Big Ideas

Three Things That I Give My Critique Partner When I Share a Story

I’m a member of some fantastic critique groups. I’m actually in three groups that meet regularly, two over zoom and one in person. I love these groups, and I feel like my critique partners give me some fantastic advice. You can read about their advice on creating characters here, on tightening the focus of my… Read more »

Three Things that Help Me Be Creative that Aren’t Writing

  When you’re writing a story, any kind of story, including graphic novels, nonfiction, news articles, funny stories in a text to your best friend – WHATEVER!!! – you want to be creative. At least, I want to be creative. I hope you do, too! But creativity can be hard to turn on some days…. Read more »

Three Things to Help You Write A Better Story that AREN’T Writing

  In this month’s post, I’m going to share three things to help you write a better story thatAREN’T writing. There’s a lot of writing advice out there about how to write better that are focused on actual writing. Things like dialogue, voice, and clarity. And those are incredibly important parts of writing. But sometimes… Read more »

Your First Bird of 2024

The start of a new year is one of my favorite times – because I can start a new year list of birds! Did you notice the first bird you saw this year? It could have a special meaning. People have used birds to predict the future for generations. So, what do the birds have… Read more »

November Gratitude

I’m really thankful for all the incredible experiences I have this year. I’m going to take time this month to appreciate them and think back on the fun I’ve had with friends and family. I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this month, but I will probably do a version of “Outline Some Story Ideas and Figure Out… Read more »

Do you want to be a writer?

Do you want to be a writer? Then start writing today. There’s nothing holding you back. You don’t need a fancy pen and notebook. Just write. You don’t need to write the perfect book all in one day. But you do need to write every day. Even if you can only write a little bit…. Read more »

More writing tips that are all about success

When you want to be a writer, the first step is to sit down and write. But then what? You can’t write a book all in one sitting. (Well, you can write a picture book in one sitting. But then you revise it for months, am I right?) It can be hard to get that… Read more »

Writing is a lot like Birding

Writing is a lot like birding. It’s great to be in a critique group, you can learn so much. But most writing you have to do on your own. And you can learn so much birding with others. But at some point, you have to learn to identify the birds on your own. Sometimes you… Read more »

How to Be a More Productive Writer

Did you already part 1 “Tips to help you Write More”? No? Check it out here! OK readers, you’re looking for more tips on how to be a productive writer. You already know that you need to set aside time on a regular basis – something even I am having trouble doing right now! But… Read more »

Tips to Help You Write More

Are you having trouble writing? Not sure how to get started? Looking for tips to help you write more? I do a lot of writing. Every day. And I do a lot of reading about writing. Every so often I read a book with advice on writing. These books usually have really great tips in… Read more »