Realistic Character Descriptions: My Experience as a Floral Designer/Florist

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Realistic Character Descriptions: My Experience as a Floral Designer/Florist

To win readers over we need to write characters so authentic they feel like real people. How do we do this? By brainstorming a character’s backstory, personality, needs, desires, and their day-to-day world. Lucky for us, one aspect of their daily life is a goldmine of characterization: the type of work they do.

Think about it: a job can reveal personality, skills, beliefs, fears, desires, and more, which is why Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi created The Occupation Thesaurus, a writing guide that profiles 124 possible careers and the story-worthy information that goes with each. To help with this project, I’m sharing my experience as a floral designer/florist below, in case this career is a perfect fit for your character!

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Why It Might Be Better For Your Wellbeing to Not Write Every Day

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Why It Might Be Better For Your Wellbeing to Not Write Every Day

Last month I shared a wonderful guest post by Desiree Villena—4 Reasons Writing Every Day is Great for Your Wellbeing. While I agree with the points Desiree makes, I also found myself questioning whether writing every day is great for everyone. If you follow author Becca Syme on YouTube, you’ll know about QTP—Question the Premise.

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4 Reasons Why Writing Every Day Is Great for Your Wellbeing

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4 Reasons Why Writing Every Day Is Great for Your Wellbeing

Guest post by Desiree Villena.*

As someone who writes for a living, I’ll admit it’s not always something I want to do. Getting started some days is like pulling teeth (if you’ll pardon the cliché from this purported professional wordsmith).

But unlike a trip to the dentist, I always feel much better immediately after a writing session — mentally, emotionally, and sometimes even physically. To me, this is a sure sign that writing is good for my wellbeing, and I know that many of my writer friends feel the same!

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I Asked the Wind: Interview with Poet Valerie Nifora

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I Asked the Wind: Interview with Poet Valerie Nifora

I had the pleasure of speaking with poet Valerie Nifora about her new book I Asked the Wind. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I Asked the Wind is a collection of poems about love. Valerie and I chatted about her book and what advice she has for aspiring poets and anyone searching for love.

Scroll down for the video, or continue reading for a summary of our chat.

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Journaling to Let Go of Worry and Cultivate Optimism

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Journaling to Let Go of Worry and Cultivate Optimism

This post was previously published on the site Create Write Now and is republished with permission from Create Write Now and Mari McCarthy.

GUEST POST BY MELIA DICKER

I was born a worrier into a long line of worriers. As a child, I’d often lie awake at night, terrified that burglars would break into my house, or that I’d fail the upcoming test at school the next day. Now that I have a home and children of my own, I fret about the dozens of details required to keep our lives humming along, from packing lunches to meeting urgent deadlines at work.

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Tips for Journaling from Mari McCarthy

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Tips for Journaling from Mari McCarthy

After she lost the feeling in the right side of her body due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Mari McCarthy turned to journaling when she learned about Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages through The Artist’s Way. By developing a daily journaling practice, Mari was able to regain feeling on her right side and currently needs zero medication to control her MS. 

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Review of Heal Yourself with Journaling Power by Mari McCarthy

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Review of Heal Yourself with Journaling Power by Mari McCarthy

I’ve always been what I call a “reluctant journaler”. I’d start a daily journal practice only to stop a few days later. It would be days or even months before I’d start up again. After reading Heal Yourself with Journaling Power by Mari McCarthy, I’m definitely motivated to cultivate a daily journaling practice that sticks.

I love this opening quote from Mari: “When I change the way I look at me, the me I look at changes”. This had so much meaning for me and really shows how we are constantly evolving. By page 24 of Heal Yourself with Journaling Power, I was already fighting back tears, revelling in Mari’s amazing transformation story.

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Learn to Write Faster with Writing Sprints

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Learn to Write Faster with Writing Sprints

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a writing sprint challenge hosted by Sarra Cannon of Heart Breathings. I’d joined many writing sprints on Twitter (@TWSSFU hosts one every month) and read a lot about how writing sprints had affected many authors, but Sarra’s challenge really opened my eyes to just how powerful writing sprints are. 

The goal of Sarra’s writing sprint challenge was to find your ideal writing sprint session. Each day of the challenge involved a different length and number of sprints. For example, the first day was three 10-minute sprints with 5-minute breaks, and Day 2 was two 25-minute sprints with a 10-minute break in between.

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