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Writing Projects

To All My Amazing Friends and Fans, Over the past year, a lot of people have asked me what’s going on with my writing and when they can expect books three (and four!) to be available. Given the truly wonderful support I’ve received from so many people, I...

Sadness

Hello everyone. I am so sorry for this incredibly long overdue post. Obviously, I haven’t blogged in quite a while. I am sure some of you have wondered why. Roughly six months ago, my older sister, Michelle Boyer Dykstra, tragically passed away. It was so sudden...

The Use of “Said”

I really like this post by Melissa Eskue Ousley regarding the use (and potential overuse) of said as a dialog tag. I am firmly in the camp of those who believe that dialog tags should typically be small and unobtrusive. Yes, said may be boring, but it’s very...

Love this article. Great reminder about the ways and reasons to control the pace of your story. I especially like her comments about big words slowing a scene (lol) and the use of staccato dialog in fast scenes. I rarely write long monologues, but its worth...

A Word About Dialog

Here’s an interesting article about writing dialog. I’m not sure I agree that ‘dialog is action,’ but I definitely think dialog should be succinct (Nothing like real conversations!) and ideally work on multiple levels at the same time...