I went book shopping yesterday. I don't know why I picked up anything. I already had 130 books on my TBR list, three of which were recent arrivals via my boyfriend that I wanted to check out. And I already had six or seven that I have been sitting around various places in the house, [...]
The Outcome Can Terrorize You If there's a thousand ways to do something, there's a thousand ways to do it right. And a thousand ways to muck it up. And the truth is -- you'll never find the process that works for you, without stumbling through a few of those. In On Writing Well, by William Zinsser, [...]
It's a difficult thing, a solid thing, a hard thing: to let go. To release. But, decisions change the world.
Writing emotions is complicated. Do all your characters' emotions make sense? Tips for writing fiction and nonfiction.
Writers, editors, and others who stare at computers for a long time are at risk of eye strain. Tips to keep your eyes healthy.
Understand Personality to Connect with Audience & Write Strong Characters Who are your readers? Who are your characters? How do you connect them? In essence, this is the challenge of the fiction writer -- replacing real people with believable ones, and then somehow making them real for the real ones. The connections? Personality. (Not even [...]
Emotion breaks across the page in poetry. I examine how Charles Bukowski hid vulnerability in his strength.
Readers think they're smart. Be prepared to go Gonzo rather than trying to trick them.
Realistically, not all conversations between characters of the same gender revolve around the opposite gender.
Death is coming. For each of your characters. How will they live, knowing this truth? And what to do about vampires?