Writing is a real job! Just a little validation for everyone. If you’re like me, then you’ve heard, “Writing isn’t a real job.” something like two hundred and forty-three times in your life. On a certain level, it’s true. Writing is not often a financially stable way to move through life. However, that isn’t what I mean by writing is a real job. Without disparaging … Continue reading Is writing a real job?
Taking a break from writing is easy. Returning to writing afterwards is difficult. Like anything else that requires commitment, patience, and dedication, stepping away from writing can feel like sliding down some unseen totem pole (or up, since the best are at the bottom?). How do you get back into it? Easy. Give yourself a break. A different kind of break. If it’s only been … Continue reading How to return to writing after a break
Even if you’ve never written a single word, at some point in your life someone has told you how important a plot is to a story. If you have nothing else, you need a plot. For architect writers, the writer that meticulously plots out the story down to the very intricate detail, creating a plot is easy. It’s the first brick in a towering foundation. … Continue reading Using Movement or Conflict instead of a Plot
As an editor, I often tell my clients to add more to their story. Most of it are the “how” and “why”s of a story. “How did they get from Point A to Point B?” “Why did they go into that room without any reason?” “Why are they spending hundreds of dollars in this scene when in the last scene they lamented having money troubles. … Continue reading Why it’s important to remove the ‘fluff’ writing
I lean my head back, feeling the top of the wooden chair press into the base of my skull. It wasn’t as stifling as it had been during the day, but stickiness clung to me, leftover from a day of sweating in the heat. The cicadas don’t seem to mind the muggy evening air; encompassing me, their cacophony of buzzing, four walls of interwoven sound. … Continue reading For What Comes Next – Short Story
The train’s brakes jerked me awake. I took a second to remind myself of where I was headed. Looking out the window, I remembered. Germany. Checking the map on my phone I saw that we passed into the border half an hour ago. “Huh. Not bad.” I muttered to myself. “Still time to sleep.” Before returning to sleep I looked at the other people around … Continue reading Chapter 2 of We Fall and We Fly [Fantasy/New Adult Novel]
When winter came to Paris, it dragged with it a sky full of clouds. Damp chill crawled along streets, eating through thick wool and thin cotton without discrimination. A week ago, snow raced through the skies, turning cars and trees into mysterious masses, a treasure for discovery. On this particular morning winter sleeps in so the snow melts, the chill slinks away down into the … Continue reading Chapter 1 of We Fall and We Fly [A Novel]
The helmet sat outside for hours, a price tag dangling off the old cotton chinstrap. Everyone who arrived came in cars, leaving them parked on the street. “I used to have one of these,” the first person to pick it up said. There’s an expression that applied to him. “Age has not been kind.” He picked up the helmet and popped out the firm canvas … Continue reading By The Passage of Time
While still traveling the world Living in the moment is damn-near impossible. At some point, while growing up, we all forgot how to enjoy the moment we’re in. We start looking forward to the future, start imagining all the ‘what-if’s and ‘what will be’s, and forget to enjoy what we’re doing. Do you play a sport? Instrument? Video game? Do you cook? Do you have … Continue reading How can we learn to live in the moment?
The car was a real beauty. The body was a seamless forest of dark green paint, apart from the myriad of scrapes and dents. The convertible soft-top was stuck halfway between up and down, with more holes than fabric, letting the rain drown the backseat. That was okay, though, because the doors no longer had handles, and I had to hoist myself over the door … Continue reading My Falcon
