A Seasonal Sensory Exercise
Summer is gone. Fall is in full swing. Winter will soon be on our doorsteps. So now is the perfect time to practice some seasonal sensory exercises to stir your writing imagination.
A Turkey for Thanksgiving Book Review
A Turkey for Thanksgiving, by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Diane de Groat, is the perfect picture book to read for Thanksgiving.
Exploring the Art of Plotting Part Two
Today I’ll cover several writing nuggets DiAnn shares about the power of setting, story pacing, and developing a writer’s voice.
When You Know It’s Time to Let Go
This past July I took a trip with my husband, our two daughters, and my mother to visit family in New Mexico. The drive was long (about 16 hours, including getting a nail out of our tire), but it was worth it to see relatives (on my mother’s side) who we haven’t seen in a […]
Exploring the Art of Plotting
Exploring the Art of Plotting Part One In Exploring the Art of Plotting, DiAnn Mills pulls from her years of studying the craft of writing, along with her experience penning multiple award-winning novels, to educate writers on the many twists and turns of plotting. Within these 170 pages, DiAnn explores how plot is developed, how […]
Mimosa Trees and Writers’ Dreams
Mimosa Trees Have you ever compared mimosa trees and writers’ dreams? I have. Several years ago, I attended a writers’ conference in North Carolina. While driving with my husband from our home in Texas, north through Alabama on Interstate 85, my husband and I looked for blossoming mimosa trees along the road. We do this […]
8 Questions to Ask Yourself When Brainstorming Your Synopsis by Ann Harrison
Writing a synopsis is hard. Don’t let anyone kid you. I struggle with this task, but it doesn’t have to overwhelm you. I’ve found that I can brainstorm my synopsis in the same way I brainstorm or revise my books, or do developmental edits for my publishers. Here are eight questions I used to brainstorm […]
Fallow: What Does a Season of Writing Rest Look Like? by Marci Whitehurst
In 2014, I decided to be intentional with my writing after pursuing it as a hobby for years. I wrote and wrote. I joined writing groups. Then, in 2020—I gave it my all. I took a plethora of classes; I made goals in multiple genres; I joined several critique groups. Yet I still had kids, […]
Moving Forward Boldly
Last time I wrote about writing a plot summary within a short period of time for a potential fiction story opportunity. The good news is, the publisher accepted my pitch! The bad news is, the publisher accepted my pitch! Of course, this isn’t really bad news. It’s great news! But, the reality has set in […]
Chutzpah Heroes by Bill Edgar: A Book Review from Several POVs and a Giveaway
Introduction Since this book is written for adults to read to children, or for children to read themselves, I thought it would be fun to have an adult’s POV on the book as well as two children’s opinions. The author of the book, Bill Edgar, is my oldest daughter’s father-in-law. Believe me when I tell […]