Tied Up in Strings: How Internal Tension Moves Your Character
Imagine for a moment everything your character cares about—Love, Friendship, Family, Country, Ideals, Religion, Tradition, Self, and Things More Specific—as a string, …
Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Value of Positive Critique
Critique is the part where you tell an author everything they did wrong, right? Yes, absolutely! You need people who will tell …
How to Critique a Book
Critiquing a book isn’t so much about telling someone what they’re doing wrong, but helping them see their book better. This means …
Seven Things I Love About Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
I love post-apocalyptic fiction. Especially when the apocalypse is recent. Let me count the ways: 1. Post-Apocalyptic Bloomer. When I was a kid, …
What Dance Taught Me About Writer’s Block
Anyone who knows me knows I love to dance. And dancing, for me, has always meant learning new and fun choreography. Until …
Making Monsters Scary
For my current project, I’m thinking a lot about monsters. Scary monsters, rather than Monsters University types. And what I found, to …
Dialogue Tags Are Awesome
Dialogue tags. Sometimes it seems like everyone wants to do away with them. But me? I love dialogue tags. Let me count …
What I Mean By “Consider Your Audience”
I remember when I first had to learn how to write for an audience. It was a writing class which shall go …
In Support of Sucking
There is a point in doing things at times for exacting quality, and at times for endurance. They have different purposes. Sometimes, …