Tweet The air has shifted. Even here in Hawaii, there’s a slight change in the seasons. The days are getting longer. It’s time to store my sweaters away sadly and I’m back to my usual tank top shorts uniform. Seasons are light bulb reminders externally of things we need to shed inside. While we declutter and spring clean to make ready for summer, there are things we can do as writers to check-in, to make sure we’re still where we need to be. This can look like ordering more paper, getting a fun new journal or laptop. It could mean…
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Tweet I want to tell you a secret. There is something I LOVE more than writing (well, besides my husband and kids, of course.)! It’s coaching. I took a quiz recently and between a creator and guide, I actually scored guide. I think my heart is in helping others find and pursue their calling. I’ve helped my clients achieve everything from becoming first-time authors/motivational speakers to losing weight and fulfilling their dream of traveling. For most of them, it only took 2-5 sessions to get there. So it was an affordable life change. But for those of you who are…
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Tweet Most people are not fans of difficult emotions. So we evade it. We distract from it. We eat. We shop. We gossip. We watch mindless TV. All to escape feeling something that isn’t bad. It’s the things we do to try to avoid it that’s bad. But feeling it is just well uncomfortable. And yet, to sufficiently deal with anything hard like grief or disappointment, we need to actually feel it. Right now there’s a lot of pain in the world. But everywhere on social media and in life we hear the same things: Buck up. If it’s not…
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Tweet Deb Hunter is a bright soul with a good heart. A southerner that you want to sit down on the porch and have a glass of iced tea with. She’s an author who follows the call of her passion which has led her to write her upcoming novel I’ll See You In My Dreams. She’s also a Stage IV cancer survivor with a heart of gold. Grateful doesn’t describe how I felt when I spoke to Deb. She’s so inspiring and a real sweetheart. She shares her writing schedule, what class has given her a deeper understanding of her characters,…
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Tweet Recently, I took a free Coursera course on “How to Craft Contagious Content.” The information was so compelling I realized that you could use it to write anything. Emotional. How many times have you received a rejection or a critique that your story wasn’t emotional? It didn’t have enough heart in it. This is the emotional pull that makes people keep reading or unable to turn away from the television during a commercial. What affects you on an emotional level is what you remember. A social worker once told my mother that while my grandmother wouldn’t remember details, she…
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Tweet I’ve always been a storyteller. I should say, “I’ve always told stories.” This was to the chagrin of my elementary school classmates who hid from me because they couldn’t stand to hear yet another story. You would think this would clue me into my lifelong dream of writing fiction especially when I have a blog all about finding your purpose. But so it is with things that are precious to you. You build walls around it as you get older so no one can touch it. As I began taking writing courses to fulfill my degree in English literature,…
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Tweet I’ve devoted a decade to nonfiction writing, but my love for reading and writing began with fiction. This is the first of what I hope will be many posts on the art of fiction writing. And it’s a good one! I’m pretty proud of this girl! I met her when I started my first local writing group and she’s been supportive, and helpful in her advice, feedback and edits. While other members have gone off to complete manuscripts, she is the only one I know who has not only finished a book, but published it in a short amount…
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Tweet The deeper you get into your work, the harder it is to separate your self from what you’re working on. You’ll notice that the more passionate, the more involved you are, the more the deep dark stuff of your unconscious seeps out. It’s easier to live life on the surface. That way when rejection happens, it doesn’t hurt as much. You failed, but you didn’t care anyway. But what happens when what you’re failing at means the world to you? It hits at your core, purpose, and sense of self-worth. If you’re writing about a company, it stings a…
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Tweet guest post by: C.J. Quinn Does your child enjoy reading fantasy books? If so, your child may be smarter than you think. Reading the genre of fiction and fantasy has many social and behavioral advantages. Intelligence quotient (IQ) was once considered the golden standard for measuring how smart a person was. However, in 1995 Daniel Goleman, an internationally known psychologist, proved that we weren’t taking into account emotional intelligence when determining a person’s intellect. According to Goleman, “Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a person’s ability to identify, evaluate, control and express emotions.” Since Goleman’s theory, both IQ and EQ are now…
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Tweet This is a post I don’t usually write. Usually, I’m a how-to nonfiction writer hoping to inspire you. But when it comes to fiction, I’m struggling. Recently, I attended SCBWI Hawaii chapter’s 2016 conference with 2015 Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat and literary agent Suzie Townsend. It was as encouraging as it was discouraging. It made me want to write as much as it made me want to quit. One of the other writers put it simply. With nonfiction there’s facts to lean on. When you’re grasping around in your imagination, there’s no bars, no walls. You’re free and freedom can…