Do you have any favorite authors whose work you rave about to anyone who will listen?

You’ve read all of their books and may have even tried to imitate their style. Wouldn’t you love it if you could converse with them and get their feedback on how you could improve your writing?

In 1956, C. S. Lewis did just that for a young fan.

The British author of the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series received countless letters from children all around the world. He was careful to respond to each one. A collection of some of these responses can be found in the slim volume Letters to Children (affiliate link).

Among them are several of his letters to Joan, a young girl who wrote to him from the United States. She sent her first letter to Lewis in 1954. They would end up exchanging over twenty letters.

In one letter, Lewis outlined for Joan his five rules for writing well. Though the letter is now sixty years old, Lewis’s rules are still relevant for writers today.

Read on to discover C. S. Lewis’s five rules and how we can use them to improve our own writing.

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Ever have one of those days?

You need to write a new blog post, but you can’t think of any interesting ideas. Or maybe you’re trying to write a short story but can’t get past the first line.

What do you do when you run up against a creative block?

Many famous writers would have reached for their writing notebooks. W. Somerset Maugham, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joan Didion, John Steinbeck, and Damon Knight are among the famous writers who kept a notebook to collect ideas and help them out of creative ruts.

Today, let’s take a peek into the notebooks of famous writers and thinkers to see the many different ways we can use a physical notebook or a note taking app on a computer or smartphone to boost creativity and beat writer’s block. [Read more…]

Has this ever happened to you?

You sit down at your computer to begin writing, but instead you find yourself having a stare down with the blank screen.

You may type a few lines, but after several minutes you delete everything. You just can’t seem to find the right words to continue.

It’s as if your inspiration inkwell has suddenly dried up.

If you are suffering from writer’s block (or have suffered in the past), you are not alone!

Even famous writers have struggled with creative blocks at some point in their careers. Thankfully, many of these writers have also shared their methods for how they overcame these dry periods and became successful writers.

Read on for the different strategies five famous authors have used to overcome writer’s block and keep typing away. [Read more…]