Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

If you work on deadlines, either from your employer, client, or self-imposed, you have probably figured out your “racing” style. You may be best writing under pressure, forced to open up the creative muse with mere minutes left to submit your work. You may have learned that kind of pressure puts you at a complete standstill. Writer SK Walker said on my Facebook page recently, “This is creativity, not boxing chocolates on a conveyor belt”. So instead of the pressuring procrastination, you keep a slow and steady pace, arriving at your deadline rested and on-time. I'm not here to say what is best, I'm here to remind you to discover what works best for you. I recently finished up a “bootcamp” program at my local YMCA. It involved some running , in the almost brutal North Texas heat. The last day was the big hoo-rah, as we were scheduled to take a 4 mile run. I think about 100 people had signed up for the class 6 weeks prior; there were 10 of us for that final run. ...

Is it Time to Disappear?  Why I Became a Ghost--and Why you Should, Too I never intended to become a ghostwriter. After all, why would I spend months of my life toiling away on someone else’ s book? No thanks. I only wanted to write my own books, and that’s what I did. I soon found, however, that the life of a book author wasn’t quite what I’d envisioned. I was working long hours, yet making less money than I had before, when I wrote only articles. The reason was simple—the time I spent promoting my books left me less time to write articles and other books, which cut into my income.             Fortunately for me, I was approached by a nutrition expert about coauthoring her book. I found I enjoyed collaborating with her, but the real payoff came when we finished the manuscript. As the author, she now had to start promoting it—but I was all done! That was enough for me. I decided to pursue coauthoring and ghostwriting, and “my” next book was ghos...