Sometimes I feel like I’m learning the same lessons over and over again. The cycles and seasons of life keep turning and there is always more to learn, do, discover, and re-learn all over again! It can be important and oh-so-valuable to lean into these truths and reminders of things we’ve learned before. Today we’re […]
A very merry Holiday season to you all! The days are flying by, the Christmas songs are playing on the radio, and there are colored lights everywhere we look! In the spirit of giving thanks at this special time, I extend a very heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you for being here today as […]
In case you missed it, I recently had the privilege of guest posting over at The Novel Smithy. The Novel Smithy is a great community of writers with lot of helpful info, resources, and things happening! My guest post spends some time overviewing a few Non-Western Storytelling models, which was a super interesting topic to […]
Today we have the great privilege of having Lewis Jorstad with us to share about how to use the Hero’s Journey to outline our stories. Lewis is an editor and book coach who also leads the thriving writing community over at The Novel Smithy. Without further ado- take it away, Lewis! Outlining an Epic Adventure […]
School buses are on the roads again and fall is on its way! Which means it’s time for our seasonal review of all the best things of summer 🙂 These are just a few of the books I’ve been reading and things that have caught my attention over the past few months. Feel free to […]
Today we have the privilege of having Deborah-Zenha Adams as our guest to teach us a bit about how we can use the concept of chakras to add depth to our fiction characters. For further reading on creating characters you can check out the character development archives. Looking at chakras as a way to build […]
Understanding our motives for writing is vital. Whether it’s a novel, a thesis, or a set of songs, many of us have creative endeavors we are pursuing. And that begs the question: Why? What is our motivation? Why do we write? Why do YOU write? This isn’t just curiosity asking. While I love to hear […]
Happy June and bring on the sunshine! We’re speeding toward summer so it’s time to bring you the latest quarterly installment of my favorite things along with what I’ve been reading and learning these days. Feel free to chime in with your own favorites below! I hope your spring is wrapping up well and that […]
Writing a novel takes luck… but not how we might think. We may say, oh they were lucky they had time to write or that they were so talented. Or they were lucky to write in a popular genre and get a good publishing deal. While there is some truth here (many authors are quite […]
Earlier in the month we took a look at the importance of crafting satisfying endings to our story. Today we’re backtracking a bit to look at the story’s start! The first page (and often the first sentence!) of our novel needs to hook our readers and introduce them to our story. It is critical that […]
What are the qualities of a “good” book? Everyone has different aspects they enjoy when they’re reading, whether it’s humor, worldbuilding, or a tricksy plot. And no novel can (or should!) try to please everyone, that’s just a recipe for a mess! But there are core components of storytelling we should strive for that are […]
Today we’re not taking anything too seriously, we’re just having a bit of fun! Fun is important after all 🙂 Sometimes we think we’re too busy for fun, too busy to take a break, too busy to be happy. That can’t be healthy. In fact, sometimes taking breaks can actually lead to increased productivity by […]
For writers (and probably everyone!) time management will always be crucial. Life gets busy so quickly and before you know it, the day (or week/month/year!) has flown right by. Even if the stars align and I have a bunch of time on my hands, somehow it still is difficult to get everything done. So what […]
Last month we spent some time discussing worldbuilding, specifically how having an overall theme can tie our worldbuilding concepts together and looking at how including specific details can provide depth. (Go back and check it out if you missed it!) Today we’re looking at worldbuilding a bit more as we focus on religion and belief […]
It seems like we’ve made it through the coldest and darkest days of winter! We still have snow here in New England but there has also been sunshine, for which I’ve been thankful. With the change in seasons, here is my quarterly post about a few of my favorite things along with a bit of […]