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You hop on your computer to write. Three hours later, you've written a whole lot—in Facebook posts, Twitter updates, forum posts, instant messages, and emails—but your story has moved along like a legless turtle. Sound familiar?

We could just disconnect from the web, but somehow having an active connection feels like a requirement for doing anything on a computer. Why do we rely on the internet so fully? How has this led us to “digital dependency”? And how can we get ourselves to log off so we can more effectively write on?

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Some things to have taken into consideration while writing your story. Not rules, just after-the-fact guidelines.

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Despite the occasional rumbling of blog fatigue on the internet, blogs remain a potentially effective way for aspiring writers to develop and share their voice and work. At best, a successful blogger holds their audience loyally captive with entertaining, inspiring or informative posts. The blog serves as a helpful tool to help showcase their unique perspective as well as highlight (note, not obnoxiously self-promote) other work they’ve placed in lit journals and online medias.

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NOTE: Everything I say about this anthology can probably be applied to other anthologies, annual and irregular, such as The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Non-required Reading, and others.