Hi friends! Welcome to another WIP Wednesday! If you’re wondering what WIP Wednesday is, well, you must be new here. Welcome! It’s an opportunity to share your writing. On the first Wednesday of every month, I post an excerpt of a work in progress and invite you to do the same in the comments section below. There are some ground
Hi friends! This is a workshop I’m going to be giving in a couple of places this year, and I thought I’d share it on the blog, too. I’m not saying this is the best way to plot a novel. I take at least a few weeks, and sometimes much longer, to outline a story and develop my characters. But
Hi friends! This is silly and embarrassing, but what the heck. Today I’m writing about how, sometimes, the littlest thing can give you courage. I like tips about how to be more confident, so I figured you might like mine, too! When I moved from Kansas City and started my new job in Los Angeles last year, I noticed on
Hi friends! Welcome to WIP Wednesday, where I share a little bit of work in progress and invite you to share an excerpt of your own work in the comments section. If you’re new, here are the rules! If you do this all the time, you can skip them. – 500 words or less! (So blog visitors have time to
Did you know that in Finland in the 1980s, they rebranded Valentine’s Day so no one would feel left out? They call it Ystävänpäivä, or Day of the Friends, and it’s mostly about friendship. In the U.S., people usually think of Valentine’s Day as a romantic holiday, but because I worked for so many years at a greeting card company, I
Hey friends! I set a goal on Goodreads of reading 52 books in 2019. I’ve got to admit it’s not a goal I’ll feel terrible about if I don’t hit it, for three reasons: I read so much in my day job that reading a lot outside of it can be a challenge. I already have 10 New Year’s Resolutions
Although I mostly write fiction now, I started out writing poems. My MFA is even in poetry. I’ve taught beginning poetry workshops at university and also in some fairly unusual settings. I know a lot of people can use ideas for poems, poetry writing prompts, and inspiration. Even if you write poetry all the time, one of these idea starters