It’s road trip time again! There has been a TON of great stuff flying through cyberspace in the last few weeks. Here are some of our favorite informative, motivating and moving finds: On Craft Whether you’re on Draft 1 or Draft 100, it seems like there’s always room to improve. From the nitty-gritty — like this article on how to avoid transition words — to … Continue reading March Road Trip!
Happy Valentine’s Day! The true origins of Valentine’s Day are unknown – in 496, it signified the start of spring. It was also believed Valentine was a person who gave love to the world. Similar to what we now know as Cupid? Whichever story is true, both represent joy and happiness. At The Winged Pen, we help spread happiness by talking about our love of … Continue reading The Literary Couples We Love
Back in July, just before my daughters headed back to school, I decided to try something new. A position had opened up at our local independent book store for a part-time bookseller. What booklover hasn’t dreamed of working at an indie bookstore, at least for a day? My expectations for being hired were low. I hadn’t held a “real” job since I’d stopped working as … Continue reading Indie Bookstores (The Lifeblood of Our Communities), Jumping Into Black Holes, and New Picture Books
For the last couple of years, every time one of my writer pals would ask me what I was working on, the answer was the same breezy, “Oh, I’m still plugging away on that rockstar mom book I told you about ages ago.” I’m pretty sure that more than a few of them wondered if I shouldn’t just give it up and move on to … Continue reading How to Survive Your Toughest Draft
The end of the year is close. When I changed the calendar from October to November, I felt as if I wasted the entire year. Of course I spent too much time on social media, binge-watched several TV shows, and stood for what seemed like hours in front of the coffee machine waiting for the cup to fill, but as far as writing, what exactly … Continue reading What Did I Do in 2017?
At The Winged Pen, we’ve written about Angela Ackerman’s and Becca Puglisi’s wonderful writing books before. So we’re super excited to tell you about their newest one: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma. Yay!!!!! *shoots off rockets* A wound, in the writing world, is the hurt the main character carries around that keeps him or her holding onto a lie. A … Continue reading Need Stronger Backstory for Your Characters? The Emotional Wound Thesaurus to the rescue!
Three gutsy protagonist, three continents, three different time periods. How’s that work? Well, you won’t have to wait much longer to discover how middle-grade author Alan Gratz weaves these interconnecting stories together in a way that Kirkus Reviews has called a “feat nothing short of brilliant.” REFUGEE hit bookstore shelves in July 2017 and made it to the NYTimes best-sellers list for middle grade fiction twice … Continue reading NYTimes Author Alan Gratz talks about REFUGEE and BAN THIS BOOK
Shhh. I’m in the closet with my laptop. Should I mention there’s no air conditioning in this closet. And it’s at least 90 degrees outside. I’m sweating like I’m in a sauna. And the air smells like teen boy sneakers. Why am I torturing myself? I just want uninterrupted writing time. My kids have been out of school for a whole week already. Every three … Continue reading Hiding in the Closet (and other tricks to find writing time in the summer)
Waaaayyyy back in January, I wrote a New Year’s post about goal-setting. A few of my fellow Pennies were inspired by that post to write down their goals with me – remembering to be specific, set deadlines, stay flexible, and above all, not beat ourselves up if we didn’t quite hit our marks. Now that it’s June, about halfway through the year, I wanted to … Continue reading Halfway through 2017 (GASP!) — Let’s Do a Goal Check-in!
Last month, I talked about how to build your platform: https://thewingedpen.com/book-marketing-p…re-your-best-bet/. This month, I will talk about how you can bait your readership further. A sale funnel will turn an indifferent audience into a warm audience. Your audience is made out of readers and writers like you. Think of your future audience not as potential buyers, but as a group of people who love the … Continue reading Book Marketing Part 2: Your Mailing List
I recently found myself in a writing rut. A hectic home life, a stressful and stressed-out world, and somehow writing became both trivial and inaccessible. I could not connect with my creativity, and it felt self-indulgent even to try. Over dinner, a wise friend suggested a poetry challenge. Write a poem a day for thirty days, to clean out the spiders of doubt and despair, … Continue reading My Month of Poetry
We’ve talked before about the need for critique partners to help you create your best work. (Jessica Vitalis had some great suggestions about how to find the right critique partners.) But finding critique partners is only half the battle. If you want to have an ongoing, productive critique relationship – and write your best novel! – you also need to know how to be a good … Continue reading How To Give Good Critique
