Seduced by Second-Person Point of View

The first time I dipped my toes in this intimate and imperative style was while reading "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Oh, and prior to that time was when my mom read "The Monster at the End of This Book" told by lovable Grover. In my high school honors class, I remember reading another second-person …

JuNoWriMo 2020 Day 9

Greetings. Today, I didn't want to write.  It's not that ideas weren't shooting off like fireworks in my head, but I just didn't know if the words I had in mind would be worthy of fleshing and dramatizing my characters and scenes. Pessimistic Self: Come on, there's no way you can execute that. Lol. Just …

JuNoWriMo 2020 Day 8

Okay, today I pushed myself to rise from bed early. So early in fact that I had time to lift weights for 25 minutes, followed by sweating, glowing, gyrating, shimmying to music during a 43-minute cardio session of squats, bachata, salsa, soca moves, and push-ups. This is one of my favorite songs (click here if …

NaNoWriMo in June is Coming Soon!

I've been a fan of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo abbreviation) for as long as I can remember. While exploring my local library in my early twenties, I had spotted Chris Baty's guide to crafting a novel in 30 days, perfectly titled No Plot? No Problem? Intrigued and mildly skeptical, (30 days! -- wow!) I …

Island of the Misfit Stories and What To Do About Them!

When I was a kid, I loved watching Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. The toys were considered misfits because they possessed some defect and nobody seemed to want them. For example, there is a cowboy that rides an ostrich, a bird that swims, a winged bear, and a boat that …

Enter the Dragon: The Art of Beating the Sh*t Out of Your Characters

My toddlers and I love using our imaginations when playing with Little People action figures and Beanie Babies. However, I think my five-year-old has more fun messing with the carefully created plots that I craft for our playtime. For example, I enjoy the mundane story with generic problems while playing with my kiddos. It's typically …

To Glossary or Not to Glossary: that is the question.

I've been writing the first draft of what I call The Novel. Some days paragraphs come in torrents. Most days? A trickle of sentences or phrases here or a sparse description of a character there. I count it a good writing day when I'm able to twist a cliched phrase into something wonderful and new. …

Quotes to Write By Revisited

While scrolling through my Quora Digest feed, I noticed this question: As fiction writers, how do you get past the common feeling of "This is awful” when you start to write? Marshall Karp provides a great answer with a hilarious story that frames the difference between having a pessimistic outlook on life or an optimistic …

Dear NaNoWriMo Cheerleaders, I Want to, But . . .

Cheerleaders of NaNoWriMo, I'm already behind. Based on the 50,000 word goal, I already have a deficit of 10,002 words! Yes, I've written some short stories. There's one that I'm finishing up for a November 15th deadline, but does that even count towards the novel of my dreams?! You see, I have a novel inside …

Quotes to Write By – Day 29 What’s In a Name? More Than You Think!

Disclaimer: The following analysis of characters and their names are solely my opinion and conclusions I've drawn from being a wordsmith, character creator, and a lover of names. Juliet, from the play, Romeo and Juliet, speaks this famous line. She argues that it doesn't matter that the young man Romeo whom she loves is a …