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 …
Category: writing
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 …
Nobody’s Perfect, Neither Are Characters
Remember when Disney princesses set the highest of standards for little girls everywhere? I honestly didn't mind Aurora, for instance, when I was little, but it bothered me getting older when my voice deepened in pitch rather than raised and became a bird and woodland creature lull. How was her skin so perfect for a …
My Bloody Shinebox: Dealing With Unfair Critics
Every writer has dreaded yet anticipated the unstoppable times when we are bunched up with other writers, sometimes in desks or table arranged in a circle, led by a teacher, mentor, or volunteer instructor who have us go around, one by one, and we offer our personal work or projects to the group, like a …
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Writing On Receipt Paper and Other Random Surfaces
What is the most nerve-wringing advice every writer hears? "Every day. Write every single day. You can't be a real writer if you don't actually write, so make sure you write every day. Have work? Wake up at 6AM and write. Can't wake up early? Write until midnight. Need full eight hours sleep? Haha, that's …
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How to Scare a Writer In Six Words Or Less
It's only happened maybe a few times outside of school when a simple and seemingly harmless question has caught me off guard. No one thinks much of asking it but when they say it aloud it's like they've hit a pause switch in my head and I all but stutter, stunned into awkward silence where …
Reality: Stranger Than Fiction Part III
(Okay, guys, this is the third post about this. If you're unsure what this post thread is about, please refer to parts I and II, thanks!) Here's a fun bombshell for those who don't know me terribly well: My husband and I are team members of a ghost hunting/paranormal investigation team. Or we are for …
Random Writing Prompt of the Day
"What?" Your character (or picture yourself if that helps) is sitting at the bar. They/you are enjoying a drink or a bite to eat. Someone slips into the seat next to them, turns towards them, a stranger that they/you cannot discern from any other stranger from the crowd in the building or from off the …
Romance Is Dead (For Good Reason)
Every active reader and writer of Young Adult varieties can recall the cold age of the sparkling vampire romance years from not so long ago. Remember? When everyone was hyperventilating to Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner's roles as heartthrob creatures that both vied for one mortal woman (who had no extraordinary personality, traits, talents, or …
Stepmothers On Mother’s Day
A huge Happy Mother's Day (a day late, I know) to every mother out there, whether you're a mother from giving birth (women are the original 3D printers, you know), a stepmother of a child of any age, a mother who has lost children, those with mothers who have already crossed the bridge between this …