Making the Most of Writing Time Tools I Use to Structure My Story Last year, maybe even six months ago, I would have told you I am a plantser, falling somewhere between a solid plotter and someone who flies by the seat of their pants. I would also probably be a liar. The more I’ve […]

Why Mind Map? Plotting a book can be daunting. There are as many different methods to plotting as there are books in the world, and no size fits all. If forced to decide, I would say I am not a plotter at all, but that I fall somewhere in between pantsing and plotting. Mind mapping […]

  Pitch contests can be scary! Writers putting their concepts out into the wild ether of the internet, the possibility your pitch might be liked by a dream agent, the possibility no one will like it… pitch contests can move really fast and feel impossible. But they’re nothing to be afraid of! In fact, the […]

You came here for advice, huh? Here’s the thing about advice… No one way works. No one way fits everyone.   You know those ‘one size fits all’ tags you see sometimes around this time of year, usually sewn into a costume that makes your skin itch? Yeah, they don’t fit great, do they? There’s […]

I often tweet about how often I put aside projects to chase something newer, more exciting, fresher— the potential in those fleeting moments outshining the twenty thousand words of stale investment. It’s always ten to twenty thousand words in before I realize the story needs more time to percolate. To shape up. Abandoned, they stay […]

Pitch Wars: Have A HEA Even If You Don’t Get Picked This time last year, I was an absolute ball of anxiety. My finger hovered over the refresh button to my email, and I alternated between turning on ALL THE NOTIFICATIONS and locking my phone away. Why? I’d submitted to Pitch Wars. After drafting and […]

Writing a book is amazing. Sure, there are ups and downs as with anything worth doing, but once it’s done? Brilliant. You did it.   Now what? If you want to be traditionally published, that means you get to write some more. Queries. Querying can be really, really, really tough. Queries are an art form […]

The title of this post may give you the idea that I’m doing this well. Juggling, that is. Gotcha there. But somehow I’ve got all this going on. You might say I have commitment issues. You might be right. But, no, not like that. I’ve been married for almost ten years. (Sidebar: WTAF how did […]

Do you participate in any fun Twitter hashtag parties? I’ve tried a couple, because I am not shy and I need some sort of social contact with human adults after being home with small children all day. Y’all get me? Small humans are a lot. (And yes, I adore them, and YES, I know I […]

It’s a fact of life all writers have to deal with: making time to actually sit down and bang out words can be one of the hardest parts of working creatively. As a mom of three (5, 2, and 9 months) the above picture is often what this looks like for me. That’s right; I […]