When I was writing my capstone project, Seedling (seriously, check it out on the page), I was much too eager to write in all of my problematic relationships and using my main character as the funnel for some personal vendettas. No, really, I melted the face off one character who was loosely based off an …
Category: Writing Advice For Aspiring Writers
What Does a Wayward Writer Write?
My life hasn't gone how I planned. Who can say differently, though? When I was a know-nothing kid, I thought that things would align easily. The teachers made it seem like things would, so long as you behaved and got good grades, though. Everything will just fall into place. So I made an age-marked goal …

Simple Steps
Have you ever started plotting out a draft, story, dream journal and found yourself with too complex and heavy of an idea meshed with dozens of other ideas that make you go, "Man, this needs to be an entire series!" But then you start, and the idea of creating no only one book for a story idea but three, four, or even five and you're feeling heart palpitations every time you sit at the keyboard. That anxiety is unnecessary, and what is the rule for unnecessary items in a draft?

Na-Oh, no-Wri-Mo
National Novel Writing Month...a month both embraced and reviled by writers who are on the social media platforms. I have accomplished it ONCE, and I don't even know what happened to that unfinished book (I got the wordcount but never finished it as I planned after because guess what, I was exhausted!)

Sticks and Stones AND Words WILL Hurt You
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me!" That's what they taught us to use as a quick response to bullying, more so name-calling and verbal teasing. I doubt this would be effective when placed in a headlock and enduring a noogie. Whenever I'd run tearfully to my parents after a sibling made a bullying poem about me (it actually was well made but at six this was not appreciated as of yet), my parents, tired from full time jobs and three kids, would say "sticks and stones, sweetie. Go back and say that to them."
Words to Live By: Vitriol
Anne Lammott in her book Bird by Bird writes in one chapter that sometimes characters in our stories don't always do what we want them to; they try to veer off in other directions or have a personality quirk that disrupts the plotline. She relates this to a person who finds their neighbor drunk and passed out on their front lawn every day. The passerby takes time out of their day to take them into their house and put them on their couch. They do this nearly every day, the sober neighbor grabbing the drunken one off their lawn and inside. Finally, another neighbor who has been watching this stops them one morning and says, "Honey, leave them where Jesus laid them."

Soundcheck
Soundcheck, one, two, three... Sound check, one, two, three... Is this thing still on? It better be. WordPress sent me the bill for the automatic renewal of the site! So I thought, "Well, I better use it." I don't even dare check when the last post on here occurred. Yes, it's been a WHILE. So …
“I’ll Write It When I’m Ready” And Other Lies We Say
There's that one story that you've had in a drawer at the back of your mind for ages. It's going to be the greatest project ever. It may get you that agent who hasn't bitten the hook yet, shoot your print to the front of every bookstore across the globe, and make that startling collision …
Continue reading “I’ll Write It When I’m Ready” And Other Lies We Say
You’ve Got To Read To Write
Want to know a secret, writer? If you want to be a great writer, you must discipline yourself to be a great reader as well. It's never surprising that a writer was once an avid reader in their younger days. That's how many get their start, but what many neglect to learn or practice is …
Writer For Hire
It is undeniable that one of the greatest and most worrying of pains in the process is the inevitable job search. Everyone has gone through it: you search the same internet scavenger hunt but you try to word yourself differently hoping different results come up that don't include a CDL or a lifetime worth of …