This Story Right Now

Writing a novel is not only multifaceted, complicated endeavor, it’s also a lot of fun! But one of the lessons I have come away with in my twenty year career is that no two books are the same. You don’t write them the same way, you don’t plot them the same way, hell,...

Is SuperNotes Super for Authors?

I can hardly believe I am trying out yet another system for keeping track of my characters and my plot, and yet… I recently heard of a relatively newcomer to the PKMS scene (that’s Personal Knowledge Management Systems, just to remind you). The developers were very...

Intuitive Editing: A Review

One in an occasional series of writing book reviews. Today, I’ll talk about Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Martin. I came across this book when I went to the home of a fellow author who was hosting a write-in. She had very cleverly put out all of her craft books...

Writing Through Reality

No matter what your feelings are toward current events in the US, we are all feeling something. Some are happy and hopeful, some distraught and scared of what will happen in the future. But the most important question is whether you are going to allow this to affect...

Backstory Timeline

It was recently brought home to me the importance of creating a timetable for my characters’ and their family’s backstory. The dates when things happened and how they interrelate can be vital to a story’s viability. And especially when writing historical fiction, you...

I Missed My Anniversary!

I can’t believe I missed my anniversary! Well, actually, I can. My husband and I regularly miss our wedding anniversary—if it wasn’t for my mother-in-law calling to wish us a happy anniversary every year we’d never remember. But I’m not talking about that one. I’m...