The title is one that I hope will spark some constructive discussion. I’ve asked myself the question many times since the election and on certain days when I find myself glued to my Twitter feed. I realize the title itself may cause a few to bristle. Everyone is “allowed” to say whatever the hell they…
by Ryan Lanz tal·ent [tal-uhnt] noun: a special natural ability or aptitude. skill [skil] noun: the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well. What if you don’t have natural talent? Does that mean you may as well give up? It’s not quite the chicken or the egg debate, but it’s up there.…
When I was in high school band (yes, I was just that cool), the director of the brass line would sometimes lead practices, and one of his favorite things to say was this: He said it in a Yoda voice and I didn’t really get it at the time, other than it was a Yoda…
When I was just a reader, meaning I didn’t create my own word babies, I didn’t have a clue what went into making books or how my being a reader mattered to anyone. Now that I’m on both sides of the fence, the picture is much clearer – and I try to be a “better”…
Check this out! http://geni.us/gpsV S is for Story is now available for purchase and reviewing on Amazon. I think that’s pretty exciting. Thanks again for making the book possible. You guys rock.
Before we get started, I gotta do one thing. We did it! The A-Z challenge is complete! I hope you’ve found the information useful and entertaining. If you ever feel inclined to revisit, the links for all the posts will be on the A-Z post and also on the Writing Posts page. Now, let’s get to…
Whew! We’re almost to the finish line in our series. Can you believe it? Today we’re talking about a topic that I think gets overlooked – writing youthful characters accurately, especially in non-YA or children’s stories. I was an elementary teacher for more than a decade, and part of that was studying child development. We…
Yes, I cheated. A little. I figured we didn’t really need to know about xylophones, x-rays, or…xenomorphs. Isn’t English fun sometimes? Anyway, today in our series we’re talking about the nitty gritty of writing – punctuation. Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. We’re only talking about exclamation marks because 1. I used them to cheat in…
I’ve been a little nervous about today’s post in our series since M day. You guys responded so well to that and one or two of you said something to this effect: I can’t want to see what you have for the W post. All right. Let’s do this. *cracks knuckles* I posted about women characters…
The next post in our series brings us to the reason many people read stories, especially adventure and fantasy stories. We love to see our heroes emerge victorious, don’t we? She’s battled all of the author’s rocks, and at least once or twice it looked like defeat was assured. But she overcame. Or maybe she…
Allison Maruska 