Over the years, I have bought various tools for playing with words—such as magnetic poetry kits and Haikubes. One year, I made my own kit by writing words on the back of tickets from a ticket roll. This week, I took out the Haikubes and left them on a counter in my office. My daughter had fun making...Read More

Finding Inspiration by Rochelle Melander You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London It had been a bad week. Then it got worse. On Thursday afternoon, my husband dropped me off at home to walk the dogs before I headed out to a networking event. He was...Read More

Today’s post comes from my writing friend and colleague, Peg Rousar-Thompson. We met several years ago at a National Novel Writing Month workshop. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her speak at WriteCamp on the Art of Procrastination. Today she drops by the blog to  talk about one of the best poetry primers...Read More

I’ve always been jealous of my friends who are visual artists. How I wish I could sketch and paint and collage my way through the day. I’m especially intrigued by those who create using found objects. They collect unique items and leftover junk and use it to create amazing art. How I wish I could...Read More

Happy National Poetry Month! In honor of National Poetry Month and National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), I will be blogging regularly about poetry writing. Check out yesterday’s post about NaPoWriMo. We have a winner in last week’s contest. Barbara from JustAnotherWorkingWriter won a copy of Bylines calendar. Congrats! Barbara, send me an email with your...Read More

Write-A-Thon: Celebrate NaPoWriMo by Rochelle Melander National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) was founded by Maureen Thorson in 2003 and encourages participants to write a poem a day during the month of April. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate National Poetry Month! I’m a bit afraid of writing poetry. When I try to...Read More

Yesterday I took a writer’s mini-retreat. Unfortunately, it was a 5-hour visit to the ER with my daughter. She’s fine. I’m tired. But I did learn something yesterday (aside from the fact that all of the doctors at the ER seemed to be 16 years old). As we left home, I grabbed the only new...Read More

Five Things Editors Wish You Knew By Rochelle Melander Never throw up on an editor. —Ellen Datlow I have edited a quarterly periodical for 12 years. In addition, I edit books for both publishing houses and private clients. Over the years, I have kept a mental list of things I wish writers knew. Here are...Read More

I’m delighted to welcome to the blog my editor and the March Write Now! Mastermind guest, Melissa Anne Wuske. I met Melissa just about a year ago, when she began editing my book, Write-A-Thon. Melissa has great advice for all of us as we work to edit our own writing: question everything. Read on to...Read More

Most writers dream of building a business that both pays the bills and rocks their world. Niki Robinson of Robinson Writers has done just that. I met Niki Robinson two years ago at WriteCamp Milwaukee. When Niki told me about her new venture, ghostwriting for blogs—I knew it would be an amazing success. And it...Read More