Of the many exercises I’ve done, none were more beneficial than NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer’s Month) is a wonderful exercise created by Chris Baty. The goal of which is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. You write 1,667 words a day for a 30-day period. The official month is November, however, […]
Now that you have your writing space and instruments all picked out, you’re ready to get your first draft written. Important to remember: your first draft will not be 100%. That’s okay. No one’s ever is. As many writers note, don’t worry about getting it right. Get it written. Anything that needs to be fixed […]
Oooo, the outline. There are really only two schools of thought regarding the outline. Those who do and those who don’t. Let’s start with those who do why they do it, how they do it and how you can do it, too. If writing is a journey, the outline is your roadmap. It’s your ideas, […]
“To be able to write, a woman must have a room of her own.” – Virginia Wolfe In December of 2009, I moved back to Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) to work on some things with my family. They were living in an apartment at the time, but were supposed to move into a house in […]
“If you don’t have time to read, you have neither the tools nor the time to write.” – Stephen King I have a BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. (I know. Shocking right?) During those years as an undergrad I couldn’t figure out why I had to take all of these various […]
Writing instruments seem like such a minute topic that it’s almost laughable to talk about. So why are we talking about it? I’ll give you three reasons. 1.) J K Rowling wrote Harry Potter on a typewriter. 2.) My friend Gary Jackson wrote, “Missing You: Metropolis,” on a computer. 3.) I do most of my […]
Whenever I tell people I’m a writer there’s always at least one person who says they wish they could write. But they don’t know where to start. My response is always the same. Start with the first sentence. Whatever the first thing is that comes to mind when you think about or talk about your […]
So, you want to write. To that I say welcome to the madness that is the writer’s club. Like all good creative professions writing is filled with as much triumph as it is heartache. Characters live. Characters die. Good ideas come and go. You will often feel like you’re in a race between getting your […]
