I have friends who absolutely love writing their story’s climax. It’s their favorite part of the writing process. I am not one of those people. The thought of writing a climax makes me want to do my laundry. I would rather clean the hair out of my drain than start drafting my climax. I cannot tell you how spotless my house gets when I reach the latter third of my novel. The first draft of my climaxes (and everyone’s, I’d hazard) are terrifyingly awful. But this time around, I wanted to put in work beforehand to help save on rewrites after....
Working through the middle part of my WIP has been like slogging through a constant state of writer’s block. I’m still on my tight deadlines, though, and don’t have time to cast my hand over my brow and bemoan my muse (which is honestly the funnest part of catching a cause of The Block). As a result, I’ve been resorting to some strategies to keep my story moving forward, despite my muse’s best efforts to pull it to a grinding halt. When the inspiration stalls and enthusiasm lags, I find it helpful to… Dance It Out You think I am...
I find myself unexpectedly with a set of books on my hands. Blessings started out as a straight-up standalone book, and Illuminate jumped on board as a companion book/sequel of sorts, and other ideas are still coming. It occurred to me the other day that I have an actual series, and no idea what to call it. Of course, it’s likely that whatever series title I come up with will be changed when/if it goes to publication. But I still need something to call the collective project. Are you in the same boat? Well, below I’ve compiled all the research...
This may seem counter to all my [insanely structure-based] tips earlier, but sometimes you just need to… Blow your schedule out the window. (more…)
The third part of my secret to survive college with three jobs and a full load of courses? Use your time intentionally. (more…)
The second part of my tips for surviving college with the Power of Being Intentional and Organized. Again, my methods probably won’t work for everyone, but I hope they can be adapted to help you not be that kid who spends college running after the deadlines that got away. Get a note-taking device JUST for lists. (more…)
A friend of mine asked me how I survived college with a full load of courses and three jobs, while still managing to attend some campus clubs and volunteer. Not all of my methods will work for everyone, because I am a mildly-insane organization freak. But in the hope that maybe a few of the tips in these entries can help another floundering undergraduate, I thought I’d share! My first tip: Get a calendar and use it. (more…)
I recently entered Marissa Meyer’s Pinterest competition and tied for first place! [Insert fangirling here] If you look at my winning board, you might notice it’s organized and has dividers. The credit for the idea goes to my sister, Laura, who’s an art major and recommended I build a board like someone would build an art portfolio. So in case you ever want to create a stellar, beautifully organized board, below are the steps I took to make this one! 1. Collect all the images on a secret board I made a board that only I could see (called: CRESS...
After seeing the trailer for Saving Mr. Banks, I suddenly found myself far more interested in Mary Poppins than I have ever been before. So I picked up the book and gave it a read. Not only that—I decided to put my English major to good use and take notes, and I found some universally good writing tips in this (frankly, very strange) children’s book. (more…)
I’m deep into my revisions for my WIP, Blessings, and if there’s one thing everyone needs when it comes to revision, it’s this: Ways to (productively) procrastinate. “What do I mean?” you ask, tossing your golden/raven/auburn/brown (sorry, brown haired people) locks. “Procrastination cannot be productive, one must simply push on! Also, have you been reading Mary Poppins today? Because I sound unaccountably British.” Yes, yes, I read the whole book in under twenty-four hours. Anyway. When I talk about productive procrastination, I mean forms of procrastination that will keep your creative juices flowing whilst requiring minimum brain cells. Bonus: All...
