#AtoZChallenge : Productivity + Theme Reveal

The April Blogging From A to Z Challenge is upon us, and for the third consecutive year, the Write On Sisters are doing it! Check out the tab above for a list of all our A-Z posts. In 2014 we didn’t have a theme; it was kind of a free-for-all about writing between four bloggers. In …
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1 Key Question for Worldbuilding (+ A Handy Checklist)

I’m a newbie to hardcore worldbuilding. Up until recently, I’d only developed stories that took place in the real world. I may have put fantastical creatures in the stories, but the setting was Earth as we know it. Now I’m writing a novel that takes place 100 years in the future, still on Earth, but it …
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Character Development: The Reaction Chart

Creating characters to populate your novel or screenplay is a lot of fun. You get to devise different backgrounds and opinions and alliances and secrets and all kinds of interesting stuff that brings the cast to life. But you can have the most detailed character sketches and richly drawn cast ever, and your story could …
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The Influence of Books on YAs

Have you heard of The Unslut Project? It began with Emily Linden sharing her middle school diaries online in a Tumblr page. It’s now a memoir and a documentary. Unslut is the all-too-common story of a preteen girl who was slut shamed and bullied. Lindin shared her story to reassure other girls suffering from sexual …
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Writers: Should You Quit Your Day Job?

Originally posted on Jan. 27, 2014. Updated and reposted on Jan. 18, 2016. This question has been on my mind a lot considering that over the past year I’ve gone from no day job to two concurrent part-time jobs. How much to work while pursuing a creative dream is a common dilemma. There’s no easy answer …
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Resolutions & Goals: 5 Tips to Make Them Stick

Writers are notorious for setting ambitious new year’s resolutions and goals, then beating themselves up for not achieving them. At least that’s what I’ve done the last few years. The result? Around this time of year I always feel like a failure, despite the things I managed to accomplish. But no more! I’ve come up …
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Top 6 Ways Writers Spend the Holidays

As a freelance writer, holidays have never been a big deal to me, perhaps because I often work right through them. But this year is different; last month I got a job coaching kids gymnastics on top of my freelance writing career. Oh yeah, and I’m still trying to write a novel during my diminishing …
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How To Handle Feedback: 6 Do’s & Don’ts

It’s another Archive Revive because I just got a new writing gig and am super busy! Currently, I’m sifting through feedback from the clients, so this re-post is appropriate… Originally posted on Jan. 20, 2014. Updated Nov. 30, 2015 It’s been so long since I was in school that I can’t even remember if the …
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Results of a Slow Writer’s First #NaNoWriMo

This year was my first participating in the legendary National Novel Writing Month. I’m a slow writer and never felt up for the challenge, but 2015 is apparently “The Year Heather Faces Intimidating Challenges,” so I gave it a go. I even made a plan: A Slow Writer’s Scheme to Win NaNoWriMo. So how’d I …
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Mushy Middle Tips for #NaNoWriMo

Hey NaNaWriMo writers! How’s it going? It’s mid-November and that means you’re deep in Act II and might be encountering some mushy middle difficulties. So here are some tips to get you through… [Click on the titles to read the whole blog post.] Mapping the Mushy Middle The key to not getting lost in the …
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