Today, I’m delighted to welcome Angela Ackerman to the blog. She’s an insightful writer and blogger who is the coauthor of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression. In today’s tip, she talks about how you can create characters that hook a reader’s heart. (And check out below how you can win an...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

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

I’m a big fan of the book, Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Robert A. Emmons. Professor Emmons and his colleague Professor Mike McCullough have conducted many gratitude studies. They first looked at the effects of gratitude journaling. All of the participants kept a journal and were asked to write a sentence...Read More

Last week on Facebook, someone shared a blog post from Marc and Angel Hack Life titled, 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself. While I agreed with much of the post, I was not crazy about #11: Stop being idle. As I read Marc and Angel’s explanation—it seems that what they really want the reader...Read More

National Novel Writing Month is like boot camp for writers. Even though I work as a professional writer and writing coach, I still need the kind of tune-up you get from attending boot camp. Every year National Novel Writing Month gives me that—and I do not even have to leave my house. I crossed the...Read More

Welcome, writers! Don’t forget to join us today at 12:00 PM CDT for the Write Now! Mastermind class with author Kelly Stone on learning how to integrate writing into our daily lives. On the call, I will be giving away a copy of her newest book, Living Write: The Secret to Inviting Your Craft Into...Read More