Oh, dialogue. You are one of the most crucial elements of characterization and pacing and yet you continue to be a slippery little scamp when it comes to crafting engaging non-clunky voices. There are a few key aspects to keep in mind with dialogue: – Who is speaking? – Where are they from? – What time period is it? A… View Post
How many times have I gushed about fall on this page? Probably a lot. Welp, imma do it again anyway. I have always loved the in-between seasons. Autumn feels like a hug—the colors, the smells, the recipes, the clothing. Something about it calms and warms. When I was a girl, I would dream of a fall wedding on a hilltop,… View Post
Ladies, picture it with me—it’s five pm on a Friday night, you’ve put together an outfit (or several variations, I don’t judge), maybe carefully applied mascara and a swipe of lipstick, a spritz of perfume, a toss of freshly washed hair. You’re ready to meet your date; you’ve been looking forward to it all day. And then you get there,… View Post
It’s easy to say that life is nothing like the movies—that everything in fiction is exaggerated to the point of complete distortion, that we could never touch the glimmering mirage in novels or on TV—I don’t buy it. I was sitting on the grass with my dog (trying to draw out any level of serotonin in myself) and I looked… View Post
Early most mornings, I go out into my garden to harvest raspberries. The wind still holds a chill from the night, the bees are waking up, and plants still drip from their sprinkler shower. As the sun creeps higher in the sky, the only sounds are birdsong, buzzing insects, and the fluttering branches that shadow the raspberry patch. I hum… View Post