Stop telling yourself that dreams don’t matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible.” ~Julia Cameron Dear Writers, Over the past five nights, I’ve been waking up to the same dream. It starts with me finding out that I’ve been cast in an opera. The show is hours away from…
Writing
My 99th newsletter!!!!!
Dear Writers, So, this past weekend, I did not go to NESCBWI’s annual conference. But I did catch a few tweets about it. And here was my favorite: Dan Santat says, “The key to finding your voice is to LIVE LIFE.” How many ways can I say YES??? and THANK YOU! How many ways can I…
Eat more chocolate.
Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. -Goran Perrson Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. -Abraham Lincoln Happy Happy!!!!! It’s that time of year! This week, many of…
Happy Writing!
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. -Franklin D. Roosevelt Good morning, Writers! Today, one hour after today’s Monday Motivation came out, I received 25 comments. Apparently, I hit a nerve. Here’s the post: This week, having sent a new manuscript to my agent, I had ONE GOAL. I wanted…
Greetings from the Highlights Whole Novel Workshop!!!
Today, in beautiful Honesdale, I met with my students one on one and discussed their wonderful, inspiring novels. Right now, I feel so lucky! I am surrounded by smart writers, eating amazing food, and working in a community that is vested in each writer’s success. Tomorrow, I give my lecture. Can ANYONE sleep before lecture…
Time to Listen
I posted this on July 3 on Through The Tollbooth. Here it is again (typos and redundancies included!!) Tomorrow is the 4th of July. Independence Day. Like a lot of you, I will go to parties and watch fireworks. Wave the flag. Chill out. Yesterday, I went to a memorial for the three teenagers killed…
I am in the listening phase
My WIP is out on sub, so that means, I have some time to start thinking about what I want to write about next. One story has been knocking on my door, and now, every day, if I walk around and think (without my phone), I notice things. Inspiration. Clues. Ideas. Themes. It is a…
#WeNeedDiverseBooks . . .and now what?
Good morning, Writers! This weekend, if you were on Twitter, you might have seen a lot of tweets under the hashtag: #WeNeedDiverseBooks. It was a very empowering and exciting weekend. I love when people stand up for something important! It is a cause that goes straight to the heart of WHY we write books. Diverse characters…
One change leads to another
I have been working on a revision that, in part, requires me to go from first person present to past. You would think this MIGHT be a very easy exercise, but of course, like all changes, it is not. This morning, after deleting a huge chunk of the text, I thought about exactly what…
Going to the basement
This morning, I literally had to go to the basement (to let the meter man in). While I was down there, I opened up my old file cabinet. I was procrastinating. (I really needed a break.) I found: The first novel I ever wrote, the one that starts with a 12 year old girl waking…