What issues do you experience when you write? If your problems are clarity, flow, or focus, I have three ways to help you out.

I’ve received excellent instruction from fellow writers on Medium along with teachers from other platforms. And the lessons I’ve learned created such a positive effect on my writing, I had to share them.

One of my teachers, Clare Lynch, MA, King’s College London, and Ph.D., University of Cambridge, has 14 years experience in business writing and training for Doris & Bertie, Ltd. She produces paid content on Udemy, but you can access her free material on her YouTube channel. …

Killing your idols reminds us they are fallible. Realizing their fallacies helps us avoid errors of our own. Consider the double standard fallacy, where we judge two situations or people by different standards when we should use the same. Indeed, this is the fallacy we often commit with our idols. We don’t hold them to the same standards as other people.

For example, despite several encounters and discussions, we set a boundary with a friend whereby if they undergo adulterous behavior, we will no longer associate ourselves with them. However, when a venerated sports figure commits this same act, we tend to give them a pass and continue to support them by buying merchandise. …

Mental illness runs in my family. Along with my mom and dad, my brother and two sisters dealt with some form of anxiety and depression. My parents are long passed for about 27 years now, but my siblings and I are still struggling.

When I was six, I had my first seizure. Complex partial-onset seizure is the medical term, and I had it in my sleep. This type of seizure doesn’t involve flailing movement. It’s quite the opposite. You don’t move at all. So, when my mother tried to wake me that morning and couldn’t, it terrified her. After my epilepsy diagnosis, she became overly protective of me. …

Everybody does it, they said. Write a listicle. It’s fun.

They were right. When I drafted this piece, I was banging away like a mad fool. Apparently, I had a lot to say about how movie quotes can help your writing. Who knew? I’ve had some feelings about the current start of my writing for a while now. I enjoyed getting them out. I hope they are of some use to you.

1. Soldier, 1998

“Colonel, my daddy always said, when you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, you don’t do anything fancy or glamorous. You just take the damn hammer and hit the son of a bitch until it’s in.” — Capt. …

I chose to write about lima beans because I was hitting a mental wall. For two weeks, I couldn’t bring myself to sit in front of the page. Nothing interested me. So, I decided to pick something at random to see if I could force the creative issue. I then remembered one of my favorite B-52 songs titled Butter Beans. So, I decided I’d write about them. It was an exciting journey for me. Especially when I discovered lima beans and butter beans were the same things. Also, during my research, I ran across this excellent little children’s book.

In the book, A Bad Case of Stripes, Camilla refuses to eat lima beans even though she loves them. Her friends hate lima beans, but Camilla wants her friends to like her. So, she chooses not to eat them. Yet, not eating the lima beans causes rainbow stripes to appear across her body. Finally, she discovers the only way to cure herself is to eat lima beans. …

It was a simple enough dream: I wanted to be a writer.

What was there to it? I take my thoughts and put them down on a page.

I laugh now at my naivete.

When I was eight, my granny would come to visit once or twice a year. She was in her seventies, and it wasn’t easy for her to get around. It was a joy to have her visit. I pleaded with her to sing me my favorite song, and she always did: Froggy Went a Courtin’. I loved it. I felt everything right in the world flow through me when she sang it. …

My therapist abandoned me.

It was eight years before I decided to see a therapist for my depression. In 2008, I quit my job over it. I couldn’t stay focused. I saw my projects as endless suffering I would never escape. My productivity was terrible, and I didn’t treat clients as well as they deserved. I would play video games at my desk during work hours to distract myself from the hell I felt. I wasn’t a benefit to the company, and I quit when my employers called me out.

I spent the next eight years living with my Aunt. I stayed in my room except for going to the bathroom and sometimes the kitchen. Most of the time, my Aunt would bring me food. I made her worry. She did so much for me, and it took its toll on her. She passed out from exhaustion twice while taking care of me. Fortunately, I was near when both incidents occurred, so I kept her from falling. Please make no mistake; I was hurting her. Finally, I decided I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I made an appointment to see a behavioral health doctor. …

Amy Coney Barrett was asked at the senate hearings what the five freedoms were in the first amendment. She couldn’t answer the last one. Now, some talking heads are saying it should have been the end of the hearings for her. Barrett’s nomination should’ve been over. Barrett has many answers that the senate should scrutinize her for, but that wasn’t one of them.

I had worked in Information technology for 20 years. Part of my knowledge was networking computers together. If you were to have asked me to list off the networking OSI layers, I could probably have named a couple, but not all of them. Not unless I was taking a test. …