Welcome to 2021! We are all anxious to put 2020 behind us and focus on a new year filled with promise and productivity. There are dreams of writing the next book, attending conferences, and having books signed in person! However, I realize the promise of a great 2021 may take a while to arrive and instead of being discouraged, I have been inspired online challenges … Continue reading Tic Tac Toe for Writers
I don’t know about you, but I’m on my way to rocking the quarantine fifteen, and before this is over, I’ll have passed the quaranineteen. And as I plop myself down at my desk every morning, I’m realizing that it’s just as important to feed our minds as it is our bodies… Continue reading Quarantine Creativity Boost
Know any budding graphic novelists or writers? SHARE YOUR SMILE is exactly the book to put in their hands. Telgemeier breaks the creation process down into easily understood chunks from inspiration to finished drawings. She takes you through the research and drawing process, using her popular graphic novels SMILE, SISTERS, DRAMA, and GHOSTS as examples. SHARE YOUR SMILE is filled with writing prompts and exercises, giving … Continue reading Featured: Graphic Novel SHARE YOUR SMILE
During this morning’s writing session I was reflecting on how long I’ve been at this writing gig. Not in a bad way. Strictly the facts. I’ve written five middle grade novels now. It’s impressive to me when others in the arts share their struggles WITHOUT some big news to share at the end. Just the challenging points in the middle with no “but-now-I’ve-made-it” caveat. So … Continue reading My Writing Life to Date: Stay-at-Home Dad & Words
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
September 28 – September 30, 2018, I spent the weekend at the SCBWI Carolinas “Word and Line” conference. The weekend was filled with craft, networking, and catching up with fellow writers and Pennies. But you know the feeling you get after spending a week or weekend at a workshop or conference filling your mind with ideas, tips, inspiration, and motivation? It’s a little exhaustion, a … Continue reading Conferences – Sharing What I Learn
You might remember Wendy from an interview last year when her debut IT’S A MYSTERY PIGFACE! hit the shelves. Well, she’s at it again with book two, THE FRAME-UP. How did you know that the idea for THE FRAME-UP was your next book and how did it all come about? I struggled a bit to decide what I would write next, and one night, … Continue reading THE FRAME-UP with Wendy McLeod MacKnight
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!
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we talked about Ten Steps to Tightening. This week, we’ll discuss Tasting Your Words: Writing with Your 5 Senses. We are physical beings who experience life on this planet through our five senses. It’s true that our minds love to time-travel, … Continue reading Tasting Your Words: Writing with Your 5 Senses
Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we continued our series on revision with a look at first and last pages. This week, we’re diving into making your language shine. After the long slog of drafting and re-drafting and revising and editing, it can be hard to remember what … Continue reading MYC: Playing with Language
