Writing Emotional Scenes
Emotions are hard to experience, much less convey in your writing. One of the hardest things we face as writers is conveying emotion. Using words to make someone feel — better yet, to make a reader understand your characters — is tricky. I’ve mentioned…
How to Find Your Voice
We all fall in love with the voice of our favorite authors, but how do you find your own? What is it that separates good writers from mediocre ones? How does one make themself stand out in the midst of…
I’ll Just Burn Brighter
Sometimes a song (or two) is all we have When I got the call, I was standing on the school shuttle, hand tied up in the strap overhead to keep myself from catapulting into the student in front of me.…
The Art of the Synopsis
Planning that even a pantser can use. So you’re writing a book. Or planning to write a book. Or you have an idea for a book to write one day, that for now sits in the back of your mind,…
Writing Good Villians
It might seem like an oxymoron, but even villains need to be good characters. So you’re writing a story. It might be a novel or it might be a short story. It could be fantasy or thriller. Maybe a mystery…
Winding
A memory in vivid color. Every morning we’d drive the same route to school. A right turn, past the Baker’s Springs sign and on to Duplex Road. The road was so narrow two cars could barely pass by without brushing…
How to Get Your Writing in Every Day
Writing can sometimes seem daunting, but if you keep at it every day you will succeed Talk to any established writer and they’ll likely all tell you versions of the same thing —to write successfully, you have to write. I’ve…
Why I Don’t Like NaNoWriMo
Don’t come after me, it just doesn’t work for everyone. If you’re like me, you probably start hearing buzz from your writing community about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) every year starting in September and October. I have countless friends…
Create Characters Your Readers Will Fall in Love With
It only takes one thing to make your characters more relatable: motivation. We all can undoubtedly think of characters from our favorite works of fiction that stick with us. Some stories are propelled forward by amazingly realistic characters that kind…
Why You Should Read Stories You Hate
There is valuable writing information to be gleaned from even those stories that you can’t wait to put down. We’ve all been there — settling in for a relaxing evening with a cup of tea ready to read the latest…
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