Sitemap - 2025 - Living Happy and Write Better Now!
Four Gentle Ways to Raise (Write) a Good Book Like It's a Dog
When the flight attendant took me down
How to be extraordinary as a writer
Why We Take Photos Even When We Should Just Hold Hands and How It's Kind of OK
I Have No Sexy Title For This, So How About...
Driving the Same Roads: A Story of Hope, Politics, and Maine
Jack the Puppy Goes To Cafe This Way
Let's Talk About How You Write a Book
Because He Loved You: A Story About Boats, Rain, and One Beautiful Man Named Ned
Make Your Fiction Breathe: Deepening Your Novel with Mark Doty’s Art of Description
The Time I Did Nothing for 4.5 Months—and What It Taught Me About Myself & Ambition
Jack and Mr. Murphy and the Cheese Tax
Getting Close (or Not): Understanding Narrative Distance in Your Writing
When Saying Thank You Isn’t Enough:
Revising Dialogue – How to Make Every Line Count
What If It’s Not About Winning?
Pogie and Jack Sleeping Together
Dialogue and Pacing – Rhythm, Tension, and Silence
Taylor Swift, Sidewalk Politics, and the Nature of Evil
I Wish I Could Give You This Feeling
Jack the Puppy Goes Out on the Town
Voice and Characterization in Dialogue
"What If We Stopped Reacting to Everything?"
Talk to Me: Writing Dialogue That Works
Ideas aren't the sexy gods we think they are.
I Don't Have a Million Life Lessons But I Do Have a Few
How Do I Write Way More than a Million Words a Year?
If you do this, you can find time to write
Taking Chances Trumps Being Perfect
Jack Spots Monday And a Poop Bag Incident
Quirky and Building Characters
Character Arcs Through the Quadrants: An Integral Approach to Transformation
Writing from the Whole: What Integral Theory Can Teach Us About Novels
Who or whom. All right or alright or allllllriiiiighhht
Control Is Just Another Word for Fear
Jack the Puppy at the Edge of the Kitchen
Why “Boring” Words Are the Beige Wallpaper of Your Story—and How Swapping Them Feels So Good
The Just Want To Be Done Effect
The Real-Life Fox & the Hound: How Willard Saved Foxy
The Pup With No Name (Currently)
The Essential Elements of Strong First Chapters
How my hobbit parents taught me to not be average
The Iceberg Theory and The Theory of Omission
The Period's Relationship with the Quotation Mark
Read the kind things, the good news, I double dog dare you
First Drafts Are a Hot Mess, and That’s Okay: How Improv Can Save Your Writing
Be Brave Friday: I lost my cool this week and it somehow turned out to be a good thing.
Power Words, Sensory Language, and the Peril of Zombie Hamsters
How to Keep Your Fiction Voice Natural in First-Person POV
Be Brave Friday: Being Pillars
Pogie the Pup Looking a Bit Drugged Up, Honestly
Someone Decided My Town is the Unfriendliest Small Town in America
Mr. Murphy Goes Blurry and Motivational
Are you using too many words when you write?
20 Seconds To Feel Better? I'm In.
Be Brave Friday: The Birthday Blizzard
Day 26: Don't Show Your Underwear Unless You Know....
Day 25: Let's Talk Writing The Story of Your Life
Day 24: Support Those Unsung Heroes of Your Story
Emotions are contagious, so it's good sometimes to shift them
Day 23: Let's Talk Zombie Hamsters and Adverbs
Day 22: The Power of False Closure
Day 20: Six acts structuring together
Day 19 When Your First Book Comes Out
Day 16: Three Quick Ways to Make A Good Book Better When Revising
Day 15: Writing Differently to Stand Out
Be Brave Friday: Carden's Story
Day 13: "Words leave smoke trails into the past"
Day 12: Monotony Must Die: How to Keep Your Sentences Surprising
Day 11 Writing Prompts for the Weird
Mr. Murphy and Pogie Dog in a Truck
I used to be afraid to be seen
Day 10: Your writing stinks! Good. It should.
Day 9: The Secret Ingredient of Vivid Writing: Taste
Day 6: Let's talk about the senses
Pogie Pup & Mr. Murphy Dog Give a Pep Talk
Koko and Goethe and a Ceiling Fan
DAY 4: Be Passionate to Stand Out
A dark photo but light is at the edge
Day 1, WE ARE WRITERS! Let's use our voice!
Sneaking Into the Sound: The Thrill of Forbidden Music
Pogie and World Views Shattering
Why Are People Mean? And The Lowdown on Three Super Common Grammar Mistakes.
I'm Going To Give You a Tiny Pep Talk About Change
Breaking Our Writing Patterns, Bit By Bit
Being a softie is actually pretty damn brave.
Mr. Murphy at a New (Old) Window
Let's Talk The Sexy One-Sentence Summary
I want to remember my humanity
What Makes a Great Story? Let's start at the very beginning
Building Characters Using the Big Five
It's Okay To Dwell in the Negative Space
Sometimes I Lurk Behind Geniuses
How To Survive Stupid Writing Advice
Want to Make Great Scenes? Do these four things.
Do Our Brains Hurt Too Much to Think & Read?
Being Optimistic Can Help Change Your Life
A Quick Post About What I'm Planning Here & Some Thoughts About Writing With the Senses