This article is an excerpt from my book Cheerleading for Writers: Discover How Truly Talented You Are. The chapter titles in this book follow the letters of the alphabet. That is why almost every time I began writing a new chapter, I searched in various glossaries first for words starting with that next letter.

Liability caught my eye when I looked for words starting with an L. I wondered how I could write something cheerful and motivational for my fellow writers about liability.

The word life, I thought, is different. You can show positive things about life, but how do…

In the last month’s newsletter, I featured a picture of poppies, although they haven’t been blooming in Denmark then yet.

They do now and beautifully so, but when I searched for an image for this newsletter, forget-me-nots drew my attention. They are my son’s favorite flowers, and his little sister claims to have them as her favorites sometimes, too. They bloom in many places on our street, and this year their blue color seems to be brighter than it ever was. It is still gentle but bright nonetheless. I don’t know how this is possible.

I hope I live like…

I turn my life into fun games consistently for several years now.

In the past few days, I felt the sadness wash over me with one afternoon where I could not stop tears from falling.

A thought appeared then, or rather a question. “Is it a point in my life where I stop turning my life into games?”

The answer came immediately but quietly and friendly. It was a “No.”

It was interesting to observe that however sad I felt, I was sure of this answer. …

Writers often hear both:

“Write what you know.”

“When you write, don’t limit yourself to what you know.”

As in anything, we humans try to prove one side or another.

Looking for a definition to be able to understand the dilemma

I’ve read numerous articles on both sides and can resonate with many of them. So I wondered whether the disagreement might lie in the way we define knowledge.

I looked into one of my palm-size thesauri for help and found the following synonyms for the word knowledge:

“Enlightenment, erudition, wisdom, science, information, learning, scholarship, lore, and also understanding, discernment, perception, apprehension, comprehension, judgment.” — Random House Thesaurus, 2nd edition, 1995

Dumbfounded by the meaning of knowledge

…

I am a passionate reader of both fiction and non-fiction. But I discover myself writing more and more non-fiction. I contemplated why that might be the case and uncovered at least five reasons, with at least one of them sounding paradoxical.

Upon a closer look, I discovered that they are not that contradictory at all. And upon another look, this time outwards, I realized that most successful and prolific authors write and publish non-fiction, too.

My favorite fiction author, Nora Roberts, has her non-fiction on her blog, which embraces articles in memoir style, opinions on the state of the publishing…

Games are more and more present in our lives. There are games to raise our awareness on various vital topics. Education nowadays — especially for younger generations — taps strongly into various resources that games and play offer. But also, the education of adults and workplaces see more and more game elements and gameplay mechanisms woven into their daily rhythm.

There are many reasons for these trends and why many become interested in turning their lives into fun games when they hear about the possibilities and reasons it offers.

There are also many terms for all that: gamification, serious games…

Have you ever felt a need to justify what you are doing? Even if no one asked or questioned it?

I definitely did. And sometimes still do. We probably all do this when we feel insecure or fear others might judge us for what we do.

Justifying being a writer

In my case, this is particularly true of writing. Since I don’t earn a living from my writing yet, I sometimes catch myself trying to hide the act of writing when somebody calls me during the day and asks what I am doing at that moment. Then I say, “I am working.” I don’t…

Those who publish traditionally, either books or articles, have a team, or at least one person, helping them figure out when the work is done and the piece is ready for publication.

When you self-publish something, the decision is yours, even if you have an editor polishing your work. Pressing the “Go” button is still your responsibility.

But how can you know when your piece is ready to go?

The multitude of recipes and games

You might have heard the phrase, “Writing is rewriting.”

It is, but this phrase is not explicit and might not be very helpful. Nowadays, many writers are aware that perfectionism is…