Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

Add caption Writing is a struggle. Just because we love it doesn't mean it's always easy. We know this. There are times, however, that getting back to our writing is more difficult than others. My friend, Paula Bruno, has been a storyteller all of her life, and has enjoyed spending time with her own words, creating fictional worlds to visit and analyze for years. But lately, she feels as if she's in a bit of a rut (although many of her recent blog posts  are extremely inspired and heartfelt, in my opinion). And while I feel it's my duty to tell writers they must continue on their journeys no matter the roadblocks, the truth is, there are times when it is certainly understandable to pull over, and catch your breath. I offer space in my blog to my fellow writers (that means you!), and Paula sent this to me when I had asked the question in our writing group about what excuses they make when it comes to writing: I've had a rough two years.  After a year long...

just dishes, not Titanic dishes Years ago, I attended the Titanic Exhibition. Certainly, there were many fascinating aspects of this, but a few things (in addition to the devastation of the tragedy) struck me. While looking at a large picture of the many workers who built the vessel, you could not find one overweight person. Certainly, these were men who labored all day far away from the sedentary life of a desk worker, but it still was enough of a difference between what we see now that it stuck out. Another big difference? Plate sizes. A platter was the size of today's dinner plate. Their dinner plates were close to the size of our bread plates. I felt like I was looking at a child's tea party set, not dish-ware that people commonly used. The implications to our waistlines aside (I'm sure there's more to our obesity crisis than plate size, although it could be a big part of the problem), what can we learn about our writing now from the recovered relics of th...

I have checked out almost every book in my local library that has to do with the craft of writing. Some of them twice. When book shopping, a splurge will include at least one that has to do with writing, editing, or marketing. When I started Excuse Editor, I was afraid that focusing on the negative aspects of the writing process may be a turn-off, and not many people would be interested in what I had to say. After all, I do believe that focusing on anything brings energy to it, so why would we want to do that when it comes to things like Writer's Block? Because if we ignore it, it's not going to go away. Unstuck, by Jane Anne Staw, PhD, provides a path for working through your writing obstacles with compassion. That was the biggest difference I noticed with Ms. Staw's advice--it didn't sting, well, not too much at least. Imagine if you had a Jillian from Biggest Loser as your writing coach. Sure you may get there, but you are a hurting, exhausted, sweaty mess...