Sometimes the spark dies. You take a long break. You put your book on the backburner for some reason. Then you have to figure out how to start writing again. Maybe you’re coming out of burnout or have simply been too busy with other things to write your current book. Whatever the reason, when you… Continue reading 7 Ways to Fall Back in Love with Your WIP
How to Survive a Creative Dry Spell
Sometimes terrible things happen when you’re barreling through a piano piece. You hit a sudden snag, you’re fingers trip, your hand shifts, your brain scrambles and all of a sudden, you’re literally playing every note on the keyboard except the one you were looking for, and that’s that. That happens now and then in everyone’s… Continue reading How to Survive a Creative Dry Spell
How to Write an Excellent Book Review
One of the most prized things in the indie author community is a good review. We’re always hoping for one. Checking our Goodreads and Amazon pages periodically wondering if somebody found our book. We’re always asking for reviews from anyone who picks up our books. From the amount of authors out there begging their readership… Continue reading How to Write an Excellent Book Review
Why It’s So Hard to Find Your Mission as a Christian Creative
“Gospel-focused,” “Faith-centered,” “Based on sound doctrine.” That’s what some people are looking for in Christian media. Others are just looking for “clean,” “family-friendly,” or “positive” content. There’s a lot out there advising Christian creatives on what they should and shouldn’t create. A lot of people out there think they know what the mission of the… Continue reading Why It’s So Hard to Find Your Mission as a Christian Creative
Why Beautiful Prose Still Matters
I don’t read much fanfiction. I get a little nauseous slogging through what’s out there. There is just so much, and so much of it is just…wow. What the fanfiction universe has to offer is a very interesting cross-section of amateur writing. There are a lot of levels of seriousness and dedication. You can tell… Continue reading Why Beautiful Prose Still Matters
The Bright Side of Having No Audience as a Lonely Creative
At some point in the career of every artist, literally no one is listening. There is no audience waiting to appreciate your work. People don’t notice things right away. And these days, people have trouble noticing anything at all. People are exhausted from information overload. Everyone everywhere is dumping information down everyone else’s throats constantly.… Continue reading The Bright Side of Having No Audience as a Lonely Creative
Why You Need a Secret Sketchbook
There could be some really shocking stuff in this sketchbook. Of course, what’s considered shocking is pretty subjective, so I guess it’s safe to say somebody is bound to be shocked by at least some of the content in this sketchbook. Whether or not anything in this sketchbook is actually career-endingly scandalous is beside the… Continue reading Why You Need a Secret Sketchbook
Welcome to UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com
I have suddenly decided to jump off the deep end. I’m relaunching this blog. I’m going to charge full-force into the blogging world and become a real blogger. A consistent poster. A creator of rich decadent content full of things you want to know. Informative, entertaining, unique. You heard me say all that. Welcome to… Continue reading Welcome to UnsweetenedDarjeeling.com
When Is Constructive Criticism Not Constructive Criticism?
A massive amount of time and energy goes into any creative endeavor. For novels, it’s typically eight or nine months to a year, for me. Art is hard, and it doesn’t help that most artists are perfectionists who have very little patience with their own growing process. But now and then, you produce… Continue reading When Is Constructive Criticism Not Constructive Criticism?
What’s going on around here?
Okay, so I’ve been pretty quiet since I announced the release date for This Time. For those who didn’t actually mark their calendars when I told them to, episode one was supposedly going o release June 17th. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Why? It turns out, I need to learn a few very basic things about… Continue reading What’s going on around here?