The Importance of Planning in Writing

As I launched my coaching business, there was a lot more to it than just putting out a shingle and saying “Hey, I’m a coach!” I mean, to be honest, that was a big part of it. And nearly as scary as when I started calling myself a writer! But, unlike when I took the

Announcement: I’m an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach!

I believe the muse to be a fickle being whispering oftentimes in the night that brilliant idea you scribble down in the dark that resembles something like a magnetic poetry ransom note the next morning that makes zero sense if it’s even legible. But sometimes? Sometimes the muse has the subtlety of a toddler’s temper

How Drafting and Revising Feel Different: The Clean House Edition

As I type this, we are having our house power washed. It feels like I’m inside a car wash while sitting at my desk. I don’t hate it. Power washing a home must be an inordinately satisfying job. You arrive and the walkway is darkened with years of baked in dirt. The fascia is dull.

Hadestown and the Holderness Family: Love Stories and Anxiety

It has been a long two years. Full stop. But Sunday, life felt a little sweeter again. My husband and I finally went back to the theater for a live show. I was so excited I even put on lipstick despite the fact that no one would see it behind my required mask. The show

Setting the Mood: Writer Walk-Up Songs

Creativity is a muscle. One that requires practice and even discipline. My husband, in an effort to comfort me on a hard day of writing (or rather non-writing), tried to let me off the hook recently by telling me not to worry about a stuck day. “You can’t force inspiration.” Maybe. BUT… I have kids

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year! Despite proclaiming to not set resolutions I will most certainly fail at for the new year, I do still do a fair bit of planning. I like to have goals to work towards, even if they change throughout the year. Last year, however, coming out of 2020, I wanted to be gentle

Make Every Moment Count In Your Novel

When writing an essay or a short story or flash fiction, it’s imperative that every word count. The limited space requires every character, description, and word to carry weight. When writing a novel, it can be easy to allow all that empty space to lure you into indulging that secondary character’s wood working hobby or

My Bookshelf: Impacted by Benji Carr

Took a departure from my stack of women’s fiction this summer to take a bite out of Benji Carr’s Impacted (pun very much intended). First of all, I met Benji years ago at a fiction writing class we both took at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. Benji was a master of voice then and

A Fresh Coat of Paint

Earlier this year, I delivered my latest draft to my beta readers. And I exhaled. The pressure of the edit was over. My words in someone else’s hands. The stress was still there, don’t get me wrong. My words were in someone else’s hands. Ack! But I had no control over those words anymore. And

My Bookshelf: Blind Turn by Cara Sue Achterberg

I was thrilled to receive a copy of Blind Turn from fellow WFWA member Cara Sue Achterberg. It was the perfect book to dive into on a cold weekend with nowhere to go (isn’t that every weekend lately? Never thought I’d actually miss those crazy weekends of kid sports and family commitments and birthday parties