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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How Reviews Support Authors (and help us write better books!)

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How Reviews Support Authors (and help us write better books!)

*Guest post by Sarah Stonich

You know that new heart-hugging ‘care’ emoji added to Facebook since the pandemic? It seems like it’s doing double duty these past weeks. As I sit to write this post, my city, Minneapolis is in the news every day. The neighborhood south of where I now live was decimated after peaceful rallies protesting George Floyd's murder were infiltrated and inflamed by outsiders; looters, and misguided bad actors. This murder-by-police has enlivened a movement–one that is spreading from a humble neighborhood to the attention of millions across cultures, borders, and time zones.

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Book Review: The Checklist Book by Alexandra Franzen

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Book Review: The Checklist Book by Alexandra Franzen

I'm a list maker. When I saw Alexandra's book, The Checklist Book, I knew I had to read it. Sometimes I think I make lists just for the sake of making a list. Other times, I'll make a list, and then I don't follow it and end up doing other things.

One of the big things I learned from reading Alexandra's book is why certain checklists don't work for me. It’s the same reason I make a list then don’t follow it!

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Visualize Your Ideal Life

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Visualize Your Ideal Life

I was about 12 or 13-years old when I read a book about high-performance athletes and how they get to Olympic level. I was a competitive figure skater and wanted to make it to nationals. Sadly, I can’t remember the name of that book, but it was fascinating.

One of the things I started doing was playing my solo music before bed, closing my eyes, and visualizing completing a perfect performance. That year was one of my best in terms of how I placed at competitions. While I never made it to nationals, I did make it to provincials that year.

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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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