The first draft of a novel goes by many names. The Rough Draft. Zero Draft. Word Salad. Word Vomit. The Shitty First Draft. That last one is a personal favorite. Lately, though, there's another name I've been calling my roughest first drafts: The Proof of Concept Draft. Proof of Concept Draft was a term I just kind of made up and started using when several of my coworkers talked me into letting them read the most recent version of Bound to the Heart , which was at the time t

This time of year, there is a huge focus on setting goals and making plans for the upcoming months (you can find my writing goals for 2025 here ). But amid New Year's resolutions, you may also find bucket lists. These tend to be on the fun side, like trying a new activity or traveling to a different country, and are typically more long-term goals (ie, before you kick the bucket...). While I definitely have writing goals like publishing my novels, I also have a writing-centric

This week, we're celebrating the sixth anniversary of the blog! 2024 has been an especially remarkable year for the blog, as it not only saw a total glow-up but I was also approved to run Google AdSense, meaning I'm able to earn a tiny bit from my posts; though far from enough to make a livable income, it's a good start and pretty darn motivating to be earning something for my writing. I've learned a lot about writing over these six years, and I think it's fair to say that th

Writers have quite a way with words. It's kind of our thing, you know? Our stories' meanings often go much deeper than surface level and, for a lot of us, it's an accomplishment when we create an environment that encourages critical thinking and self-reflection for our readers. Readers may also find their own understanding of our words or add new meanings of their own. They may notice things about our stories that we as the writer did not and view them differently from us bas

Long Shore Beach, ME Towards the end of October, my mother and I spent a few days up in Maine for a much-needed vacation. I hadn't traveled really at all since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic just because of work schedules and finances and, you know, general global circumstances. The last trip my mom took was to attend a funeral, so not exactly a vacation. So we entrusted my presumably Maine Coon mix with a cat-sitter (thanks, Cara!!) and made the drive up to Maine. But, o

Back in 2020, I wrote a series of posts about pen names including reasons a writer might choose to write with a nom de plume and some tips for choosing one of your own. However, I haven't talked as much about the inspiration behind my pen name. Pseudonyms have a purpose. And for many writers who use them, there's often a meaningful reason behind the name they adopt. I knew I wanted to write with a pen name as early as the first draft of my first attempt at writing a novel at