Author of Young Adult and Teen Books
The best tip and advice I’ve ever received (and given to my students) is to read as often as you write. Reading the same genre as you are writing can help ideas flow, whether it is paying attention to how another author develops a character’s arc or how the plot develops. One thing that I’ve …
If you’ve worked hard on your book, you may want the perfect professional book cover. However, sometimes that is a price that is way out of your budget. When I first started out, I had to learn how to utilize Adobe Photoshop to my advantage. It wasn’t exactly perfection, but I did learn over time …
After near burnout from trying to keep up with writing content for 10 websites, I decided to do some analyzing and determine my next best course of action. The biggest change of all had to do with 3 of my online stores. I merged them all into one, and it has been the most liberating …
I’ve been trying to find the right amount of time to write along with all of my other responsibilities. That’s not always easy because I know that I write better first thing in the morning. I suppose that has a lot to do with the fact that I always did the majority of my writing …
One thing I always tell my students is that if there is no conflict, there is no story. Even the best romances in the world involve some type of conflict. There has to be a problem that the character must overcome in order to grow. If a story is too easy, it’s boring. I can’t …
At the end of the school year, I showed my students a short clip and asked them to notice what they saw. Out of everything that they observed, the one thing differed: the number of mice present. In actuality, there was only one, but many swore that they saw 3 or even 2. It depended …
Remember that time not so long ago when I made the comment that AI couldn’t possibly replace a human writer? The results of my experiment are in, and I think I’m going to have to eat my own words. I started and launched a blog in February of this year. The content was generated using …
If you are a writer, or even a beginning writer, your dream is to see your work displayed in a public bookstore for anyone and everyone to have the opportunity to buy and read. Even in this digital world, the desire to have others read and enjoy your book is still there. While I admit …
I have to admit that for this Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesday, I am currently stuck in my writing. I went back in and added a few things and thought for sure this would trigger me to be able to finish, but it isn’t working that way. I am leading up to the big climax, …
One of the best writing tips that I received came from James Patterson. He recommends that when you are writing scenes, you have one scene per chapter. Each of your chapters should be a single scene, and when you are planning out your book, you should be able to outline your book easily. The downside …