Three years ago, I shelved a manuscript that I loved dearly but had to set aside in order to work on another project gaining interest in the market. It wasn’t a hard decision. At the time, I had just finished its third rewrite and, though it had recently won a writing contest, my other piece… Continue reading What Happened When I Opened an Old Manuscript that I Hadn’t Read in Three Years
How to Name Your Characters
Naming your characters, especially your main characters, can feel like a daunting task. Some enjoy the thrill of it; others struggle a lot, and never quite feel like they found the “right” name. I, for one, love naming characters. I often joke that baby name books are some of my favorite reads and, in fact, I’ve… Continue reading How to Name Your Characters
Writing Crying Scenes
Crying is a common experience. “A study in the 1980s found that women cry an average of 5.3 times per month and men cry an average of 1.3 times per month. A newer study found that the average duration for a crying session was eight minutes.” (Heathline) Does this mean your characters should cry that much in your story? Probably… Continue reading Writing Crying Scenes
Using the Later App as an Author: A review
Later is a desktop and mobile phone app that allows you to schedule your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn posts. Here's my review on if this app will help, or hinder, you.
When You Don’t Write As Much As You Should
Recently, I didn’t write as much as I should have over a few weeks. Or should I say, I didn’t write as much as I thought I should have. Let me break it down. Every first of the month, I take a moment to look at my stats and see how much I've written. In March, I wrote… Continue reading When You Don’t Write As Much As You Should
Looking Back on my Pantser Novel
“Are you a pantser or a plotter?” is a common question writers hear. Why? There’s something inherently interesting about how someone turns a blank page into a 350-page novel. Sure, it's easy to say that one word after another leads to a sentence, which eventually becomes a chapter, before those chapters build a book. But there’s so… Continue reading Looking Back on my Pantser Novel
On Hiatus!
If you follow me on social media, then you probably already know this, but I am on hiatus for the time being. I’ve recently become a first-time home buyer, and we’re in the process of moving. Life is just a *little* busy. I also want to live in the moment and enjoy this time before… Continue reading On Hiatus!
How to be Flexible with Writing
Flexibility with your writing means you can easily shift from one project to another, even when it wasn’t in the plans.
Writing Method: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
With the New Year upon us—HALLELUJAH—I know many of you are gearing up to tackle your 2021 goals. Whether that’s to finally finish that WIP you’ve been working on or to start writing a novel for the first time, I thought I’d share a new writing method I’ve been using to crank out more words than I… Continue reading Writing Method: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
2020: The Strangest Writing Year (Hopefully?)
Every year I like to reflect and talk about expectations, goal-setting, writing life, changing trends, etc., and as strange as this past year has been, I still want to keep that tradition going. That said, looking back, January feels like it happened three years ago, not eleven months. In fact, right at the beginning of… Continue reading 2020: The Strangest Writing Year (Hopefully?)
