How often do you find a quiet spot and let your imagination play? Part of the writer's life is exploring ideas. For a long time, I neglected carving out an hour to sit with a notebook and just explore. But I overhauled my approach to my workweek and now have…
How many hours a week do you work? This is a question I'm asked often. I don't mind. I'm curious about people's jobs, too! The person always seems surprised when I tell them I work roughly fifty hours a week. The only conclusion I can come to, based on the…
I was at the library last week--shocking, I know--and came across a delightful book in the new nonfiction section. Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer has an engaging, whimsical cover, and I had to pick it up. With stunning graphics, author essays, and entertaining chapter subheadings, Wonderbook was…
Writing a first draft for me is up and down. It involves wasted minutes (okay, hours) staring at the screen and having no idea what comes next. Then it's manic typing when something so delicious happens I can't get it on the page fast enough. Since first drafts are all…
On Saturday I gave a presentation at the Researching the Romance academic conference (#BGSURomCon18) hosted by the Browne Pop Culture Library at Bowling Green State University, which happens to be the official repository for Romance Writers of America (RWA). It was an amazing conference. I learned so much from professors, university…
One thing I love about internal conflict is that a character recognizes she is emotionally protecting herself from something and thinks she knows why, but as the story progresses, she realizes the reason goes deeper. Until she's willing to be vulnerable and admit the emotional walls she's erected are stifling…
I used to spend a few hours every day on social media sites, but a while back, I found myself wondering if it was all worth it. I wasn't engaging with people as much, and I drastically cut back on sharing content. The majority of my time was spent merely…
Last Thursday was a bad writing day. After lunch, I threw my hands in the air and suppressed a scream. I knew where the story needed to go, but I wasn't sure how to get there. I had several scenes to write before my next "sure" scene. Everything inside me…
One of the essentials of an author platform is establishing a mailing list. The easiest way to do this is to sign up with one of the numerous newsletter providers. I confess I resisted starting a newsletter list for a long time. When I was an aspiring writer: I felt…
I've been going through the archives of my old blog (https://jillkemerer.blogspot.com) and came across a few articles I'm going to share here. They are still relevant and may help you. The first is "Strengthen Weak Areas in Your Writing" (linked). Here is a snippet: I'm writing a first draft. I'm…