I love Scrivener and have been using it for over a decade. However, I was recently chatting with someone who wanted to write a book, and they asked how I organised my writing. I said I used Scrivener and they said they thought they had heard of it but weren’t sure. I nearly spat out…
I have become mildly obsessed with Brain.fm recently. I read a lot about productivity, especially in relation to being a writer – it’s an ironic form of procrastination. I kept reading about Brain.fm and how great it was. So I downloaded the app and went to try it out, only to find that I had…
As a writer, I spend a lot of time typing. Yet bizarrely, it had never really occurred to me to get better at it. Thinking back to how much time I could have saved over the last *ahem* 32 years, it is a little depressing. However, I really started to notice the benefits of faster…
I bought an Oculus Quest 2 a couple of months back. It’s time to discuss whether that was a good idea in terms of productivity and entertainment. Basically, is it worth it? The original justification for buying the Oculus I had read quite a few articles about working in VR – such as this one…
I used the Day One app on my old MacBook Air years ago and absolutely loved it. But then they moved to a subscription model and I wavered. Did I really need an actual app to write my sometimes inane but usually powerful and insightful thoughts? Then, for various reasons, I switched to a Microsoft…
I spent last year writing non fiction – this year, that is going to change. Writing fiction is deeply satisfying and after a day of it, there’s a sense of a day well spent. I do a lot of ghostwriting and if I spend the day writing about bitcoin or leadership techniques then see it…
Mindfulness, meditation, writing more, and the importance of routine are concepts I have decided to embrace more this year. It is partly a deepfelt yearning for life improvement and partly because I am turning 50 this year and have decided to have a personal crisis. It seems daft that I have always been a bit…
I wrote this sad story about a gorilla raised in a small English village for Medium earlier this year. It went massively viral with 63,000 reads. And that was behind a paywall. It’s a great story, even ignoring my fine prose, so I thought I would share it for free. (Although feel free to click…
It’s that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) time of year again. This time last year I was writing so much I thought sliding a novel into the mix would just happen. Except it never did. The writing I do for my job, that pays the rent and so on, seemed to take over and dominate…
I am getting rid of adverts as they feel unnecessary and ineffectual these days. Let me briefly explain the plan. I have been ridiculously busy of late and most of it has been unsatisfying. I have quite a few clients – who are all utterly fantastic and brilliant – and then a load of random…
I started blogging and this website for a few reasons. One was that it was cathartic. I write for a variety of clients and they all require different tones, writing styles and some even have really specific style guides. All of which is totally fine and, at times, kind of helpful. But it does feel…
I have either worked full-time or freelance as a writer for most of my life. My first ever proper job was writing for a magazine as a reporter when I was 18. I was shiftless and lazy back then and when I discovered I would get laid more working as a barman, I switched jobs….
Writing about going viral on Medium isn’t all just a big gloat, I swear. Not entirely, anyway. It is to encourage anyone who might be on Medium that one random unpredictable story can suddenly go viral. There is no way to predict this, so the only thing you can do is just keep plugging away….
As someone who writes for a living, I spend a ridiculous amount of time looking for music I can work to that isn’t too distracting – and Nordic dark folk bands like Wardruna and Heilung (pictured above) are new additions to my writing list. Procrastination and searching Spotify are parts of my creative routine. This,…
I recently wrote about which was better – Medium or Fiverr. My opinions have changed recently but partly that is because I am idle but also because the income from both has suddenly flipped. What happened? My gig was doing well on Fiverr and I was posting the odd thing on Medium. On Fiverr, I…
Exciting news! Now that I have returned to writing freelance full time, I have a spanking new website – www.jasonwardwriter.com. Unlike this fantastic site, it is much more professional. I actually started this website, and www.scifiward.com, to blow off steam after a hard day’s freelancing. That is why it can be a barely disguised rant…