Do Your Stories Have Deeper Meanings?

A joke about authors vs. English teachers has circulated online for years. What can it teach us about how readers interpret our story?

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Do Your Stories Have Deeper Meanings?

Writing Prompts: Helpful? Or a Waste of Time? — Guest: Savannah Cordova

Writing prompts can help with inspiration or creativity, or distract us from the writing we’re “supposed to” do. How can we make them more helpful to us?

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Writing Prompts: Helpful? Or a Waste of Time? — Guest: Savannah Cordova

Thursday Thoughts: How to Find & Fix Plot Holes

A post by Claire Bradshaw over at Writer’s Edit ties in with our recent topic of plot holes, which can sneak into our character development and worldbuilding. Claire shares tips for finding all types of plot holes, as well as a step-by-step process for how to fix any we find.

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Thursday Thoughts: How to Find & Fix Plot Holes

Writing Worries: Fighting the One-Hit-Wonder Problem

Writers are often a neurotic, self-doubting lot, so many of us long for validation. However, any validation is only temporary, and the best we can do is try to develop a healthy relationship with those desires.

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Writing Worries: Fighting the One-Hit-Wonder Problem

Are Speedbumps Holding Back Your Writing?

Sometimes books don’t earn a “perfect” review because of minor problems. Let’s talk about some of the small issues that might hold back our work from being as good—or as great—as it could be.

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Are Speedbumps Holding Back Your Writing?

Conference Recap & Bonus Contest Winner!

I’m back from beautiful San Diego and the Romance Writers of America National Conference and here for a quick recap of the past week with contest winners galore.

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Conference Recap & Bonus Contest Winner!

What to Look for in Published-Author Contests

With another final under Treasured Claim’s belt, my debut has now finaled five times in three contests for published books. So today seems like a good time to touch upon the contest arena for published books.

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What to Look for in Published-Author Contests

What’s Your Validation?

Writers are often a neurotic, self-doubting lot, and many of us hope for validation as a means of overcoming that doubt. We never want to think about how that validation is only temporary, but the best we can do is try to create a healthy relationship with our validation desires.

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What’s Your Validation?

Writing Truth: We’re Making It Up as We Go

Last Friday, Angela Quarles’s book Must Love Chainmail was named a finalist in RWA’s RITA award, and my writing bestie’s success reminded me of an important lesson for all of us. The road to success can look an awful lot like chaos. *smile*

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Writing Truth: We’re Making It Up as We Go