Holy moly! A new year. A new decade. Both come with excitement, motivation, and promise. But they also come with stress. If you’re like most people, you didn’t get a lot of writing done during the holidays. Either you were enjoying a house filled with friends and family, filling someone else’s house with holiday cheer, or hanging out at home stuck in a sugar rush-crash-rush-crash … Continue reading Jump Back into Writing With a Hop
Can posture improve your writing? This was a question I pondered when author Amber Smith visited me for a few days. In my efforts to be a good host, I kept trying to encourage her to write in “comfy” spots, like my soft couch or a beanbag chair outside. She confessed she had to sit upright at a desk or table to feel like she … Continue reading MYC: Sit Up Straight!
First pages of a manuscript are tough to get right. Advice generally encourages writers to jump into the action to hook readers, but readers need a certain amount of information first in order to care about the people or events. I’ve written about this before in my post “Let the Main Character Drive the Bus,” and now I’d like to come at it from a … Continue reading MYC: The Hook & the Backpedal
LEARNING ABOUT WRITING BY NOT WRITING. WHAT? I have a summer writing assignment for you but don’t worry, it won’t be graded and it’s something you can do with family and friends. It doesn’t even require pen, paper, or opening a Word document. But trust me, it will help your writing tremendously. Here’s what you need: A TV or computer, a comfortable chair, pillow and … Continue reading Writing Homework: Watch TV
1. Done right, world building draws the reader into your story. Done wrong, it grinds your manuscript to a screeching halt. What do I mean by done right? I mean giving the readers… Continue reading Writing Fantasy: It’s a Whole New World
Thank you to all the brave souls who entered this month’s Four on 400 contest! Sharing your writing takes courage, and we appreciate your enthusiasm for our contest. Below, we’ve posted the first 400 words from this month’s winner, along with feedback from at least four of our members. We also encourage our readers to share their (constructive) suggestions and encouragement in the comments section below. Middle Grade: … Continue reading April Four on 400 Feedback!
We’ve all heard that writers are introverts. Maybe it’s because we spend so much time working alone, or because we’re always in our heads thinking, developing, and writing stories. Some writers know how to get out of their own minds and socialize when at conferences. Others do not. I fall into the DO NOT category. But let me explain. Not only am I constantly writing … Continue reading Tales From an Introvert: My Experience at the SCBWI Winter Conference 2019
I’ve asked myself this question AT LEAST thirty times. I’ve listened to my friends recount their incredible MFA experiences. I’ve dreamily reviewed the MFA program websites and calculated the expenses. I even started an application for an MFA program at least once or twice. But then I revert to my lingering question: Instead of investing all that time and money, should I spend my time … Continue reading Should You Get an MFA in Creative Writing?
Have you ever held onto a secret you’ve been dying to share, and then finally…you can? For the last few weeks I’ve been helping Angela and Becca at Writers Helping Writers keep a BIG secret…what the next book in their thesaurus series will be. It might seem strange to not tell one’s readers what book you’re planning to release…unless you happen to write books on Show, … Continue reading Big News: New Thesaurus Revealed!
I find myself, to my surprise, writing a novel in verse. Though I have written poetry in the past, novels in verse always seemed mysterious to me, almost as much so as the work of those sorcerer illustrators. How does one write a story, with narrative, out of a poem? How do you even begin a novel in verse? Eking out one poem feels like … Continue reading The Two Pieces of Advice that Made Writing A Verse Novel Seem Possible
I love the kinds of stories that make you look in the dark corners of your room or order a clear shower curtain so you know if a knife-wielding man dressed as a woman is going to stab you. (True story – I watched the movie Shutter Island while on the treadmill. I couldn’t stop looking behind me. You can see how that’s not a … Continue reading Tackling the Terrifying. How to Write Scary
Welcome to a bonus Master Your Craft post! We’ll still have our regular post Wednesday, and in the meantime… Chapter endings are like fish hooks. A hook alone can catch a fish, but it’s easier with a worm. So what lure can you use to entice readers to take the bait and keep turning pages? Two good options are “contagious” emotions and the sometimes-misunderstood cliffhanger. In Jonah … Continue reading MYC: Chapter Endings, The End is Only the Beginning
