If you’re scared or angry or feeling disenfranchised, write. If you are choking on grief, write. If you’re worried about future Supreme Court nominees, write. If you’re worried about our political system in the largest possible terms, write. Create stories like our lives depend on them because they do. Create stories because storytelling is generous, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Jessica Page Morrell' Category
Advice for Wri Mos from Laini Taylor
Unstoppable. Machete-toting. Sounds good doesn’t it? And if you don’t make your word count one day do not panic. Just keep plugging away. Live that story in your head while you’re walking the dog or microwaving dinner. As you and Rufus the Border Collie head to the park, stride or swagger the way your protagonist […]
Read the rest of this entry »NaNoWriMo Survival Guide
Last November I posted a long, smart (yes, I know I’m bragging), and practical survival guide for making it through November and succeeding at NaNoWriMo. It’s a giddy, laborious, exhausting and fulfilling marathon to crank out a 50,000-word novel in November. Thousands of people worldwide have joined and pulled it off. And you can too. […]
Read the rest of this entry »12 Reasons to Join NaNoWriMo–or undergo a 30-day writing sprint
We think quicker than we write. Writing fast helps you catch up with your brain and empty your swollen imagination. 2. Breakneck writing is energizing and immersive. Once you’re into your story, you fall into enchantment, fall away from the ordinary world. When you take breaks for life’s necessities you long to come back to […]
Read the rest of this entry »Always noticing….
It’s stopped raining and the morning sky is almost cloudless and a dusty, pale blue. In the Pacific Northwest we sort of skipped autumn and jumped into winter. Usually September and October are our finest and most golden months. Not this year, rains have battered the region, and even brought tornadoes to the coast. But […]
Read the rest of this entry »Important advice in our times….
You can supply the adjective here; turbulent, troubling, divisive…. I believe profoundly in continuing to read and think and communicate in sophisticated ways, especially when the problems we as a world are dealing with have never been greater. It couldn’t be more important. ~ Jennifer Eagan You can find more about Eagan and her stories […]
Read the rest of this entry »Hiatus is over
Dear readers who stop in here, Wanted you to know that my hiatus from blogging is over and I’m back to inspire, nudge, nag, and encourage. I’ve got some great tidbits about writing planned for you that have simmering in some lovely recess of my brain. I’m doing much better after a major surgery and […]
Read the rest of this entry »“This strangely still pause between summer and autumn, greenery and gold, and the heat and rising wind that is once again readying itself to rush it all away in a climactic symphony of colour and scent is – in my opinion, one of the best parts of living on Earth.” – Victoria Erickson
Read the rest of this entry »Location, location, location!
As a follow-up to the workshop I taught last weekend at the Willamette Writers Conference, here are tips and hacks for creating a fictional world that resonates and causes things to happen: The spirit and traditions of a place are not just inert background or the canvas to showcase emotions; it is part of the […]
Read the rest of this entry »
