I love walking in my crazy university neighborhood, because I find such interesting items (and overhear great conversations). Lately, I have been taking photos of the most fun items I discover. In my work with Dream Keepers, a writing group I created for kids and teens in Milwaukee, we regularly use visual writing prompts—and these photos...Read More

If you want to find happiness, find gratitude. —Steve Maraboli This past month I’ve spent three afternoons at two city libraries teaching children to write gratitude letters. We’ve used lots of paper as we’ve mind-mapped gratitude. Between all three sessions, the children have written almost 50 thank you cards. It’s such great fun to watch...Read More

I met Evan Guilford-Blake this summer at the Mississippi Writer’s Guild conference . He’s an award-winning playwright, the author of a brand-new noir novel, Noir(ish), and a fascinating guy. He’s stopped by the blog today to write about what books and movies inspired him to write his new novel and—exciting news—to give you the opportunity...Read More

I was thrilled to meet Joyce Lavene on Twitter for two reasons. First, I had read some of the books she wrote with her husband, Jim, and I was a fan. Second, I was curious about their writing process since I have written with my husband, too. I’ll bet you’re curious, too—how do two people...Read More

When I first read Jocelyn Koehler’s post, I was hopelessly behind the recommended word count and had been staring at my NaNoWriMo project on my computer screen for an hour, trying to figure out what to write next. After reading her post, I happily closed down my computer and headed to the library. The next...Read More

I first heard about Pinterest from a client. She was enchanted by the application and confessed to spending many pleasant hours pinning. After a few conversations, her energy and excitement for the platform inspired me, and I signed up. When I began to create boards—I had no idea what I was doing. And I didn’t...Read More

For the past several years, I’ve been concerned by all the new research that says that sitting is bad for one’s health. It seems that once we writers overcome the challenge of getting our butts into chairs, we need to work on getting out of that chair and moving! Today’s guest blog post from author...Read More

So we’re eight days into this crazy NaNoWriMo challenge, and I have to ask: how are you doing? Are you rocking the word count or lagging behind? Are you still getting to your story with energy and excitement or are you ready to toss the story and start anew? No matter how well your NaNoWriMo...Read More

Whether you are a professional writer or a NaNoWriMo newbie, at some point writing begins to feel like a day job. You know what I mean, you’re showing up and turning in the words, but the work does not challenge or excite you anymore. You need to try extreme writing. Read on as our daredevil...Read More

What Veteran Writers Know by Rochelle Melander Hold onto your keyboards, people. I’m about to reveal the secrets of veteran writers. Once you know these, you’ll have no more excuses. You will have to write that report or book or article. So, read on at your own risk. Oh, and readers, if reading this article...Read More