Know the Novel – Part One: Introduce Your WIP // A Writer’s Tag

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OCTOBER IS HERE. And not only has one of my favorite months of all time graced us with its presence, but it also means gearing up for writing for a lot of us writers which also means... *drumroll* Know the Novel time! I'm pretty sure we writers thrive in the fall. And by thrive I mean stock up on an unhealthy amount of caffeine and candy and hole away in our writing caves for a month at a time only emerging at odd hours to mumble something incoherent about wordcounts and probably needing food. It's great. But if you're a…

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I live! // An Update, Know the Novel, & FicFrenzy

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Hey, friends! I do in fact LIVE. And I'm poking my head in from my hiatus for a little life update and to announce some exciting upcoming things. Whew. It's been quite the past couple of months. In my last post, I mentioned that I needed mitral valve replacement surgery. I am very happy to say that is over and done with! I had surgery on July 19th and have been recovering ever since. It wasn't all smooth sailing, but God was so good through it all. Strangely, the surgery itself was the easy part. I felt so much peace…

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Storytelling is Worth Fighting For

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Stories—one of the most impacting creations we've been gifted on this earth. Stories have been changing lives and shaping the world since the creation of time. Stories are powerful. And it is such a privilege to tell them. But sometimes (many times) it's not always easy... The writing community is swarming with memes about the struggles of the writing life, with jokes about how we'd rather move to Antarctica to raise penguins than make progress on our WIPs, with endless conversations about how hard writing it is. Because it is. Writing is hard. It takes so much energy, so much…

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13 Years of Blogging // Grateful for Community

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Today marks a pretty exciting day. As of today, I've been blogging for 13 whole years. And goodness, I'm feeling so grateful for all that time and the friendships I've built through it. I will never forget much younger Christine sitting at her desk one early spring day excitedly typing up her first ever blog post. Though she had been writing for the majority of her life, she was at the very first sparks of diving into it seriously, into getting a platform going and studying the craft and writing regularly and making writer friends. She had no idea what…

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2023 in Review // My Favorite Things, Writing Highlights, & Growth

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2023—a year of unexpected blessings and reaching for new dreams and mourning losses and praising God for renewal and failing and learning and so very much growing. It was a year of life. And though some (read: many) days were hard, there were blessings in it all, and I am grateful for each day given. Somehow we have reached the final stretch of 2023 and I'm looking over at March like, "Weren't you just here?" But my word chosen to live by for 2023 was PRESENT. I tend to fly through my days, always looking ahead and never stopping to…

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Know the Novel – Part Three: Words Written // A Writer’s Tag

Read more about the article Know the Novel – Part Three: Words Written // A Writer’s Tag

We've made it, friends! A season of frenzied writing has come to a close, and as golden days shift to the soft hues of winter, it's time to take a breath and celebrate everything we've accomplished. Who else is in shock that December is here? The final month of 2023, friends! It's mindblowing. But whatever this year looked like for you, please take time to remember everything you did. Every word, every step forward is worth celebrating. Life is not about reaching the finish lines but ever moving forward. That is the true win. For the third and final part…

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Know the Novel – Part Two: Within the WIP // A Writer’s Tag

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We've made it to November! And that means Part 2 of the Know the Novel 3-part tag is HERE. Hello, my fellow writers! November is usually a big month in the writing community. Whether you're diving into NaNoWriMo or another writing event today or have reached the halfway point for FicFrenzy (but seriously, how are we halfway there already??), I hope the creativity is flowing, the words are coming, and, most importantly, you're having fun. Writing can be...exhausting. But it can also be such an exhilarating venture, and I hope you don't let the overwhelm of it bog you down…

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My FicFrenzy Plans

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FicFrenzy starts in TWO DAYS. I cannot believe it's been a full year since I launched this writing challenge. I am so excited to settle in with my FicFriends again and get some good writing in. But this year's FicFrenzy and in general fall writing for me may look a tad different. Before I launched the Fiction Frenzy Writing Challenge last year, I participated in NaNoWriMo every single year for 12 years straight. I got a smidge...obsessed. BUT. The joy of NaNoWriMo and then FicFrenzy is that it pushed me to get a full book drafted in one go. I…

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Know the Novel – Part One: Introduction // A Writer’s Tag

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Happy October, my friends! My favorite time of the year is at last here, and alongside the cooling temperatures and excuses to drink copious amounts of cozy warm drinks comes, for many of us, the season of writing! Fall is renowned (at least amid the writing community) for its great writing challenges—NaNoWriMo, King's Daughter's Writing Camp, Fiction Frenzy, etc. There is just something about the fall weather that brings that itch for writing. As such, six years ago I created a 3-part tag that offers the community a chance to invite their readership into the writing process and take a…

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I’m Back + Fall’s FicFrenzy is Coming!

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Hello, my friends! I have returned from a most refreshing August hiatus and thought I'd pop in for a quicky post with some updates and announcements. I seriously cannot believe we are nearing the halfway point of September and fall is just around the corner, but I am not complaining one little bit. Though life itself had a lot of goodness during the summer, the weather was brutal and my body does not do well in extreme heat and humidity. But temperatures are finally slowly inching downward and I'm feeling myself come alive again, and with that coupled with a…

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