by Lauren | Jun 3, 2018 | art, gardening, lessons, writing
My fella: How do you feel? Me: (in pain, in slug pose, melting into couch) Like a dingbat. Fella: Why a dingbat? Me: Because I hurt myself planting a flower. Fella: Well, when you put it like that… True story. This is me today. I’ve been feeling totally... by Lauren | Apr 18, 2018 | author interviews, writing
It seems like eons ago that I met Amy Willoughby-Burle, at a little writers’ workshop and retreat nestled in the mountains of North Carolina. That two-week period was an experience that changed the course of my life. There were budding writers like myself and... by Lauren | Mar 31, 2018 | writing
This week I’m starting a new series called Writer’s Clinic, where I’ll share tips for writing, submissions, query letters, and more. Today I’m kicking off the series by talking a little about queries. Most of us would rather have... by Lauren | Jan 7, 2018 | books, writing
Plot: it’s what most writers I work with struggle with more than anything else. If you’re like a lot of them, your book idea might be built around one central intriguing event. So you’ve got a bold/clever/exciting event: now how do you build all of the... by Lauren | Dec 31, 2017 | writing
Writing dialogue is tricky. It needs to sound realistic, but it can’t be too realistic. We all want our characters to sound like real people, but when people talk, there are a lot of unnecessary words tossed around. As writers, we have to carefully craft what...