Hey there! I read just two books this month… the second one was fairly dense and I took a lot of notes. Here they are! Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: a Savannah Story, by John Berendt. This novel-like nonfiction book was a huge sensation in the 90s, and I read it now because I have a novella set in
Sometimes I want to make it seem like a character might die — but hey, guess what! She makes it! A lot of fiction writers, especially those who write fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, and Westerns, like to write about surviving almost fatal injuries. Pin or bookmark this post for future reference if you like this kind of plot point! I will
Here was my idea for a fun blog post: I would avoid saying anything that was at all negative for 30 days and report what I had learned. After dozens of attempts, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will never write that blog post, so I’m writing this one instead. I wanted to try this experiment for
These summer writing prompts are appropriate for all ages… Because I know a lot of teachers are looking forward to the summer…along with a lot of students, and a lot of writers. In my mind, the season inspires a lot of good creative writing topics, and it wasn’t hard to come up with this list! If you’d like creative writing
Last week the creative division at my company had a fantastic symposium. All day, we heard impressive visiting speakers from many fields talk about belief and purpose in one’s work. The event took place at the gorgeous Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. (PS: look how pretty, you should move to Kansas City, everything here is amazing. Here is the outside:
Hey friends! It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means… time to share a chunk of whatever it is we’re working on! As always, it’s fine if it’s rough. This isn’t a time for group critique — it’s just for sharing. I did not get as far as I wanted to on book two of my
Last week a commenter on my blog asked a question about how to research a setting you don’t know well — or one you’ve never been to at all. I had been thinking about this very thing lately! Fantasy and science fiction writers have to go to the trouble of inventing a whole new world, but unless they have inconsistencies,