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You’re a proven novelist with one or more published books to your name. You clearly know story, plot, conflict and character. You’re riding high on accolades from readers who are eagerly anticipating your next literary masterpiece, but you’re also hungry to try something new. That’s when a friend casually says, “Have you ever thought about adapting your novel for the screen?” A light bulb goes off. “Yeah, why not?” you think. “It would make a great movie.” Let’s assume that’s true. The next question you should ask yourself is, “Do I adapt it myself?” To answer that, you should first assess the pros and cons. THE PROS Underlying Rights You already own the copyright to the source material, and adapting the screenplay yourself creates a very clear chain of title that mitigates the possibility of legal quandaries. It also negates the need for lawyers to draft a lengthy writer-for-hire agreement. Full Access You already have immediate access to all the intellectual property – not just the novel itself, but the research, early drafts, character breakdowns and other world-building materials. There’s no need to spend time watermarking, copying and/or delivering material to others, some of which you might not want shared More

A reader asked, “Can you or one of your authors give new writers guidelines for how to find a writers’ group? I’m interested in finding a group where I can get feedback from experienced writers and have an opportunity to read and comment on their works in progress.  (Learning how they build their stories will help me build mine.)” Good question. But it’s a dilemma, too. First, successful writers groups are difficult to break into since they’ve done the hard work of establishing, culling, and shaping a group into something that works. You often have to be recommended by a member. Some are more open than others, but if you are seeking something with experienced writers, they often confine themselves to…established writers. I have belonged to numerous writing groups, and this is what I found. If you are diligent about writing, you work your way up. When you get published, and your writing gets more seasoned, you may reach a point where those who are hobby writing, or just getting started, cannot contribute much to your improvement. The beginners are gleaning tons from the experienced writer, but the experienced writer is mostly doling out instead of receiving. That why seasoned writers More

It sounds like a terrible bit of business jargon, but ‘thought leadership’ is basically just expert-based content that educates or informs potential clients, rather than selling at them. Where a company has a complicated or very technical service to offer and/or the purchasing process involves lots of decision-makers, this kind of content helps audiences to clarify their thinking and understand the issues. For example: –    A packaging management software writes articles about new legislation that consumer goods business needs to know about (which the software can help with) –    A law firm writes blog posts explaining issues around intellectual property aimed at creative businesses worried about idea theft but without much legal knowledge –    A digital marketing agency writes an ebook about trends in AI-led SEO –    A bank writes a guide for landlords looking to buy a first commercial property Thought leadership content gives marketers authority, visibility and lead generation. It’s good for SEO and social profile and can generate enquiries from interested consumers. Bigger pieces are sometimes gated, meaning that prospects have to supply some basic info such as an email address to access the full content. What does the work look like? Businesses have employees with know-how, but it’s often locked More

“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon . . . My goodness how the time has flewn.” (Dr. Seuss). For years, this was my reaction after realizing that I have missed – again! –  the pitching deadlines for seasonal and thematic articles. But not anymore. I found a simple solution to facilitate my freelance writer’s life – a  personal writing calendar. This time-tracking tool helped me to organize my activities and increase my earnings. Let me share how a personal writing calendar can help you, too. Submit in advance time-sensitive pitches and manuscripts Many editors need submissions related to holidays and anniversaries. Knowing in advance about upcoming events gives you a competitive edge in pitching. I use these resources: 2026 Anniversaries and Commemorations Awareness Days & Events Historical Anniversaries  Holidays and Observances around the World Break into new publications by using editorial calendars Editorial calendars contain themes and deadlines for upcoming issues. The link to the editorial calendar can often be found in the advertisement section. By studying editorial calendars before pitching, you can tailor your queries to meet editors’ needs. That’s how I broke into Creation Illustrated and got my first byline! I use More

I have been asked a few times of late about whether a writer should hire an editor before pitching to an editor or agent. After all, if those gatekeepers love the idea, won’t they provide an editor to clean it up? 1) Editors cost money. If they receive a manuscript with a great idea that ALSO is clean, well-written, and clearly comfortable with grammar, don’t you think they’ll go for that one over one with just a great idea? The less they have to beat up a manuscript, the easier an author is to work with, the more attractive the deal. 2) Clean manuscripts demonstrate dedication. A good idea in a clean manuscript that the author put a great deal of effort into presenting makes a grand impact on agents and publishers. 3) Clean manuscripts underline talent. Don’t send a manuscript and expect them to look through errors or rough patches to find the magic. The patches will win every time. A clean and edited manuscript allows the agents or publisher to just read the story and grasp the brilliance without being distracted. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Good writing of good ideas not so much. Be the cream that rises More

