We’ve all hit slumps in our writing from time to time, we just cannot get the words on paper, or not everything we write reads as we want it to. Often when this happens, it means we need to take a step back from our writing and find another activity that will help our racing mind. For me that activity is often yoga. These are my favorite three yoga asanas or poses that help me to write better and more productively.

1. Vrksasna or tree pose.

I find this pose especially helpful when I’ve been sitting at a desk for hours and either writing like mad or trying to write and I can’t get anything to come out how I want. Tree pose is beneficial for a number of reasons but my favorite is that it releases tension in the body, straightens my spine when I’ve been slumped over a computer and it encourages you to breathe deeply as well. This in turn manifests calm and peace allowing me to come up with new ideas. You can find an awesome video with instructions for how to do tree pose here.

2. Adho Mukha Svanasana or downward facing dog pose.

This …

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It’s happened to most of us that are authors, you’ve been working on this story for what seems like forever and suddenly, you’re just sick of it, bored with the storyline, bored with the characters, just plain BORED. What do you do?

Actually, you can do a number of things. When you’re bored with your manuscript try one or more of these ideas and see if you don’t pull yourself out of your slump!

1. Take a break. If you’re staring at a blank screen and trying to force the words, you probably need a break. Go for a walk. Think about something else while you do. Sometimes just taking a break will make all the difference.

2. Step away from your computer. Computers are lovely things, I’ll agree, I love my computer, my smart phone and my tablet. I often wonder what I would do if I didn’t have them because frankly, now I can’t imagine it. But…and this is a big but, sometimes all these devices can actually make things harder. So step away from the computer and grab a spiral notebook, or a notebook with paper, or even just a piece of scrap paper. Try to outline …

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At one time or another, many of us have wanted to write from the viewpoint of someone who is from a culture other than our own. This usually happens for those of us who write fiction when we want our main character to be African American, Native American, Roman, English, French, Native African, Chinese, Japanese or whatever culture you choose. The question is how do you do this without offending those who are from that culture? While there are some authors who don’t really care if they offend someone of the same culture as their character by not remaining true to the actual culture, most of us would like to avoid that, particularly if we’re writing about a group of people that is large and well known. The thing is if you do offend enough people from a particular culture, even if you are a well-known author, the people from that group can affect your book sales in huge ways. And let’s face it! This is about respect.

It is one thing if you make a serious mistake out of ignorance, meaning you did your research, you interviewed people from that culture and so on. In this, people will forgive …

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