interview with Success Diaries

What does “success” mean in Katherine Center´s world? Success is doing the right thing for who you are.  It’s living a life that matches and supports you. Do you feel you´ve made it as an author? As a woman? As a mom? What do you feel (if anything) you still need to do in life? […]

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interview with Angie Mizzell

I’ve recently become a raving fan of author Katherine Center. She writes amazing essays and fiction books; a simple sentence can make my heart stop beating for a moment. Recently, Center took time out of her own busy schedule talk to me about her work: Angie: You first caught my attention when you posted the essay, “Nothing Worthwhile Is Ever Easy,” on […]

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How NOT To Write: passive constructions

Why are they called “constructions”? Because a sentence is something you build, right?  You assemble it with words.  And those words can be active or passive.  But they should be active.  What’s the difference?  This: PASSIVE:  Mistakes were made by me. vs. ACTIVE:  I made mistakes. PASSIVE:  A good time was had by all. vs. ACTIVE:  We […]

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writing wednesday: life with kids

Here’s a Writing Wednesday about life with kids.  The question comes up over and over:  How do you do both?  How do you get it all done as a mother and a writer?  And almost every mother with little kids I know struggles with some version of this question.  How do you get it all […]

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writing wednesday! too much coolness is not cool

This Writing Wednesday is about naming characters.  And why you have to do it carefully and not just buy a baby book and pick out your favorite names. Here’s the main point of the video (and you’ll notice that I DO NOT actually SAY IT in the video): Characters and names have a relationship to […]

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do you make an outline when you write a novel?

It’s Thursday morning!  So that must mean it’s time for Writing Wednesday! This question is from Jaime, who wants to know if I make an outline when I write a novel. And the answer is yes. And no. And sort of. [BlueTube]GEuH_wQb09w[/BlueTube] Usually, my outlines are just numbered lists.  Very broad.  The number stands for […]

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