Browsing Tag

INFP writer

Writers and Artists—It’s Time for You to Stop Trying to Fit into Society’s Conventional Box

All my life I’ve gotten into random conversations with people where the subject of our life trajectories comes up, and I always end up feeling kind of weird. This past weekend I hung out with a friend who told me he decided on his career path in high school, diligently researched colleges, applied himself strenuously to his field of study, threw himself at the best internships available, and then went on multiple rounds of job interviews with companies he had also heavily researched, and that’s how he ended up in his current job. He made a choice based on the menu of job options available in our society and then did everything he could to fit into that choice.

What about me? he asked.

This is when I felt that all-too-familiar weird feeling I always get during these discussions. Continue Reading

22 January, 2019 by

What Do You Do If You’re Constantly Unhappy with Your Writing Life?

I’ve been writing seriously for about 12 years now, and while a lot of things have changed along the way, one thing has pretty consistently remained the same: I always seem to feel dissatisfied with my writing life.

Sometimes I’m unhappy with the writing itself, but experience has shown me that almost all bad writing can be improved if you just work hard enough at revisions. What I’m really talking about is something different, something deeper. It’s an insidious feeling of never being where I wanted to be, of always striving to reach some goal, and then reaching it and still feeling like I didn’t get what I wanted. Continue Reading

8 November, 2018 by

Writing Outside the Lines

Today’s guest post is from Amanda Linehan, a fiction writer, indie author, and INFP. I absolutely love Amanda’s take on writing without an outline, and I think you will too.

I remember the first time I ditched my outline.

I was working on my third novel, Dragon, and the second one that I would self-publish, and I was about two-thirds of the way through. I had a loose outline that I had prepared prior to starting, of course, and something about it just started to bug me. Continue Reading

11 September, 2018 by

Writing Progress Does NOT Always Equal Word Count

This week’s guest post is coming to you from a fellow writing coach, Anna-Marie O’Brien. Anna-Marie describes herself as a “little bit OCD+ADD+ESP and an INFJ.” And I can tell you from experience that she’s easily one of the most intuitive people I’ve ever met. If you’re looking for someone to help get you unstuck as you write your book, Anna-Marie is very definitely who you’ve been looking for. Big thanks to her for contributing this awesome piece on why your progress as a writer might not fit the conventional norms.

Before I started my memoir, my idea of book writing was that it was a linear process—you show up to the page, you write your 500 words a day in perfect form, and in a few months you have a beautiful, publishable book. According to the writers I was studying, there were no pauses, breaks, or blocks allowed. Daily habit is a big theme among writers, and I was assured that if I showed up to the page every day, the muse would find me and the words would flow effortlessly. Continue Reading

12 March, 2018 by

The 3 Biggest Obstacles for INFP Writers

FSCOver a year ago I wrote an article called, “Introverted and Intuitive? Why the Writing Rules Probably Don’t Work for You.” And I got an overwhelming response from readers. In fact, I’m still getting emails about it. Apparently, there are hundreds of writers out there who run into difficulties when they try to outline their novel, plot the plot, or follow any sort of predetermined method of creation for their characters.

What’s really interesting is that the majority of writers who have reached out to me to say this article struck a deep chord in them have been INFPs. Continue Reading

8 August, 2016 by

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