Tag: write
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Ranking the Top Five Most Unhinged YA Love Triangles
We love to hate a chaotic love triangle, but we keep coming back for more. I feel like there was a period in publishing where the romance was overrun with a chaotic, messy love triangle. So much that it became not only a part of the social lexicon, but an identity to wear on a…
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The Second Draft
As I sit here typing this, my printer (super old, and super crappy printer) is chugging out the pages of the second draft of my YA fantasy novel. And I am both elated and exhausted. It’s done. I did it. Despite my tendency to doubt or think it’s not worth it, I managed to finished…
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Free Writer’s Workshop Wednesday: The Parts of Speech
Let’s for once and for all, break up any confusion about the parts of speech. The phrase “Parts of Speech” simply refers to the names we give to each word in the English language, depending on what it is. Each part of speech performs a distinct job in a sentence. There are eight Parts of…
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Acceptance and Writing Updates
Do you follow me on Instagram? If you don’t, please do! It’s my favorite place to connect with others and also where I share most of my writing updates and other random shenanigans. Recently, I shared some exciting news I received within these past couple of weeks: my first MAJOR acceptance. Now, I’ve had plenty…
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The Free Writer's Workshop Wednesday: Combining Sentences
As a teacher, I have seen my fair share of essays, stories, and papers. Some are good, some are bad, and some are very, very ugly. But there is one type of paper I find painfully frustrating: the B paper. The B Paper The B paper is easy to spot: very limited punctuation mistakes, adequate…
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11 Places to Publish Your Short Fiction for Children
One of the hardest roadblocks I hit as I try and put my work out there is finding places to build writing credits. If you’re someone who wants to take themselves seriously as a writer, and plans to pursue this as a career or calling, you need to start building writing credits. My first writing…
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Free Writer’s Workshop Wednesday: Brainstorming
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. – Orson Scott Where do your ideas come from? Writer’s often get asked that question as if they have a magical pool that provides them with limitless ideas…
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5 Steps to Get Your First Writing Credit
That first writing credit is like the first summit of miles and miles of a mountainous trek. It seems so daunting and yet so promising because without the first summit, you can’t go anywhere. I will admit, when I first started submitting pieces to magazines I only shot for the best of the best. If…
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Free Writer's Workshop Wednesday: Distance Learning
Given the sudden shift in education due to the coronavirus precautions, I’ve decided to implement a new way of sharing information. I’ll will still be hosting my writer’s workshop here on the blog, but I have created a YouTube channel specifically to teach lessons in English Language Arts to offer resources to students and teachers…
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Free Writer’s Workshop Wednesday: Dialogue
Dialogue is a crucial part of any story and moves the plot along in many ways: plot development, character traits, pacing, etc. Yet, if dialogue is so important, why is it often so hard? Tips for Writing Dialogue Listen to How People Talk In order for dialogue to sound real, it should sound how real…