Some of my earliest memories are of going to the art museum with my father. Later, when I started playing violin, my parents took us to the symphony. We read widely, went to plays and art festivals and were generally immersed in the arts. Before I started my family, I spent years attending live music, traveling to some of the world’s best museums, and grabbing … Continue reading Feeding Your Inner Artist
My parents gave me a subscription to THE WRITER magazine when I was a kid. Years later, as an adult, I shyly checked out writing books from the library. You’d think I was checking out something indecent, but laying the books on the check-out counter felt like hubris. It was hard to meet the librarian’s eyes. I mean, if anyone knows what a writer looks … Continue reading 10 Tips to Control Writing Book Fever
You’ve heard of the seven stages of grief, but did you know that writers go through those seven stages of writerly grief when they receive feedback on their work? Well they do. Here’s how it happens (and how to survive it). We all know how important beta feedback is to the writing process. And we’ve all heard that getting “thicker skin” is part of writing as well. … Continue reading The Seven Stages of Writerly Grief
Back when we were the age of the kids we write for, summer used to mean long, hot, lazy days filled with reading, outdoor fun, and friends. But for writers, summer can be a huge time of distraction. Schedule changes like vacations and having kids home from school for the summer months can really eat into my writing time. So I asked my fellow Winged … Continue reading Keeping the Words Flowing
One of the great things about writing is that there’s no wrong way to do it…as long as words are getting logged somewhere. Anywhere. On a laptop, in a notebook, on thick, creamy paper, or in a recording on a cell phone to be transcribed later. But with all these options, we all have our own comfortable patterns we fall into. Two members of The … Continue reading Where Do You Write?
Ahhhh, the dog days of summer. Heat like syrup. Thunder rolls. Falling into the soft, ink-scented comforts of a good story, told well. If you’re anything like me though, summer rolls through your life with the speed of a locomotive, and your only chance to slow it down is to throw a beach towel across the tracks and derail that sucker. Still. Every year, I … Continue reading How We Read & What’s On My Nightstand
I love character motivation! When done right, it gives stories depth and texture and makes the characters seem like real people. I also hate character motivation! Sometimes I just want to get my characters from point A to point B in my story without having to worry about why. But if you want to write books with characters that people hate to part with, then … Continue reading Untangling Your Characters
Today I am THRILLED, THRILLED, THRILLED, to tell you about summer school! WHAAAT? Summer school? Yep. Summer school for KidLit writers. I’m proud to say that I’m a third year, so I know my way around. I can tell you what to do if you forget your homework and, even better, how to win prizes. Yep, I won a nice prize pack last summer, a half-dozen lovely books. … Continue reading Summer School is Cool!
Today we’re excited to host a guest post by Angela Ackerman! There’s nothing better than becoming lost within the story world within minutes of starting a book. And as writers, this is what we’re striving to do: pull the reader in, pull them down deep into the words, make them feel like they are experiencing the story right alongside the hero or heroine. A big … Continue reading The Setting Thesaurus Books Are Here: Help Becca And Angela Celebrate!
Rebecca: The Emotion Thesaurus has had its own special place on my writing desk for so long, I had to look on Goodreads to see when I’d first read it. January 1, 2014. I’ve been using it for a while. When I first started using the book, it opened my eyes to conveying emotions through actions. Well, okay, I used the easy ones all the time. … Continue reading Write Believable Heroes, Villains, and Emotions with The Positive/Negative Trait Thesauri and The Emotion Thesaurus
I’ve never really been one for writing prompts. Like everyone else, I am busy, and so have always felt the writing time I had needed to be as productive as humanly possible. If I wasn’t adding to my word count, I was wasting time. It will probably come as no surprise to those of you who have been writing for a while that I got … Continue reading Why You Need to Try Writing Prompts
So you’ve spent a bazillion hours writing the GREATEST NOVEL EVER. Every word is spelled correctly. Every comma has been checked. Every em dash is used appropriately. You’ve filtered for over-used words. And, of course, you’ve crafted a Killer First Line. Your book is ready to sell! Congrats!!! Pitch it to me! If you’re like me, your tongue goes dry, you start to shake, and … Continue reading Write a KILLER BOOK PITCH!
