What scares you more than anything-- and how can you use it to enhance your writing?

I'm now happily hacking away at a fourth draft of TUGL. Sometimes, though, when my mind wanders, there's another story in the background that wants to be played with. Two of them, actually. I have vague ideas for them, but no real plot or character arcs. It usually takes me a lot...

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What if your book shares a title with another book?

So while I was on my little break last week, my friend Reece interviewed me! You can check out the interview here.Also last week, I got an email from a crit partner, and it brought up something that was a recent frustration for me. The problem? Titles. Not coming up with titles....

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Teen Tales Guest Post: Jenny Morris on Unrequited Love

Teen Tales is a weekly feature connecting the YA experience with YA literature. Today, we've got a guest post from Jenny Morris! Here's a little about her before we get started:I am 6 of 7 children and have lived in 3 of the 4 A’s states, but I currently call Oregon my home. In an...

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Burnout

In June and early July, I wrote between 2,000 and 4,000 words a day and had a finished first draft in 7 weeks.In July, August, and September, I have worked for 2 to 4 hours a day and completed three revisions of that first draft.I'm a little tired.So, my friends, there will be no writing--and no blogging--for me this week. I'm burned out, and ready to recharge my batteries. I'm...

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Have you ever lost your writing document?

I backup my writing ALL. THE. TIME. I'm completely paranoid that the evil hard drive demons are going to eat my story and I'll go to pull it up and it won't be there. So for backup, I have a thumb drive, an external hard drive, and I email myself copies frequently. I don't want to...

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How to create a character's personality

One of the hardest things for me in writing is character development. I write a lot of blog posts about it, probably because I'm constantly trying to learn more about it so I can improve my characters. Today, I wanted to share something I do at the very beginning of character creation...

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Teen Tales: The Fear and Strength We Take from Tragedies

On September 11, 2001, I was a 17-year-old senior in high school. When I got to school that day, friends asked if I had heard about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center. What a tragic accident, I thought. For my first class of the day, I tutored students with special needs....

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What is your favorite word?

I have a kind of love affair with words. Obviously. I'm a writer, aren't I? My husband teases me sometimes when I use a word he doesn't know, or just one that isn't commonly used in conversation. I love learning new words, and along with that, I love learning languages. Here are...

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How to write emotions so the reader cares: Lessons from 13 Reasons Why

Since I talked about the importance of showing authentic emotions on Monday, I wanted to talk about how to actually do that in your writing. I'm by no means an expert on this; I'm still learning a lot about how to not only portray the emotions your character is feeling, but how to...

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Teen Tales: The emotional firestorm of developing an identity

Teen Tales is a weekly feature connecting the YA experience with YA literature.What is it about being a teen that makes EVERY. SINGLE. THING. exaggeratedly more excruciating? A snide comment at school made me cry later that night. A second glance from a cute boy sent me into ecstasy....

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What are your favorite childhood movies?

So I have an almost two-year-old son. He's a wacky ball of fun who is starting to throw tantrums express preferences for certain things. Some of those preferences are coming out in the shows he likes to watch, and I love laying out a line of movies on the carpet and watching him...

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