Comments on: Things that Stop Us in Our Tracks: Are you your worst enemy?

By: Ossandra White

Ossandra White — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:13:54 +0000

In reply to Heather Jackson. Oh wow! I will definitely have to check that one out. Thanks for the tip, and I'm glad it helps you!

By: Heather Jackson

Heather Jackson — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:17:52 +0000

When I get to this place, I always stop and read "The War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield. It's a very short, but very effective book. It talks about resistance, which is what you're addressing here, but he talks about it like it's a physical presence that you have to wrestle with in order to create anything, not just novels. It takes your advice one step further, like continued reading on the subject.

By: Ossandra White

Ossandra White — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 06:00:32 +0000

In reply to denise. Those things are big issues! It's good that you have identified them so that you can work on minimizing them one step at a time. 🫂

By: Ossandra White

Ossandra White — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:59:58 +0000

In reply to Gillian Andrews. I'm glad it was liberating! Sometimes, we put so much stress on ourselves that we lose the joy in our craft. I'm glad you got it back again! Much success with the novel.

By: denise

denise — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 04:17:41 +0000

self-doubt and poor time management

By: Gillian Andrews

Gillian Andrews — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:58:50 +0000

I am in the process of writing an historical fiction novel set in 1000A.D. As I started to write, I was overwhelmed with all the research I had done and how I was ever going to place my reader in that time frame. I eventually asked for help from another historical fiction writer and he said that the best thing I could do was not to worry about all the research and just write the narrative. This really helped coupled with writing a scene within a 10 minute time frame. It allowed me to get out of my head and just write whatever came into my head. I let go of details and focused on the narrative. I can fill in the details later. This freed me and allowed me to enjoy my writing once again.

By: Ossandra White

Ossandra White — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 22:22:03 +0000

In reply to Lisa Norman. It's so easy to neglect ourselves, but when we take care, things are often so much better. 🫂🫂🫂

By: Lisa Norman

Lisa Norman — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:58:39 +0000

I love all of this advice. Powerful. For me it is often health, not taking care of myself, ignoring doctors' advice... all of that. Good reminders!

By: Ossandra White

Ossandra White — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:24:06 +0000

In reply to Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt. Yeah I got some of those kinds of comments recently. It was quite disappointing when I figured out where it was going. It feels like a waste of time, as we want to be good authors who interact and engage with people who comment on our content, but when things like this happen, it can be discouraging. A blog post on them is good, because there are signs to spot authentic readers and scraping bots. I hope you are taking care of yourself and giving yourself grace because this happens to many.

By: Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:18:45 +0000

Scammers with plausible (until you start examining them closely) pitches preceded by all that lovely praise of our work.

I lost a chunk of yesterday to the first of a new variety. Then it was followed by a similar one, and today I got a third of the same variety. So I was moved to write a blog post about it... hours gone!

Even when we don't fall for them!

This one is probably because even very successful authors are dependent on their fans who buy their new books, and none of us (most of us) never get enough of the kind of praise we love.