Freelance Friday: Dialogue and Setting (and how to improve both!)

Okay, so this Freelance Friday article is one I’ve looked forward to alllll year. (I’m not sure why I waited this long to share it.) (It could’ve totally been for January.) One of the questions I got last year when I launched this idea was: How can you improve dialogue and setting descriptions as a …

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FIVE FALL FAVORITES Blog Hop Day 5: Instructional Nonfiction!

Click HERE to keep up with the blog hop! Today's category is INSTRUCTIONAL NONFICTION!  Since this is a blog about books and writing, it's only fitting that all of my selections are books about writing!  Plus, today I'm the Official Book Room for the blog hop, so keep reading for a fun f…

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My Novel Planning Guide + Freebie Alert!

Hey everyone!  Since it's the new year and everyone's getting their planners/to-do-lists fired up for the year, I decided to write a post about my process for planning novels, which I've been utilizing lately.  If you're interested in downloading some free sheets to use for plannin…

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Everything And Nothing: Flash Fic

I have a fun cold right now and hardly slept last night as a result, so this blog post is going to be as short as its topic. Flash fiction is a fun and growing trend--the act of writing stories that are less than 1,000 words in length.  They might even be considered the haiku of prose because of th…

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Everything And Nothing: Small But Mighty

Hey everyone!  I've dubbed October the month for short stories and poetry, since I'm on the last leg of getting Everything And Nothing out there for you all.  Today, we're touching on short stories and why you might want to try your hand at writing them. I was introduced to short storie…

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Something New: Values

In the second installment of the Mount Sterling series, the titular college finds itself in need of a new president after the current one passed away unexpectedly.  The president, Dr. Overdorf, is bound and determined to take the once-Christian college and squelch the religious undertone in the nam…

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Week In Review: Finales, Come They Will

The first week free from college.... Only for a few more weeks until one of my summer classes starts up. When my advisor told me I should take summer classes to fulfill the last two requirements for my psychology minor, I was all for it.  Relieved, even, that I could do so online.  But now that it&…

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The Road to "My Compass Home": Finding Home Base

Every story needs a setting, obviously.  It needs a tangible world that the reader can comprehend and see in their mind's eye -- otherwise, the characters are just existing...somewhere.  This can also make or break a story, especially depending on your genre.  No pressure, right? When I began wr…

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Romance to Make Your Readers Swoon

Happy Valentine's day, all!  In the spirit of the holiday, today we're going to explore some great resources and tips for writing a good romance.  Whether it's a sci-fi, crime drama, or plain romance novel, many books have a romantic relationship of some sort (whether it's the main …

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Touching an Audience

It's what every writer aspires to do at least once in their life: touch their audience's lives in a way that makes their work unforgettable, to make the audience reconsider their outlook on life or make them want to call up that old family member or friend just to say 'sorry.'  And,…

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