Writing Lessons & Advice: Elements of Strong Writing
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 !).
Writing Lessons & Advice: Literary Tourism
In the United States, late May through August is embraced as the prime time for leisure tourism, or summer vacation in simpler terms. Throughout this timeframe, most schools complete regular instruction, summer officially starts, and many worthwhile holidays take place. So families often undertake some kind of getaway from their daily grind for a little bit of fun, celebration, and refreshment. Depending on plans and preferences, summer vacation also takes or blends a handfu
Writing Lessons & Advice: Story Conflicts
Different types of story conflicts Since Christmas 2024, I started crafting my dream novel with the Tome Writing Toolkit! As it guided me...
Writing Lessons & Advice: Literary Holidays
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
Writing Lessons & Advice: Tone
Have you ever been told to watch your tone during a conversation? A combination of your voice, emotions, and attitude may have gotten...
Writing Lessons & Advice: Book It Turns Forty
Millennials, like me, grew up with some unique cultural experiences. While we indulged in the earliest, if not the best, years of...
Writing Lessons & Advice: Show-and-Tell
To the average Joe, the term show-and-tell might conjure up memories from early school days when they or classmates brought special items...
Writing Lessons & Advice: Journaling (for Mental health)
I kept diaries as an adolescent. I imagine them as something like a rite of passage, a tradition practiced during certain stages of life. The teen diary is something popular, yet sacred. On one hand, works like Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl to the Princess Diaries and to Diary of a Wimpy Kid show how literature and entertainment have embraced both the diary-keeping act as well as their contents at times. Yet on the flipside, some diaries are marketed with key locks or
