The Teacher Becomes The Student

It’s much easier to assign writing than to teach writing. That epiphany in my profession as a high school English teacher was a blessing and a curse. . .for me and for my students. It meant I stopped bombarding them with the alphabet soup of essays (analysis, biography, comparison, definition, exemplification, etc.), and started devoting [...]

Top Ten Ways to Find Ten Minutes to Write

 No one should have to remind us that life is short. The Bible says it “fades quickly like grass.” In fact, the book of Proverbs is full of encouragement to make use of our time, to be wise with our gifts. If this is true, that we should, in fact, use every day wisely, then [...]

Finding Writing Inspiration on Vacation

I admit it. I bring the over-scheduled busyness of life with me on vacation. I kid myself that after nonstop seeing and doing for three or five days, I’ll be rested and ready to return to daily life with vigor. Still, I can’t pass on the opportunity to feed my mind with the experiences of [...]

Scrivener for Windows Review

When I found out Scrivener for Windows was in beta testing, I dropped everything to find out more about it. This writing software by Literature and Latte includes tons of cool features for writers, but until recently was only available to Mac-users. Because I’m using a trial version and the developer is still actively collecting [...]

When NOT to Take Writing Advice

There’s no shortage of advice out there for aspiring and beginning authors. There’s no shortage of advice out there for aspiring and beginning authors.But knowing when NOT to take advice may be as important as knowing when to heed it. I learned this my first year of pursuing publication. At the time, I was preparing [...]

Larger-Than-Real-Life Characters

This weekend while writing in a coffee shop, I was distracted by real life characters. The people around me, like this guy who greeted this girl with three kisses. His wife? Girl friend? I watched how they talked and interacted. How they were overly considerate and accommodating to each others needs. They were obviously dating, [...]

Breathing Life into Your Setting

Setting in a fictional novel, if done well, can take on a life of its own. In order to create a setting that is almost like a character, there are two basic points to know: 1)      Know Your Setting, And 2) Know How Your Setting Influences Your Characters. To Know Your Setting, you must first [...]

Writing a Great Story

What makes a story great? That’s the goal, isn’t it? To not just write a good story, but to create a great story. But what exactly makes a story great? What lifts it above the rim of mediocrity and sets it on that level reserved for books with that “wow” factor. Well, we know writing [...]

Choosing Words Carefully

You ever talk to someone who just doesn’t know when to shut the trap and wrap it up? People who take five minutes to say what could be said in thirty seconds? Sure you have. We all have. Some people just have diarrhea of the mouth. I’m sorry, I know that sounds awfully harsh, but [...]

100 Top Creative Writing Blogs

Needing more writing help? Here’s a list of 100 blogs. Randy Ingermanson’s Advanced Fiction Writing blog is on the list and if you haven’t checked out his site, or if you don’t subscribe to his newsletter, I encourage you to do so. It’s very hands on and Randy is a wonderful teacher!

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