My youngest and a group of his pals decided to try out for the track team this spring. Despite having an uncle for a track coach, my knowledge of the sport is limited to whatever I happen to soak in during the summer Olympics and is quickly forgotten for four years until the next round. Continue reading “What I Learned About Writing From My Son’s Track Meet”
Tag Archives: Writing Support
Eliminate the Unnecessary in Your Writing
As a book coach, I see a lot of the common problems in the manuscripts I read. It might be unclear character stakes or story trajectory issues or a bit of head hopping in those early chapters. But one thing I see a lot when I’ve got an early draft in my hands, is tooContinue reading “Eliminate the Unnecessary in Your Writing”
My Favorite Things: April 2024
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that my favorite thing this month wasn’t my Revision Road Map, so let’s just get that shameless plug out of the way! I loved working on it and have been so excited to bring it to you. If you’re struggling in your revision, give it a try. ItContinue reading “My Favorite Things: April 2024”
After Typing THE END: Tips for What’s Next
Where does most of your writing happen? In the draft stage, probably. It has to, right? Where once there was a blank page, now there are 90,000 words. Now, where does most of your story telling happen? It can be tempting to say that most of our storytelling also happens in the draft stage. It’sContinue reading “After Typing THE END: Tips for What’s Next”
My Favorite Things: March 24
Spring is finally springing! I am so close to sharing with you my new favorite thing…The Revision Road Map (subscribe to my newsletter to be first to know the details in the next week or so!). This tool has totally saved my revision process and I am so excited to bring it to you lovely writersContinue reading “My Favorite Things: March 24”
Fail in Order to Create
I saw this amazing clip from Paul McCartney about the song Blackbird, one of my all time favorites. Did you catch what he said? He and John, while messing around with Bach and got some of the song wrong because they didn’t know the scond half.. That bit of “wrong” highlighted the chords he wasContinue reading “Fail in Order to Create”
Spring Into Writing!
Spring is springing where I live in central NC. The daffodils and tulips have come and gone. The pear trees are snowing down on street corners–beautiful despite their dead fish aroma. And the pine pollen is fit to bursting (we’re at slight dusting right now but I imagine we’ll be at full on yellow cloudContinue reading “Spring Into Writing!”
Writing Distractions
Oftentimes this blog is me writing advice to myself. I figure if I need to hear it, someone else might, too. This week, I’m thinking a lot about distraction. Probably because thinking about why I’m distracted is also distracting me from my writing. It’s a vicious cycle, people. But a cycle that I’m pretty sureContinue reading “Writing Distractions”
My Favorite Things: February 2024
It’s the end of the month, so it’s time to share a few of my favorite recommendations from February! Luckily, this month was less eventful than January. Not that it was quiet by any means– \my oldest plays snare in his school’s winter percussion group and his school hosted a large indoor winter percussion, winds,Continue reading “My Favorite Things: February 2024”
Creating Emotional Resonance in Your Novel
I posted this quote on Instagram Monday. I had just heard of the passing of someone who was dear to me and all my memories were about how that person made me feel–joyful, engaged, confident, prepared. The details of exactly how he did this or when or what we were doing at the time wereContinue reading “Creating Emotional Resonance in Your Novel”