About this time of year, every year, I realize it’s time to organize my writing life. As much as I try to stay on task and keep focused and goal-oriented, invariably, life has other things in mind. This is especially the case when you’re not a “full-time” writer but have a myriad of other things […]
Tag: craft of writing
What Is World-Building in a Novel?
World building is pretty easy to define because the definition is in the phrase itself, world building. You’re building your world. The world building that you do is going to look very different if you’re writing fantasy or if you’re writing historical fiction, contemporary fiction, or magical realism. Obviously, if you’re creating a fantasy or […]
What Is Pacing in a Story?
What Is Pacing in Writing (and Why Is It Important)? Pacing refers to the flow of time in a story. It can be a challenge because there is no hard and fast rule as to how to set the pacing of a book. The pacing needs to fit the story. For instance, the book Gilead […]
What Is Point of View in a Novel?
What is point of view? The point of view is usually the first thing a reader encounters in a story. A novel is generally written in one of these three POVs: A lesser-used POV choice is: Let’s look a little more deeply at these perspectives: First-person point of view: A few books you might recognize […]
Want to Write Books for Children?
Don’t Think It’s Easier than Writing for Adults. On Writing for Children In my last blog post, I talked about becoming a better writer by trusting your readers more. In this post, I want to talk about how this is especially important when it comes to books written for children and young people. But first, […]
Want to be a Better Writer? Trust Your Reader.
So, you want to be a better writer. Every writer does, right? Even bestselling authors can be dissatisfied with their writing skills and want to be better writers. If we have the right mindset, we’ll constantly work to improve some aspects of our writing craft and grow better at it. I thought I was a […]
The Best Books I’ve Read on the Writing Life
There comes a time in every aspiring writer’s life that they decide they want to learn writing from the best writers out there. And that means reading books on writing by successful and well-loved authors. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to choose from. It seems that nearly every successful and established writer has written […]
The Still Point – A Poem
When you believe in a dream you can reach You head out west or any of the four directions or six, counting ground And sky But some part of you returns or remains, the still point From which you travel To which some part of you always returns
Four Reasons to Write Short Stories
Photos can be poignant, powerful, or precious glimpses of a moment in time. Each one tells a story. And usually, the story is more than the caption you might see beneath the photo. Far more. There are photos that strike us with awe at the power of nature, like this one: Some photos strike us […]
How Does a Writer Decide What to Write?
Are you a writer? Do you have just too many ideas when it comes to knowing what you should write? I know the feeling … in more ways than one. When I pick up my two older kids from school, they’re often bubbling over with everything that happened that day. Each one likes to be […]
Bonita Jewel 