Writing Lessons

  • “Show, Don’t Tell” – Unpacking Common Writing Advice

    Transcript: The number of times writing teachers, critique partners, or coaches tell a writer to “show, don’t tell” without any explanation is way too high. It’s a problem because it gets treated like a magical cure-all for your writing. If you just show and never tell, all your writing problems will disappear, right? While it’s

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  • The Art of Writing Authentic Dialogue

    Even though we learn to talk well before we learn to write, writing dialogue can prove to be quite a challenge for many writers. If you’ve spent most of your life writing academically or professionally and are just now diving into creative writing and storytelling, dialogue can often feel impossible to master. But don’t worry,

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  • Don’t Forget to Keep Writing

    Preoccupied with the rewrite of my book, researching about self-publishing, and building my author brand, I nearly forgot the most important part of all this: to keep writing. Really, the consensus, no matter which successful author you ask, is: “Did you just finish that project you’ve been working on for weeks/months/years? Great! Now get back

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  • The Importance of Writing Consistently

    Recently, I have finished a book in two months and am ahead in my word count for NaNoWriMo all while teaching full-time and finishing grad school. Because of this, a question I keep getting from my students and coworkers is “how do you find the time?” Here’s the deal: I don’t have much time for

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  • Two Lessons Learned from Writing a Book in Two Months

    Exactly fifty-three days ago, I began a novel based on a single idea that had been swirling around in my head for some time. Currently, this novel sits at 320 pages with 110,000 words. While it is still very much a work in progress (the editing stages have only just begun for the first part

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