Hey, welcome back to my series about character development based on zodiac signs! If you’re new to the series, let me explain that I don’t necessarily believe in astrology (and I don’t necessarily not believe in it), and the personality type for your sign may not fit you. This is just a way to think about creating characters. Let’s take a look
Tag: Reader
Here is one of my favorite stories about one of my nieces. It’s ridiculously cute. When she was little, her nursery school teacher had a lesson on fire safety. She asked the kids, “If your clothes were on fire, what would you do?” My niece said, “Well, I wouldn’t put them on.” It’s great because it’s so sensible. But when
As a non-parent, I’ve always been struck by how often parents believe that their small child’s tendencies or slight delays indicate what kind of adult they will be. I’ve seen enough difficult two-year-olds to grow into easygoing nine-year-olds, for instance, to ascribe temper tantrums to a child’s age rather than her personality. It’s clear to me that a child who
My day job is Master Writer at Hallmark Cards, and I don’t blog about it too much, but this summer has been so fun and exciting that I can’t resist. Hallmark introduced four studio collections, each one featuring the work of someone on their creative staff, and one of those collections is mine! (Bryn is a pen name, but I prefer
This isn’t my clever idea — it is author Kelley Lenhart’s, and I borrowed it with her kind permission because I thought it was so much fun! The idea here is that you come up with an alternate title for your book as though it were a clickbait headline for an article on the internet instead. You know those headlines. I think Upworthy may
First off, “Cancer” is the worst name in astrology. Can we re-name it, please? Anyway, the Crab is a great personality type that can help you build a devoted, emotional character! [AdSense-B] Some people think of Cancer as “wimpy,” which is totally incorrect. Being emotionally open and honest is its own kind of courage, and as a couple of the
First of all: what is a beta reader? It’s a reader who gives your unpublished book or other work a close read and gives you feedback to help you improve the story. A beta reader isn’t as thorough as a developmental editor, and some authors use beta readers after the first draft of their story. Beta readers are wonderful…except when