The Writing Cycle Blog

As a young writer, I assumed everyone had a process similar to my own. It was only in an MFA that it dawned on me most writers do not work the way I do. This distinction increased starkly once outside an academic environment. Bestselling guides advocated following concrete rules, and, above all, chasing market trends. Community critique groups […]

Scottsdale author and editor Carol Test talks rejection, inspiration, and the writing life with VoyagePhoenix. Read about her current projects and learn more about The Writing Cycle’s services in this week’s Trailblazer series. “I love helping authors find their voice and connect with larger questions about the human experience their writing [...]

Is writing worth the time and effort if we can’t make money from our creative endeavors? Are am I a “real writer” if I don’t make a living from my writing? The Writing Cycle’s upcoming coaching series explores the anxiety that arises when the need for market value collides with personal motivations for making art. This year, [...]

For more than three decades, The Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron has been offering compassionate insight on the challenges of creativity. Her tools help writers overcome writer’s block by exploring how fear manifests as procrastination, the relationship between creativity and the unconscious, and by helping authors design not merely a [...]

Nowhere do the differences between Sensing and Intuitive personalities show up as clearly as in how each type prefers to use language. Since style of communication is considered one of the most significant of human differences, it’s worth examining how this component of personality affects what we write, the way we write, and how readers […]

Making something from nothing is one of the most challenging endeavors humans engage in. After all, creative efforts are rife with uncertainty; outcomes can rarely be assured. So, how, then, do we sustain momentum on long, iffy projects? One answer is to look to those who have succeeded – and note how their advice reflects a reverence for purpose, […]