The Creative Life

Progress often feels invisible before it becomes obvious. The Plateau of Latent Potential explains why persistence matters and how breakthroughs actually happen.

Every writer I know, including myself, has anxiety and self-doubt about their creative efforts. When I went into it further, I found that it’s the curse of the creative classes.

Shiny object syndrome can derail your goals when every new opportunity looks exciting. Learn how to set priorities, create strong boundaries, and stay focused on what matters most.

Ready to write your own paranormal romance? Here are ten prompts to get you started. Giving it a historical twist adds a whole new layer of intrigue and excitement.

A panic attack can happen to anyone, anywhere. You don’t have to be in a threatening situation to have one. You could be at work, school, in a restaurant or asleep in bed.

While writing a fantasy short story set in the world of Rowanswood, I stumbled into an unexpected research question: what do you call a group of selkies? The answer turned into a delightful folklore rabbit hole about language, mythology, and the small details that bring magical worlds to life.

For a long time, I treated my sales dashboard as a measure of how well I was doing—not just as an author, but as a person. A good day meant progress. A slow day meant doubt. It took stepping back to realise I was watching results instead of building the work that creates them.

Ever revised a scene that was technically fine but emotionally flat? Here’s how to spot and fix the subtle problems that keep your story from landing with readers.

For a very long time, I treated writing as a referendum on my worth. Not consciously, perhaps — but emotionally? That was often the system running underneath everything. Lately, though, something has been changing. I’m still ambitious. I still want readers. But I no longer want to build a creative life fuelled entirely by pressure.

Most readers only ever see the finished book — the cover reveal, the launch announcement, the polished novel sitting beautifully on a shelf. What they don’t see is the enormous iceberg beneath it: the revisions, technical problems, newsletters, graphics, scheduling, emotional resilience, and hundreds of small invisible tasks required to build a creative career over time.