I'm a big fan of drawing ekphrastic inspiration from other art forms to inform my own creative writing, and in a stroke of luck (though maybe not for my husband), I recently rediscovered some of my teenage musical theater obsessions. As such, I thought I'd bring up one of my favorite elements to borrow from the world of music—the leitmotif.
Read MoreHow Would You Like to Do This?
Instead of forcing my brain to create a lackluster and possibly unconvincing beat sheet, I took my solution straight from the pages of the Player’s Handbook (Fifth Edition) and made all characters involved “roll for it.”
Read MoreIn Conversation with Historical Novelist Sarah Holz
This coming Saturday I’ll be in conversation with historical novelist (and my freelance client) Sarah Holz about one of her comparative titles, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. In case any part of that sentence doesn’t entice you to register for the live conversation, I hope the following “getting to know you” conversation will.
Read MoreStop Being Your Own Bottleneck: How to Break Free of Perfectionism and Send Out Your Work
We’ve all been there. We ask ourselves, and our writing mentors, “How do I know when the work is done?” We agonize over all this and hate ourselves for it. We know that we need to find a way to accept that “pretty good and done” is better than “perfect and never done,” but we just can’t seem to snap ourselves out of our perfectionist tendencies.
This post helps to break the cycle.
Read MoreCopycatting: Two Exercises to Identify and Hone Your Narrative Voice
We come to writing from all points on the compass. Some of us have been obsessed with stories since before we could read; others love films and TV shows more than books; some couldn’t care less about writing until they find their own story to tell.