Katharine's Writer's Block

A pop cultural debate that surfaces around the end of the year is what makes a movie fall into the Christmas category. Many rightfully fit in because they center on characters, images, or buzzwords connected to the holidays. Others hone in on values or themes like tradition, life, love, joy, peace, charity, and sometimes spirituality. More still, some flicks are considered Christmassy simply for having a scene or plot set on Christmas Eve or Day (Looking at you, Die Hard !).

Where artistry is the creative’s superpower, doubt is the Kryptonite. For all the skills in wielding poetry, words, and expression, one...

My anniversary inspiration this year took me in a nostalgic direction! My husband and I met through the Bumble dating app in the summer...

One of my Christmas presents in 2024 was a Tome Writing Toolkit , a computer-based and user-customized resource that guides and encourages aspiring writers through the process of novel writing. Three different toolkit options are offered, each with varying levels of feature access, but each offering starts with a quiz that helps tailor the toolkit to meet the user where they are in their writing journey. This may just be me, but just from the first few days with my tooklit, I

It seems like every day can be a holiday and every month is one for some kind of recognition, remembrance, or awareness. Many are established by various organizations or special interests, so keeping up can be hard if you’re not affiliated or in-the-know in some way.  Similar organizations and interests of literary culture have managed to get their values recognized with their own various holidays and months. This Lessons & Advice post gives a rundown on several special times

How does a prepared food dish end up less enjoyable than it could be, if not ruined altogether? Too much flavor could have been used or...

NANOWRIMO 2024 created waves last month by attempting to voice a neutral stance on the use of writing with artificial intelligence (AI).  NaNoWriMo neither explicitly supports nor condemns any approach to writing, including the use of tools that leverage AI. We recognize that harm has been done to the writing and creative communities at the hands of bad actors in the generative AI space, and that the ethical questions and risks posed by some aspects of this technology are rea

KISS has an odd song from the eighties called “ A World Without Heroes ”. Society would be quite a lawless, hopeless place without them,...

Voice in writing is like fashion sense! A common positive critique I’ve gotten on my Reedsy stories  is having a strong voice, so I...

To the average Joe, the term show-and-tell might conjure up memories from early school days when they or classmates brought special items from home with the purpose of presenting them to peers. The objects on display were anything from favorite toys or trinkets to bizzare, questionable, or adult things kids didn’t fully understand . In a similar vein, writers practice an aptly-named technique of show-and-tell that encourages balance between basic summation and an elaborate de