For one hundred days, I’m going to post a writing tip each day. I have a whole bookshelf full of writing books and I want to do some reading and increased studying of this valuable resource. This will help me keep track of anything I’ve learned, and help motivate me to keep going. If anyone has a favorite tip of their own to add, contact me. I’d love to put it up here.

Today’s tip – Touching Fire

Source – The Forest for the Trees An Editor’s Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner

Being a writer or wanting to write is to live in a perpetual state of anxiety, where the chances of failing far outweigh the rate of success.It’s a constant free fall, especially between projects, for the celebrated and the unknown alike. “Everything is will and the great obstacle is fear,” said Gordon Lish in an interview about writing. “It comes down in every instance to this dualism between what one wants and what one may be afraid to have.”

I always enjoy the spots where writers, especially successful ones, complain about how hard it is. Or actors… or musicians… anybody, really. You see, I’m a chemist and I have spent decades working for the man in the cold, dark, heart of the corporate machine.

Yeah, go ahead and bitch. You have no idea.