happen.

I'll shout it from the rooftops once I have a publication date—but I'm not going to wait to celebrate.

This is a big f**ing milestone!

Because there were days—many days—that I wanted to give up.

When I thought no one would care about my story.

When It felt too hard to revisit...

The Writer's Life

Writers, let me introduce you to Dabble, my new best friend.

Dabble is a simple-to-use online writing tool that helps keep your writing organized.

It keeps you from spending hours hunting through hundreds of Word docs to find that one perfect scene you cut and now want back in your draft.

Dabble makes it super easy to play with scenes, moving them from chapter to chapter.

It’s like Scrivener without complications or frustration.

Sure, Dabble comes at a cost (there’s a monthly or annual subscription), but how much is your time and sanity worth?

As I wrestle with yet another major revision of my memoir, Dabble’s been worth every penny to me.

It’s funny what happens when you set aside non-negotiable time to write.

You get that chapter to your book coach.

You submit that essay and get included in an anthology.

You meet the deadline for submissions to an independent press and increase your odds of being traditionally published.

You actually get...

Ironically with everything going online during the pandemic, many of us are now blessed with more writing community than ever before. Thank you Zoom! Online classes, online writing groups, online writing conferences, online co-writing dates—all good stuff and much of which I suspect will be available to writers permanently.

And still, there’s nothing quite like being with other writers in the flesh. The monthly writing group I attend is now meeting in-person outside. Hooray!

What type of online writing community worked for you? What didn’t? What in-person writing community are you most looking to resuming?

Having skin in the game helps keep me accountable. If I pay money for something, I’m more likely to follow through. If it’s a “free masterclass,” I’m likely to blow it off if something better comes across my desk. Maybe this is just because I’m “frugal” or as some say, “cheap.” Maybe it’s just...

Tools of the Trade: 

Dropbox or Google Drive? Or some other organizational system? 

What matters most is you have a cloud-based system to contain and organize your writing. Otherwise you risk wasting hours of precious time hunting down drafts and bits and pieces of writing. Set up a folder and subfolder system with categories that make sense to you.

Factors to consider: 

• Cost & Storage Capacity: Google Drive and Dropbox both have free and paid options. How much storage do you need? How big is your project?
• Ease of use: Which system feels most intuitive to you? Which system feels frustrating?
• Sharing Your Work: Are you sharing your pages with an editor or a book coach? What system does she prefer?
• Cloud-based: I can’t emphasize this enough. It will only take one hard-drive crash for you to never make this mistake again. Save yourself the heartache. Choose an organizational system that is cloud-based—TODAY.  

What’s your favorite...