I've been writing (in a dedicated sort of way) for about four years now, but my writing journey started much earlier. I wrote the first draft of my first novel over seven years ago, and the idea for that novel sprang out of my time in Texas...which takes us all the way back to about … Continue reading On How Becoming a Writer Is Like Falling in Love
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A Crash Course on Wooden Sailing Ships for Writers
Hello, friends! I'm so excited about today's topic, because it means I get to dust off my very dusty nautical archaeology degree to talk about the basics of wooden sailing ships. Why might this be of interest to you? Well, if you're a writer, and your character is ever going to set foot on a … Continue reading A Crash Course on Wooden Sailing Ships for Writers
You Can Break the Rules If You’re Victor Hugo
Hello, friends! Some of you might recall that I read The Brothers Karamazov last year with a book club (homeschool moms are way too ambitious, sometimes). This year we've decided to up the ante--apparently 800 pages wasn't long enough---so now we're reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, which checks in at a whopping 1460 pages for the … Continue reading You Can Break the Rules If You’re Victor Hugo
Novel Writing 101: Building a Story with Scenes
Today's post, as promised, will look at how we can come up with scene ideas to fill in the gaps in our novel outlines. But first, a quick review... What, exactly, is a scene? Simply put, scenes are the building blocks that make up a story. They may contain dialogue, action sequences, narrative, exposition, or … Continue reading Novel Writing 101: Building a Story with Scenes
Novel Writing 101: Outlines – Pulling It all Together
We're in the home stretch of pre-planning, dear writers and readers! In our series so far, we've looked at characters and character arcs, loglines, setting, plot structure, and theme. Hopefully you've got lots of notes, full of little gems of insight into different facets of your story. Now what? How do we pull it all … Continue reading Novel Writing 101: Outlines – Pulling It all Together
Writing Breaks: Finding Rest and Inspiration
Hello, dear readers and fellow writers! Today I'm taking a break from our series on Novel Writing 101, because I can't resist the chance to share with you about my recent trip to Ireland. But to keep things writing-related, here's our angle--taking guilt-free writing breaks. Have you ever reached that place in your work where … Continue reading Writing Breaks: Finding Rest and Inspiration
Novel Writing 101: Theme–Unlocking the Heart of Your Story
This week's topic may seem like a throwback to high school English class--how many of us struggled to come up with 5-7 pages explaining the theme of some book we barely understood? But I'm happy to report that the idea of "theme" isn't nearly as confusing as your English class may have led you to … Continue reading Novel Writing 101: Theme–Unlocking the Heart of Your Story
Novel Writing 101: Ingredients for Character Arc Soup
Hello, friends! Do any of you like cooking? Or perhaps just watching other people cook on TV shows? (Iron Chef, anyone?) I'm more of a baker myself, but the concepts are the same. Whatever you're making isn't going to come out very well without adding the right ingredients in the proper order. Last time we … Continue reading Novel Writing 101: Ingredients for Character Arc Soup
Novel Writing 101: How to Give Your Story Bones
Hey, friends! How is the story building going so far? Have you made some great progress on creating your story's world? So far we've touched on creating characters with goals, worldbuilding, and creating a plot sentence. Today we're going to dive deeper into story structure, an essential part of fleshing out your plot and giving … Continue reading Novel Writing 101: How to Give Your Story Bones
Using Twitter as a Platform to Raise Your Artistic Profile: A Guest Post by Jason VanHorn
Hey, fellow readers and writers! I'm a little late on getting this post out, thanks to the joys of summer like visiting with friends, afternoons by the pool, and late night fireworks. I hope you all are hard at work on your story world bibles. In the meantime, I have a great post for you … Continue reading Using Twitter as a Platform to Raise Your Artistic Profile: A Guest Post by Jason VanHorn
Kellie Michelle Parker 