Photo by Patrick Tomasso from Unsplash I Was a Guest Speaker for the Lit Mag Love Course! For my first bit of news, on Tuesday, 3/1, I had the chance to participate in a Q&A for Rachel Thompson's course Lit Mag Love, which helps writers who want to submit their work to literary journals. I … Continue reading Room For Freedom When Writing Fiction
writing tips
What is the Spark of Creativity?
The History Quill's Convention for Writers of Historical Fiction On Saturday, February 5, 2022, I was invited to speak at The History Quill’s convention for writers of historical fiction. My topic was writing and publishing short historical fiction. I had a lot of fun speaking to the attendees and sharing my presentation. All Creatives Need … Continue reading What is the Spark of Creativity?
How To Avoid Clichés Like the Plague
Photo by Debby Hudson for Unsplash Writing is Rarely Easy For someone who loves to write as much as I do, I find writing quite hard. I love that saying from Thomas Mann: "A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." After all, who else but a writer … Continue reading How To Avoid Clichés Like the Plague
Five Tips For Writing an Epistolary Novel
I Like To Seek New Writing Challenges As I said in this post, I like to give myself a new challenge with every novel I write. For Down Salem Way, the challenge was writing my first epistolary novel. What is an Epistolary Novel? If you’re unfamiliar with the term, an epistolary novel is simply a … Continue reading Five Tips For Writing an Epistolary Novel
How to Live Like a Poet According to Jack Kerouac
Researching and Writing During a Busy Term I can verify that life as a PhD candidate is a lot of work. There are times when, after long days of researching, writing, and teaching courses at my university, I feel as if I'm lacking even one viable brain cell. I can walk into the supermarket for … Continue reading How to Live Like a Poet According to Jack Kerouac
Trying New Writing Tools: Scrivener, I Love You
Sometimes You Need A Break From Writing A few weeks ago I wrote about how I had been struggling as I was writing my new historical novel. Nothing in the story seemed to be working, and for whatever reason I was at a loss as to how to fix it. I decided to give myself … Continue reading Trying New Writing Tools: Scrivener, I Love You
Tips for Writing the Second Book in a Series
Seeking New Information About Writing Whenever I have a new writing task ahead of me, when I'm writing something new to me, the first thing I do is seek information from writers who have traveled that road before. There’s a benefit to searching out tips and hints from others who have already been there, done … Continue reading Tips for Writing the Second Book in a Series
A Trail of Breadcrumbs: How To Use Foreshadowing In Your Fiction
Surviving My First Term As A Doctoral Student I'm very nearly finished with my first semester as a doc student. While I seem to have survived relatively unscathed, I wonder if I'll have as much luck next term when I'll be taking a research statistics class. Let me put this in proper perspective--I haven't taken … Continue reading A Trail of Breadcrumbs: How To Use Foreshadowing In Your Fiction