Writing Tips

What Being Unprepared to Run a Marathon Taught Me about Novel Writing

What Being Unprepared to Run a Marathon Taught Me about Novel Writing

You should want to sing “the end” from the rooftops, not vomit in the sand between the back of a portaloo and someone’s million-dollar Cape Cod-style McMansion.

How to Show Not Tell in Writing

How to Show Not Tell in Writing

The why factor tells reader things about your characters. Readers learn who people, and they connect more deeply with the story, such as in “The Gift of the Magi” when writers show instead of tell.

Using Mindfulness to Write Your Life

Using Mindfulness to Write Your Life

Mindfulness makes us more empathetic. Even if we don’t agree, we can see others, particularly our antagonists, more clearly and thus treat them with compassion in our stories and in our lives.

How to Become a Writer

How to Become a Writer

Here’s what it takes to be a writer:

  1. Passion and dedication; you have to take the bad with the amazing

  2. Balls of steel; you will not love all of your word babies equally and some will embarrass you the same way your actual children do

  3. Dedication; writing has to be a daily practice for you to actually become a writer

How to Keep Writing When the Chips are Down

How to Keep Writing When the Chips are Down

Writers need to write every day, but working moms know by EOD, it’s hard to kick extra ass. Here’s how I kept my pen moving when the chips were stacked against me.

How Liminal Thinking Makes You a Better, More Successful Writer

How Liminal Thinking Makes You a Better, More Successful Writer

Liminal thinking allows you to create change by changing how you think. Apply the tenets of liminal thinking to be a better, more successful writer.

Get the Throat-Clearing Out of Your Writing

Get the Throat-Clearing Out of Your Writing

Throat-clearing can be useful in early drafts but should be eliminated because it conveys lack of confidence in your storytelling skills.

How Internal Conflict Drives Stories

How Internal Conflict Drives Stories

Internal conflict is the force that motivates a character’s actions. Read on to understand how to identify and to use internal conflict to write better stories.

Why You Still Need a Clear Protagonist with Multiple Narrators

Why You Still Need a Clear Protagonist with Multiple Narrators

When used properly, multiple narrators are very effective in storytelling; however, it is still important that authors know whose story they’re telling (i.e., have a clear protagonist).