Getting The Smooch On: Writing A Kissing Scene

On Friday, as I scanned the posts in my blog feed, I came across Dan’s flash fiction challenge. It had an intriguing title: Kiss Me. That is, write a kissing scene. Now, while I’m not a romance writer (as some of the writers commenting in the challenge clearly are), the need for a kissing scene has…

The Next Layer Of Dialogue: Body Language

Last week, I participated in J. A. Allen‘s Sunday Scribble Challenge, wherein we write a brief entry in response to a prompt. This was last week’s prompt: Two sentences isn’t much space, unless you write a bunch of clauses with commas, and those aren’t my style. So I had to rely on something else to…

Four Steps Away From The Cliff

I recently had the privilege of guest posting for the lovely, talented, and funny Sarah E. Boucher on the topic of quit days. Since I’m not able to reblog directly, she’s allowed me to paste the post onto my own blog. Click here to see the original post and on her name to head to her…

In A Crowd Of Encouragers, Who Would You Draw?

This morning, I taught the third grade class in the kids’ area of my church. The lesson was about Biblical figures who persevered through difficult circumstances and those who encouraged them along the way. To go along with that, we completed a seriously cool project with the main point being this: when times get tough,…

Cruisin’

I’ve been quiet in the blogosphere this past week, but I had a good reason, I think. I was here: And here:  And then here:  Meanwhile, this was happening at home:  Ew. I’d say we timed our trip well. I decided to share some of our trip because I’m a blogger and we share everything.…

Is There Room In Publishing For Original Stories?

I saw this video on Facebook. It’s amazing, so watch it. If you scrolled without watching, allow me to summarize: many popular songs were written using the same four-chord progression. These guys crammed thirty-six (or so, I lost count) song snippets into five minutes without changing the four-chord structure. The transitions are seamless. They cross genres, including…

How Do You Maintain The Writerly Temple?

Everyone knows we feel better overall if we eat healthy foods and exercise. Or as Chuck Wendig said somewhere, we would do well to treat ourselves better than we would treat a bathroom at Wendy’s. Turns out there’s a reason for that advice. I’ve been admittedly lazy the past several months. For a little while I was…

A Tale Of Two Covers

One of the Great Truths in the Writer’s Bible is this: the cover can make or break the success of your book. Doesn’t matter how good the stuff inside is. If the cover isn’t intriguing (or worse, if it’s deterring), if it doesn’t compel the potential reader to buy/borrow, it hasn’t done its job. Period. Since…