Melissa Lawrence

Deadlines. Love them or loathe them, they are a necessary part of being a writer. If you are anything like me, if it wasn't for deadlines, you'd probably never get anything written at all. The main problem I have with deadlines (and I suspect I'm not the only one) is a problem of balance. If I start a piece too far in advance of a deadline, like I know I probably should, it can feel flat and lifeless as I'm writing it and I find it difficult to motivate myself to get over the finishing line. On the other hand, if I leave it too close to the deadline, I feel anxious and stressed and probably don't produce my best work as it is likely to be rushed and "thrown together". Although I am a great believer in the "salami" technique where you break a large task down into small, manageable slices and then allocate a slice to each day of the week or however you want to organise it, this never seems to work that well for deadlin...

I have been telling everyone recently that I now have a "portfolio career". Most people don't know what I mean by this (someone even said they'd have to "Google" it!) but it's really just a fancy way of saying that you have fingers in several different pies. I have been a "professional" writer since 1995 although I have always been a writer of some sort, ever since I was at school. During this time, I have stuck pretty religiously to writing and only occasionally had flights of fancy about getting a "proper" job. (And I still do. Only this time last week, I found myself offering to manage a jazz band!!) However, for various reasons, I've recently been seriously exploring other freelancing options that I can do alongside writing and have now decided to "rebrand" myself as a writer, a crafter and a musician. I also plan to carry on working on community newsletters and do something in the spiritual healing/growth area a...

In the unlikely event that you were wondering why I haven't been blogging for the last couple of weeks, it was because I decided to take a fortnight off. That's quite unusual for me as I normally find myself desperate to get back to writing after about a week or so but for reasons that I won't bore you with, I decided that "psychologically" I needed a longer break. Although I haven't been anywhere exotic like the south of France or even Dagenham, it was good to get away from my desk for a while. Although I spent most of my time watching Wimbledon and the Tour de France while listening to cricket, I did read a "how to" book about writing which I found really useful. It's called "Living Write" and the author is Kelly L. Stone. I should point out that it's an American book and all the author quotes and extracts are from American authors, but that didn't really worry me as the advice and tips apply to any writers. ...