#davidjoelmillerwriter

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Those confounded animals

Tina my Writing Cat Those confounded animals. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. How come animals keep wandering into all my novels? I’m working on my newest novel, and it suddenly occurred to me that another animal had wandered into my work in progress. This shouldn’t surprise me, considering the prominent role that animals have played in my life. Still, it…

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A Therapist Writing Novels?

NovelsPhoto courtesy of Pixabay.com A Therapist Writing Novels? By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Why did I start writing novels? There are several reasons I shifted from writing blog posts and then writing a nonfiction self-help book to writing novels. I’m not sure there was a conscious decision here. In past blog posts, I’ve talked about how I got started…

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My Muse’s odd visits.

My Muse’s odd visits.Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com My Muse’s odd visits. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. My Muse shows up at the oddest times. Creative people, writers, in particular, are fond of talking about the Muse. Several of the more famous writers and writing coaches whose works I read describe their relationship with their Muse. I can’t say that my…

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How to read like a writer.

How to read like a writerPhoto courtesy of Pixabay.com How to read like a writer. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Writers need to read widely. As a beginning writer, I frequently saw the advice that I needed to read widely. I’ve really been trying. Honest. You would think that with all this isolation taking place the last few years because of COVID-19, we…

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Lessons I learned from my first book.

Bumps on the Road of Life.My first book Lessons I learned from my first book. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. My first attempt at writing a book came after almost seven years of writing a blog. By that point, I thought I had pretty well worked out the process of coming up with an idea, creating an outline, and writing a section. Putting that all together and…

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Decisions writers make once their book is written

Decisions writers make once their book is written.Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com Decisions writers make once their book is written. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Decisions you must make once you finish your manuscript. You have finished your manuscript, which is probably a first draft, and now you must make a lot of decisions. Frankly, you could have made…

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Becoming a Book Publisher.

Becoming a book publisher.Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com Becoming a Book Publisher. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Seeing my first book in print. Once I had completed my manuscript and printed a couple of copies for friends to read, I thought the road to launching that book into the world would be easier. There were a whole lot of challenges to navigate. Had…

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Writers start by learning to read.

Writers start by learning to read.Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com Writers start by learning to read. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Writers are usually voracious readers. One of the reasons that I had always wanted to write a book was that I had been a lifelong learner and a voracious reader. But my becoming an enthusiastic reader almost didn’t happen. I’m…

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The steps between polishing and publishing a book

Steps Between Polishing and Publishing a BookPhoto courtesy of Pixabay.com The steps between polishing and publishing a book. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Once your manuscript is polished, you must try on other hats. Having finished your manuscript and gotten feedback from a few friends and family, it’s very tempting to move forward with the publishing…

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When are you going to finish that book?

Bumps on the Road of Life                                      By David Joel Miller By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. When are you going to finish that book? I had been struggling to write a book for several years. In fact, I tried writing various books off and on for about sixty years. But none of those books ever made it to the finish line. I could get the…

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Creating my first book.

Creating a Book.photo courtesy of Pixabay By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. Polishing my first book. So, what happened to the first manuscript I had finished? The first book I wrote was definitely an experiment, though I didn’t know it at the time. My conclusion has been that the steps in becoming a writer are the equivalent of a musician practicing the…

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Getting the writing done.

Getting the writing done.Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com Getting the writing done. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. It’s a miracle that my first book of mine ever got finished. Looking back on my writing journey, I’m a little surprised that any of my writing ever saw the light of day. Even more surprising is the idea that some people have read some of the…

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Creating my first blog

My first blog Creating my first blog By David Joel Miller. My writing journey began with creating a blog. My first tentative steps along my writing journey began in 2011 with the creation of a blog. I started this journey without any clear picture of where I was going. Back in Graduate School, I had to ask one of my fellow students what a blog was. Writing that blog served many purposes. It kept…

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My first creative writing project was a blog.

My first blog My first creative writing project was a blog. By David Joel Miller. My writing journey began with creating a blog. My first tentative steps along my writing journey began in 2011 with the creation of a blog. I started this journey without any clear picture of where I was going. Back in Graduate School, I had to ask one of my fellow students what a blog was. Writing that blog served…

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My creative journey

CreativityPhoto courtesy of Pixabay.com My creative journey. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. I started this blog to separate out the posts I write about my writing career, my fiction books, and my other creative endeavors from my work in mental health. Just to let you know where I’m at now in this writing journey, I’ve been publishing a blog on mental health…

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My accidental community college enrollment.

Attending college.Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com My accidental community college enrollment. By David Joel Miller, writer, blogger, and mental health professional. My writing a book came as a surprise to almost everyone. Growing up, I didn’t know anyone who had written a book. Most of the people I knew in my family had minimal education. The idea of going to college was nothing I had ever heard…