How to Form That Writing Habit
I was heading out with the whippets for one of our first walks originating from my new condo. Next door lives a young boy who is less than enthusiastic about dogs. Since I don’t want to do further damage to…
Category: Revision
Naming Your Characters and Your Book
My oldest brothers are twins. One of them is named after my father, the first and middle names swapped because my father decided he did not want a junior. James is named after the song, “Sweet Baby James.” Because my…
How Intersectional Feminism Made Me A Better Writer
I’m a sub-par writer. Always have been. And I’m totally cool with saying that because, well, for one thing it’s true. But I’ve also learned that it’s not how well you write that makes you a good writer. It’s how…
Review: Understanding Show, Don’t Tell
As often as Show, Don’t Tell is drummed into us, it’s not always clear how to do it. Telling is sometimes necessary, even desirable in a sprawling novel, and the impulse to perform corrective showing can lead to page-count creep…
Writing, Fast and Slow
It wasn’t until I joined in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) a few years ago that I finished a full draft of a novel for the first time. For anyone unfamiliar with Nanowrimo, it’s a national challenge to write a 50,000…
YA Wednesday: Write A Successful 1st Draft (Without Stabbing Yourself In The Eye With a Spork), The Greatest Lesson I Learned in Writing This Year, Tropes to Avoid, Diverse Books to Look Forward to in 2017
The New Years resolution at the top of my list is to finish The Black Sea, my novel in progress. And not just to finish it but to wrap it up in two to three months. Admittedly some of my…