Writing a Novel with the Loose Draft

Today, let’s talk about loose drafting, a writing strategy that is a mix of plotting and pantsing.

4 Exercises to Develop Writing Voice Flexibility

In writing, your voice is the combination of tone, personality, style, and everything else that makes your writing an authentic expression of you. Writing voice is the reason that A Series of Unfortunate Events became more than a depressing saga, and it’s the reason the Fantastic Beasts movies may feel more like Harry Potter to…

3 Tone Exercises to Make You a More Agile Writer

Here are a few exercises to help you develop your tone-forming muscles. Note that I’m not going over what tone is in much any depth here, so hit the Googles first if you need a review.

How to Find Your Ideal Job

With jobs, knowing what you want can be difficult because so many factors are involved. But here’s an outline for how to figure out what your (current) ideal job is. Identify Your Dream Job For now, stay in the real world. (Don’t choose “unicorn wrangler” as your dream job.) But don’t worry about money. Ask…

5 Ways to Gain the Confidence of a Professional Writer

One thing the online writing community has taught me is that a lot of writers suffer from self-doubt and don’t necessarily feel supported as writers. And while I relate to these feelings to some extent, I’m fortunate in that my formal writing education and my paid writing and editing positions have boosted my confidence. In…

4 Signs of Writerly Mansplaining

A good general rule for men who don’t want to mansplain is to not explain unless a woman asks you for an explanation. But in truth, the issue is more nuanced than that. 

4 Reasons Editors Aren’t Judging You

Because I’m a professional editor (and a judgmental person, probably), people sometimes tell me that they’re afraid to text me in case their grammar is terrible. And while I can’t say that I’ve never commented on someone’s language, if I do, I’m probably not judging you. Here are four reasons professional editors probably aren’t judging…

Storymakers Conference 2018

At the beginning of May I went to the 2018 Storymakers Conference. Read about my favorite classes and takeaways in this blog post.