coffee cups and cursors

As a writer, your brain pelts you with ideas on the daily. Every stranger, every mundane event, and even everyday objects can spark something in that overactive imagination of yours. You get ideas at the most inconvenient of times, like when you're driving or dealing with other people. Wait, does that not sound like you? Do you have a grand total of zero ideas coming at you for most of your life, but then every once in a while you're blessed with a single blindingly brilliant concept? Regardless, you need a way to manage the ideas you get and spreadsheets are boring. That's where we come in. Read on to discover how we create databases from which to pull inspiration for our myriad writing projects. Megan gets down her ideas by... Let's all take a second to remember that I am not the most organized person on the planet. I do try to be, to which my abandoned planners and calendars and weird bullet journal hybrids can testify. What this means is I'm constantl...

You’ve probably heard of NaNoWriMo in November, where for one month writers across the globe scramble to put together 50,000 words from scratch. Maybe for July you’ve decided you want to try Camp NaNo, but you have no idea of where to start. Camp NaNo is like a month long summer camp for writers twice a year. For those of you who don’t know, it’s NaNoWriMo’s less intense sibling because you can pick your own goal. The first Camp NaNo pasted in April this year, where I wrote about 17,000 words of an existing project, which passed my goal. The next one is in July. So grab your s’mores, sleeping bags, and favorite writing utensil and gather around the campfire with the other writers in your cabin as we gear up for this exciting month. The first thing you need to know about Camp NaNo as compared to NaNoWriMo is that you don’t have to start from scratch or write a novel. Welcome to the poets, graphic novelists, screenwriters, and other rebels. This month is for you. On the Camp N...

We're coming up fast on July's Camp NaNoWriMo! I'll be participating this month, and a lot of my writing will probably take place in coffeeshops, teahouses, and similar establishments. There's something about writing with a yummy beverage on the table surrounded by the subtle chaos of public places that really taps into the writer's brain. It calls to mind Fitzgerald, Stein, Hemingway, Kafka, and even  Rowling . It's inimitable. Trust me, I've tried to replicate the experience and I can come very, very close, but I prefer the real thing. If only there weren't some really murky waters to navigate. We’ve All Been There, Haven't We? You need to get some work done and your humble abode is not helping get you in the mood. What do you do? You go out. But you don’t go just anywhere, do you? If you are like countless other creatives, you go to a café, probably one that’s close to you or has decent prices. Or maybe you choose where to hang out based ...

First off, you’ve written a short story or a novel. Congratulations!    That’s a huge accomplishment. Now that you’ve written that novel, what do you do with it? It’s time to edit it. But editing something you’ve written can be a daunting task. Whether you think what you’ve written is the next best seller or you found it to be horrible in the light of day, it needs to be editing. So what do you do when you have the editor’s equivalent of writer’s block? Here are some ways I’ve found to beat editor’s block: Just get away from it. Just like when you are writing and have writer’s block, staring at the same words will get you nowhere. Go work on some other story or do something that’s not writing related. Get some other eyes on it. Others will spot things that you haven’t, especially as you’ve spent so much time looking at it. It’s easy to miss things. Read it start to finish after you’ve put some distance between your story and you. Make notes as you go. It’ll hel...

Choosing a topic for your blog’s official first post is very tricky. That’s why we didn’t, and chose instead to share our writing goals for the month! MEGAN’S JUNE WRITING GOALS Write some articles for this blog Submit at least one short story for publication Finish re-outlining my NaNoWriMo 2017 novel Begin prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo July 2018 JESSICA’S JUNE WRITING GOALS  Write some articles for this blog Edit and do rewrites on my NaNoWriMo 2017 novel Begin prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo July 2018 Join us in our adventures as we face all of the challenges and triumphs the writing world has to offer us! Or won’t offer us... We’ll just have to see. Do you have any writing goals this June? Let us know by commenting below and make sure to subscribe so you can get the latest posts.