Confessions of a Working Writer

These past two months have been really rough for me. Fighting depression is a pretty regular thing for me, a struggle that I've grown accustomed to as part of my life. It's not new for me and neither…

November is over.

And now I have to face the fact that the novel didn't get worked on quite as much. Why not? I was taking care of myself and remembering what I learned as a writer. What was going wro…

Thanksgiving writing didn't go as I wanted, but it gave me some time to think and allowed me to find some perspective on a couple of things. One of those was the two types of people in our lives and …

Are you ready for a Thanksgiving Special featuring your favorite working writer, his trusty microphone, and the stories of his week trying to make something happen in his life as a writer? Well if th…

We're halfway through November and I've been away from social media, focusing on my novel. Is it done? Not by a long shot. Do I have a big lesson for you this week? Also not by a long shot. Here's a …

Matt talks about running into the Mystical Game of Effort Twister once again. Not familiar with it? It's the game that drags you in all directions trying to find the perfect method. Join Matt as he e…

Matt starts his November novel push after logging out of social media for the next month. It also gets him thinking about the importance of self-care and improvisation in our daily lives as writers, …

Matt talks about getting back to basics and rituals that hold importance to you. Also, he rants about the life lesson in Rocky III, doing what works for you, and his plans for NaNoWriMo. All that and…

I recently heard a great piece of advice from one of my favorite writers. One of those pieces of advice that don't only help your work, but also help your life. 

All this at the same time as I am refl…

Do you remember any magic words?

Most of us were introduced to the concept of magic words when we were children. Little sayings or phrases that held incredible power to change the world around us. May…

I took a walk this morning. Not my normal walk. This one was a little bit different, spending time at a pond just watching and letting inspiration hit me. Sometimes we seem too focused on forcing ins…

I'm not very good at cutting myself slack. Yeah, the idea of grace sounds awesome in theory, but my practice is a little weak. Why is that? Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves? I don't know. …

There were easily 20 things I was supposed to do this morning, things that would have benefitted me, but I needed a walk. With everything going on in the world and all of the associated noise, I need…

Somewhere in your journey to become a writer, you will receive a swift kick to the face. For aspiring literary writers, there is a life of long hours, less fame/money than you'd expect, and fairly co…

I'm a writer.

It seems like a simple thing with a simple definition. I wake up in the morning and I write. My writing is a constant craft I practice and work to hone. It's a labor of love that I have …

Last week I threw my back out. Yep, the whole thing. Done and laid up on the couch, barely able to knock out the work on my plate and making no progress moving forward.
It was frustrating.

I wanted to …

I wanted to have something brilliant this week.

I wanted to talk about setting up a new routine, getting into a rhythm, and how the work on projects is just soaring by at lightspeed. Those are the thi…

I was planning on talking about setting a new morning routine in my new home this week.

Reality had different plans. Moving was chaotic, setting up my office took longer than I thought, and I just did…

There was a saying I heard a lot when I was in the military. "Bloom where you're planted." It's not a bad saying when you're in the military. You only have so much choice about where you go or what p…

For the past year and some change, we've been working on this little podcast. We've talked about a lot of different topics. posted a bunch of rants, and told some interesting stories.

But it wasn't an…