Writers plan their stories in one of three ways, plotting, “pantsing,” or plantsing. As you probably guessed, the last one is a combination of the two. I normally use the pantsing method of writing because I find that I end up doing it anyway even when I intend to plan…

We all know music is extremely powerful, pulling us in and inspiring emotions like nothing else. It can stop us in our tracks so we have to listen and thoroughly absorb, mentally transport us to another time in our lives, and put a smile on our face when we feel…

Have you ever reread a book, particularly after a sizeable amount of time had passed, and discovered it seemed like a totally different book? Sometimes that happens and it’s an amazing, eye-opening experience. It can even happen many times in your life with the same book. Maybe it’s been a…

*This post contains spoilers* In Dark Shadows: The Beginning, Burke returned to Collinwood with, as Mr. Malloy put it, a “single-minded” quest for revenge. …

Yes, starting a story with dialogue is a writing don’t. I did it anyway. This post will explain why and how I did it. Why It’s Typically Not a Good Idea We are normally advised against starting a story with dialogue because it gives you no setting, no actions, and no character descriptions to envision the scene…

Between editors’ advice, writing tips, and readers’ opinions, we hear a lot of shouldn’ts and don’ts. I want to tell everyone that it’s okay to not always listen to that advice. The Argument for Writing Don’ts Now, I’m not going to try to tell you to not listen to any of it. I’m sure people…

I’m writing this letter to tell you how glad I am that you are in the world. Your life, your choices, your experiences have given you a unique way of looking at the world, of feeling about things that I don’t and will never see anywhere else. And you can’t…

This steamy short story about a married couple overcoming extreme stress together was included in the charity anthology book, Slow Burn, The Fires that Bind Us, published by Little Quail Press in 2020, which is no longer in print. …

How we “talk” to ourselves is extremely important, but sometimes we try to learn how to improve our self-talk and we research it or we encounter other people trying to get us to engage in positive self-talk and it ends up making us feel worse. This post might help. Why Positive Self-Talk Doesn’t Work Sometimes positive self-talk feels fake There…