Category Archives: Balance
Writing in the Time of Coronavirus: Practical Tips
As a native Floridian, I know about disruption. It happens repeatedly every year between June and November. But hurricanes and their inconvenient aftermaths are temporary; even though they’re annoying, you know you’ll be back to your regular schedule soon. But … Continue reading
Mastering Show, Don’t Tell
We hear it over and over: Show, don’t tell. You can’t get away from this advice, not in writing workshops, at conferences, or heck, even when visiting this blog. Writers Helping Writers and the thesaurus work we do is all … Continue reading
Writing for Carrots
Are you writing for carrots? It’s a weird question that I’ve had bubbling around my brain lately, so I probably need to explain. You’ve seen the old cartoons where the horse was constantly chasing the carrot, right? It’s always there, … Continue reading
The One Thing Writers Miss When Trying to Improve
Hi guys! Colleen M. Story is posting with us again, and she always has good food for thought when it comes to flexing our creative muscles and growing as writers. Read on! Writers do something rather unusual on a frequent … Continue reading
Overcoming Negativity Bias
As human beings and writers, we all struggle with maintaining a healthy balance between the positives and negatives of life. A disappointing review, a less-than-successful launch, critique feedback that wasn’t what we’d anticipated, a manuscript disfigured by an editor’s red strokes—it’s so easy … Continue reading
Personality Traits: Building a Balanced Character
If writing the Positive Trait & Negative Trait Thesaurus books have taught me anything, it is that compelling characters are neither good nor bad, perfect or fundamentally flawed. Instead, they are all of these things. Each has a set of … Continue reading
Emotional Description: 3 Common Problems with Show & Tell
Writing compelling emotional moments is the lifeblood of any story and the key to building a relationship between characters and readers. Yet steering clear of the show-don’t-tell pitfalls requires practice and skill. Here are three scenarios that can challenge writers … Continue reading
The Path To 10K In Sales: Strategy, Luck & Mistakes
I’ll admit my mind is blown knowing there are over 10,000 Emotion Thesaurus books out in the world. Becca and I are thrilled, and so appreciative to all the writers and teachers who took a chance on it. As aspiring … Continue reading
Do You Need a Social Media Intervention?
It’s drilled into us by the Publishing Powers That Be: platform, platform, platform. Embrace Social Media. Blog. Get on twitter. Engage. Network. Connect. Start early, think ahead, get a platform in place before the deal. And because we want to … Continue reading
Description 911: Over Expressed Emotions
Because this blog is all about flexing our descriptive skills, I wanted to touch on something I see from time to time when I critique: too much emotional showing. Emotions can be the most difficult to convey (this is why … Continue reading