I applied to Pitch Wars in 2014, 2015, and 2016. I received zero requests until the last year. That’s when I received one, and that mentor, Judi Lauren, ended up choosing me as her mentee. Sometimes one is all it takes. I made no effort to connect with other Pitch Wars hopefuls in 2014 and 2015. […]
Category: Writing Craft

Prose And Storytelling Are Apples And Oranges
Prose and storytelling are concepts that are too often joined into one word, “writing,” to the detriment of those trying to improve their craft.

On Establishing Need For Your Characters
“Make your characters proactive instead of reactive.” Many writers learn this advice fairly early on. Have your main characters make the decisions and they’ll become much more interesting than those who let the minor characters call the shots (the latter scenario of which is a common pitfall). But how do you make them proactive? You […]
Over-Expressive Characters Make Me Sigh (Part 2)
I wanted to dig a little more into my previous post about using expressions during character interaction. You can find Part 1 here. Let’s first address why people resort to these expressions in the first place. It’s because they’re taught to show instead of tell, and having your characters shrug and sigh are ways of […]

Over-Expressive Characters Make Me Sigh
His eyebrows wagged. Her eyes narrowed to slits. His brows knitted together, face contorting with a sneer. Her eyes widened. He offered a lopsided grin. Her chin jutted outward and her mouth twisted downward. He sighed. I won’t beat around the bush here; sentences like these make my skin crawl (especially the eyebrow wagging). Not […]