Welcome To My Blog
Weekly tips, stories and inspiration for your writing journey.
The Reason Writers Fail to Give Themselves Time to Write
You need time to stare into space—with or without a bourbon. Yet some writers believe these “Don Draper Moments” are reserved for full-time writers.
The Two Ways You Can View Time
When it comes to how we view time, there are only two options. Which one will you choose?
Five Ways to Nurture Your Inner Artist
Now that you know why you’re writing I invite you to nurture the part of yourself that does this work. Commit to thirty days of caring for your artist.
Scholarships Now Available
This year, I will award four partial scholarships to be used towards a one-hour coaching session or one of the four- or eight-week classes I’ll be teaching through Revising U.
Five Questions that Can Help You (Re)Define the Why of Your Writing Life
As the writer, it’s your job to clearly articulate the why of your writing. But have you ever thought about the why of your writing life?
Dialogue Lab Two: The Power of Subtext
Great dialogue contains two messages–the one shared through direct dialogue and the unspoken or hidden message revealed through characters’ body language and facial expressions. We call that unspoken message subtext.
Dialogue Lab One: Dialect versus Diction
Dialogue is the lifeblood of any scene. When executed effectively, it catapults the reader into the heart of a story.
The Death of Sonny
“Without smoke, you can’t see the light.”My husband Alex said this to me while explaining why professional tours use fog machines in their light shows. The particles reflect the light so we can see the beam’s path. Without the particles, the beauty is lost.
Four Backstory Traps and How to Escape Them
There are four backstory traps writers frequently fall into. Understanding them will help you escape them.
Meet Our Memoirists: Lisa Cooper Ellison
It takes a special kind of person to lean in to other people’s stories and help them untangle the knotted threads at their centers. Author and teacher Lisa Cooper Ellison is, without a doubt, that special kind of person.
Heart Speak, The Writing Advice Column #6: When You’re a Writer Who’s Also Being Written About
As a writer who’s also being written about, how do I process this in a healthy way? Sincerely, Never saw this coming…
HippoCamp Highlights: Advice on Craft, Platform, and the Writing Life
Every August, I drive to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for the Hippocampus Writing Conference. For those of you who don’t write creative nonfiction, I’ve translated my highlights into wisdom for any genre.
