How to Find Ideas to Write About

Can’t generate inspiration for a new story? Not sure what to write about? Everyone gets ideas a little differently. For some people, the plot is the first thing to develop in their minds. For others, the worldbuilding. For me, it’s characters. But all books start with an idea. And here are some ways to help

What They Never Taught You About Hyphens

Hyphens carry a deep dark secret you were never taught. Brain: Ahem. You mean you were never taught. Hush. Yes, I was never taught when NOT to use hyphens. I only learned the secret while tutoring my sixth-grade cousin. As you already know, you use hyphens for situations like this: The blue-black sky lit up

How to Format Your Book for Self-Publishing (part one)

Ah, you’ve arrived to it at last. The thrilling portion of self-publishing known as formatting. The delight of all writers, the zenith of our craft (or our patience *cough*). Okay, formatting is, like, the bane of self-publishing. Seriously. And it must be undertaken with a thorough knowledge of proper formatting. I am not going to

NaNoWriMo Prep For the Planner

If you’re a devout planner (like me), then prepping for NaNoWriMo can be a little bit scary, because you know if you come up against something you didn’t outline, it could be problematic. (i.e. You stop writing and start outlining and panic because you’re not writing.) So what to do to avoid future panic in

How to Write Characters With Trauma

There is nothing I like more as a reader than finding a book that does a good job of portraying mental illness in fictional characters (looking at you, Blade of Secrets), but if you haven’t actually experienced the trauma or mental health challenge you’re writing about, it can be hard to do. To help yourself

How to Safeguard Your Creativity (when life gets busy)

Being a writer means accepting certain life distractions that can interfere with the creative process. But when life gets especially busy, it can get harder and harder to stay creative. This time of year, for me, is crazy busy – the goats, the garden, the dogs . . . Yeah. Busy. At the same time,

The Quandary of Your Book’s Ending

If you know me, you know that ending a book is . . . well, not easy. For me, anyway. I didn’t have a problem with the ending for the first draft of Fate of a Prince, but Promised Land? One Light Shining (unpublished)? Oh yeah. The reason the ending of Fate was easy to

4 Tips on How to Improve Your Story’s Beginning (GUEST POST)

I’m so happy to welcome Lily Keith to the blog today with this great guest post. Make sure to check out her blog at the end.    One day, I started editing the first draft of my WIP.  Something didn’t feel right, but I wasn’t sure why.  So my alpha reader read the first several chapters. 

The Role of Music in My Writing

I thought it was high time I did a blog post on this topic, since music is currently playing a bigger role than ever in my writing. Coincidentally, my appreciation and ear for music has also increased since I began creating music videos and listening to a much wider variety of songs. So, what role

Deconstructing the First Draft (The Writer’s Bane)

Note: The paperback version of my novel Promised Land is now available on Amazon! Let’s face it, most of us consider the first draft to be the worst or one of the worst parts of writing. I know of one or two writers who like the first draft process best of all, but . .