Reading glamorous success stories can be so attractive and addictive. We look at brilliant musicians and say we wish we were gifted like that. We admire great art and lament we aren’t artistic. We read books, view sculptures, gawk at inventions, and marvel at math… and we think we could never do that. We think […]
If you’ve ever read much YA fiction you’ll notice that it’s pretty common for parents to be either dead or absent. There are a few contributing factors for this, but essentially it’s because in YA fiction, parents are a problem that writers need to somehow solve. The Parent Problem: The Parents Can’t Be In Control […]
Let’s travel together by taking a look at some beautiful libraries and bookstores around the world! Yes, I want to visit every single one of these 🙂 I’ve tried to label these as best I could but please let me know if I’ve missed anything. And feel free to chime in with your favorites below, […]
Today I’m outlining a case for making bad art and why that’s so important. Now I can be kind of a perfectionist by nature so this goes a bit against the grain- if you’re a perfectionist as well, just hang in there with me! It may seem silly to make bad art on purpose, but […]
Sometimes there just seems so much to do. Those books won’t write themselves, you know! There’s pressure to hustle harder and get our butts on the chair and write write write. And they’re not wrong. But sometimes sticking to our to-do lists, hustling, and being busy busy busy isn’t actually the best way to go […]
Theme in story can be tricky to pin down sometimes. Sometimes it’s described as what’s “below the surface” of the novel, or the iceberg that is mostly hidden below the water. A story’s theme is also referred to its “soul” or its “core.” Basically it means what a story is about, its universal theme, or […]
As writers we are constantly needing to come up with names for fictional characters. So what’s in a name? Does a rose by any other name really smell as sweet? Would Frodo Baggins have been the same hobbit if he had been named Kikko Killingham? What about Shannon Lilac or Dimitri Ivanov? Names have a […]
This week you can find me guest posting over at Fiction University! I’m talking about 5 ways to use holidays in your writing. Everyone loves a special occasions and there are lots of ways we can incorporate that into our stories both to enrich the setting and drive the plot. So check out my post […]
Every villain needs a motive, because here’s the secret: from their perspective they’re not the villain. They have reasons for doing what they’re doing. We can’t just have vague “evil villains” being bad just for the sake of giving our heroes someone to fight. Often a villain’s motivations can be remarkably similar to our heroes, […]
Often I feel like I have too many writing projects and too little time! I have all sorts of stories I want to be working on and it can be hard to sort out how that works alongside the rest of life. (Anyone else??) Lately a lot of my writing times are only 5-15 minutes […]