On Writing the Brave and the Crazy

Back when I was a little baby writer, I had this weird thing in which I always “played it safe” with my stories. As in, I never wrote anything outrageous. I stuck to what I knew, kept to the clichés, never made anything different or interesting or unique. You can probably guess by now that my old stories came out very bland, and often pathetic copies of Lord of the Rings and Narnia. I can’t really tell you why I never ventured out and tried crazy, original ideas. I guess I was scared. I was scared to tackle tough issues…

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The Circle of Creativity

We’ve all had it happen, that exhaustion of the imagination, the drought, like someone took a straw and sucked up all the creative juices right out of us (okay, that was a weird analogy, but we’re going with it). I have it happen to me all the time, way more than I’d like. I just don’t want to write. Every word is forced, and comes out horrible and flat because of it. Every second staring at the blank page and blinking cursor feels like agony. I’m like butter scraped over too much bread, as Bilbo would say. A lot of…

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What I Learned from The Lunar Chronicles

For the last couple months I’ve been enjoying a book series, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. And by “enjoying” I mean flailing and screaming and crying and fangirling and all around obsessing. It has kind of been my world. As I writer, my brain automatically soaks in writing lessons while reading. Subconsciously, I’m constantly asking myself questions as I read like, “Why do I love this part so much?” “Why does this feel slow?” “That was such a good scene, what type of wording was used?” It’s a curse of the writer, we can’t help it. So since I…

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Writer: Stamped on Your Heart, Poured in Your Blood

Just this past week or so a realization hit me. Something I really wish I had learned a long, long time ago, but something I think all writers struggle with. I believe we writers far too often measure our self worth by that title of “published” or “not published”. I certainly have. I tend to think if I ever get published I’ll have “made it”, but while I’m unpublished I’m a nobody. Just a person holed up in her room thinking up silly stories. “I am nothing until I’m published,” I tell myself. Over and over again. But you know…

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Goodbye, January. Hello, February.

So apparently January is over and February is here. (Um, what?) Usually I don’t do monthly wrap-up posts. I don’t have a reason, really. I get distracted by other post subjects to write? I’m too lazy to actually remember what happened during the month? *shrugs* But I know it’s a pretty big trend right now, and I actually love reading other people’s monthly summaries, getting a glimpse into all my buddies’ lives and goings-on. So I thought, why not? I seriously doubt this’ll be a habit. But today I just felt like writing a wrap-up post, and usually this blog…

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Beautiful People – 2016 Writerly Goals

Beautiful People is back! After a bit of a detour with Beautiful Books, our hosts Sky and Cait have returned with 2016’s first edition of Beautiful People. BUT, before returning to the usual interrogation of our characters, since we’re still adjusting to the new year (or am I the only one squinting at the calendar wondering if it’s lying to me? because, um, how is 2015 already over??) our hosts have concocted a fun new year-ish edition centered on this year’s writing resolutions and goals. Fantastic idea, methinks! You can join up yourself on Sky’s blog HERE or Cait’s HEEEERE.…

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Beautiful Books #3 – Where Editing Hopefully Occurs

The third and final round of Beautiful Books is here! During the NaNoWriMo season, our dear hosts Sky and Cait take a slight break from their Beautiful People linkup to focus on our novels instead of characters. This month, with NaNo over and so many fresh new first drafts all written and ready for their time to shine, they’re focusing on that ever elusive thing called. . . *shifty eyes* editing. Who else but Sky and Cait can get us pumped over editing, am I right? You can link on up over at Sky's post or Cait. And, don’t forget,…

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Well, That Was Unexpected a.k.a My NaNo 2015 Adventures

Let me tell you about my NaNoWriMo. We’ll start at the beginning, well, before the beginning. The prologue if you will. October hit with all the excitement and cheer of the NaNo season. Time to plot and get pumped up for a month of too much coffee consumption and mad writing. So, with anticipation, sometime during the beginning of October I sat down and began my usual chapter by chapter outline for my NaNo novel. This particular NaNo I’ve been waiting for since my first one basically. Because this NaNo was going to take all the previous books, which had…

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In Which I Compete With Myself (and lose)

So there I was, happily lost in my story, grinning at my characters’ antics, my fingers click, click, clicking away at the keyboard, when it happened. Out of nowhere. Right between my computer screen and me with its deafening demands and ludicrous responsibilities. LIFE. NOOOOOO!!!!!! How could it? Doesn’t it know it’s NaNoWriMo? Does it not understand I’m far too busy destroying my characters’ lives to deal with my own life? How can it not see? The nerve. I’ve tried to ignore, I have. So hard. But it keeps wedging itself between my NaNo and me and refuses to leave…

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Beautiful Books #2 – The Day and the Life of a NaNoer {November 2015}

GUYS.We have survived the first week of NaNo and are halfway through week two! How is this even POSSIBLE?! My NaNo has slowed down considerably because apparently there’s this weird thing called Life that you actually have to do when you grow up. I thought that was just a myth! I didn’t mean to grow up, it was an accident! Where’s Peter Pan? I need him, quick! Despite Life being rude and trying to wedge itself between NaNoWriMo and me, I’m still surviving (. . .I think?) and continuing to absolutely love my NaNo and spend what time with it…

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