Shouldn’t We Just Focus on Telling a Good Story? — What exactly is plotting? In my two previous blogs I shared two outlining or plotting methods — the W Plotting Structure and the Snowflake Method. Today, I want to write about plotting itself. …

A Helpful Way to Grow Your Story — This week and maybe next week as well, I’m sharing different plotting methods with you in hopes that one of them will resonate and help you next time you sit down to plot your stories. Even though I’m not a heavy plotter, I do believe in the value of understanding…

A Helpful Way to Plot Your Story Do you all enjoy plotting your stories? It can be fun. It’s like dreaming about a story on paper. At this point in the story creation process, anything is possible — you can brainstorm and write down whatever you think might happen, no…

Why Do Young People Seem Too Pessimistic about the Future? — I attended not one, but two college graduations last week (one yesterday). Both of my kids had their commencement ceremonies three days apart. We’re all a bit tired today, physically and emotionally, but proud of our kiddos for the effort and dedication they had to have to complete this long…

Five Ways to Get Reacquainted with Your Own Work After Not Writing — This week, I’m jumping back into writing after taking a bit of a break to wrap up the spring semester at the university. I try to write everyday and recommend that you do as well because it keeps you connected to your story. Even if you only write for ten…