I read the best essay about writing today from a writer named Angela Yuriko Smith who manages the Substack page and newsletter called Authortunities. She’s pretty cool and has some great ideas. We don’t agree on everything, but I love how she justifies her thoughts. She’s smart and she loves helping writers. Today she spoke of Protecting Your Lightning. In essence, we are surrounded by distractions. Phones, family, social media, etc. Worse, everyone has an urgency to them, thinking that since life is faster, that responses ought to be quick all around. That includes demands on you. “Our attention is a commodity,” she says, and she isn’t wrong. There’s lots of good metaphors and comparisons in the piece, but my favorite was the intentional vs. gravitational way we deal with it all. Having information at our fingertips is great. . . when we need it. But when we just scroll for the sake of scrolling, a lot doesn’t get done. . . like writing. And it stifles our creativity and productivity. Develop habits and be religious about maintaining them. Stick to what you sat down at the keyboard to do. . . or shut down the social media to put your butt in the chair More

Writing is a primary source of income that should be stored in more than one location. When you don’t do this and your hardware crashes, you risk missed deadlines, kill fees, and strained client relationships. In addition, you feel frustrated and angry as you try to duplicate what was lost from memory or notes. As a longtime technical/creative writer, I regularly work with backups and archives. I understand the cost of losing your important information without a second copy. In the end, even one day of lost productivity can exceed a year of a basic subscription for backup storage. Why You Don’t Back Up Your Work Developing reasons not to save data beyond your device is a creative endeavor in itself. One cause given is that your material has a greater chance of being stolen from a cloud storage platform. In other situations, your overconfidence exceeds the hardware’s actual staying power. Then there’s procrastination. “I’ll get to it soon” never materializes when it comes to securing your work. As a result, you might be too late to do anything if your device won’t boot up. Back Up Now for Safety Later It takes around 20 minutes to add your data More

In a recent chatroom, someone asked if there was any hope left for struggling writers with so many other writers taking shortcuts with AI. My response was that if fear of AI knocks you off your game, maybe you aren’t playing the right game. Many of us live in fear that we aren’t being productive with our writing. We aren’t publishing enough, marketing enough, or selling enough. There are plenty of other ways to make money in this world, and writing is not at the forefront of those opportunities. Writing is a love dance with words. If you start with a story to tell, it’s still about dancing with words. If you have strong journalism skills, it’s still about dancing with words. If you need to make money to prove you are a writer, it’s still about dancing with words. For a moment, toss the concept of being professional, making money, or becoming well known. When writing feels inherent… When writing gives you solace… When writing transports you to a better place… When writing allows you to give yourself grace and not compete… When writing isn’t about legacy, career, or proving a point… That’s loving yourself. That’s appreciating yourself. That’s More

I declined a speaking opportunity this week. One in a very reasonable distance from me, as a matter of fact. This time of year often fills my calendar with such requests, which thrills me. I love doing events. But they must be worth my investment of time, travel, and book sales. In this case, it was a writers thing. I won’t say which one. Doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. Their conditions and mine just didn’t meet in the middle and we parted ways amicably. We all have budgets. But, that said, my fee is not high, and oftentimes, the fact I am on the SC Humanities Speakers Roster would have covered my speaking fee. But the travel and hotel were not covered, and sales would be minimal. Writers don’t make money selling books to other writers. Some will say I can afford to turn down an event at this stage in my career, but in actuality, I could not afford to accept it. I would have declined early in my career as well. Events consisting of all writers do not result in big book sales. Most writers there are trying to sell a book. Your exposure is minimal. The More

Many freelancers struggle with consistency, especially with pitching and idea generation. We all know we should keep a pitch tracker so we’ll know when we’ve sent something out and when we can expect a response. But if that’s all we’re doing, it’s easy to lose focus. Most of us are goal-oriented or reward-oriented. We like knowing there’s something waiting for us at the end of our hard work. We don’t always get responses fast enough to fill that need. What can help is a seven-step system that will keep the ideas flowing and make a writer look forward to writing. 1.    Start by creating a weekly goal tracker to keep ideas and outreach on track. It can look something like this: Task / Minimum Goal  / Stretch Goal New article ideas      5   /   10 Pitches sent      2  /   5 Follow-ups on previous pitches     2  /   3 Articles drafted or revised     1  /   2 2.    At the end of every week, have a creative check-in. I usually do this every Friday evening. See how many new ideas you came up with, how many pitches you sent, if any follow-ups are due in the coming week, and if there are any ideas you could refine or match to a different editor, More