Vigilant Silver Fox

I explain my writing tool journey in two sentences:
"I started writing stories using a paper and pencil.  Now, I have siri, galaxy, or dragon speak as options for my first draft."  This journey continues to challenge my comfort and my risk taking levels.

Writers take risks each time they allow their stories to pour from their minds and onto paper. Why not take risks with the technology you have available to improve your product?

My high school college prep curriculum consisted of math, science, history, literature, and language. Only the business students were allowed to take typing and shorthand. (Go figure?) When I asked to take typing I was told if I was on track to go to college, I would "always have a secretary."

High schools back then had a tendency to be short-sighted when it came to women. So I bought my own typing book and learned to type the summer before my junior year. My used an used black "Underwood" standard typewriter.  I had a love hate rel…

Take a workshop.  Learn to give and take criticism.                                                          Jodi Picoult

The biggest challenge we writers face is keeping our writing crisp, contemporary, and relevant.  We write in isolation. Some of us may step out in trepidation and join a critique group. We believe we are generous by allowing others to read our "creative scribing." This is a good exercise in improving our writing, but you need to find the masters. "Nothing succeeds like success." (Alexandre Dumas)

Where do you seek success? Well, you might find one or two successful writers in your local writing organizations or you may even live next door to one. Seeking information from successful writers gives one the opportunity to learn. Conferences also help a writer take advantage of some of the new technology, publishing options, agents, editors, etc.

Where do you find these individuals? At writing conferences or workshops, okay, I know they are expensive. …

Sharing this blog to all interested writers.



Living A Life of Writing: Self-Publishing and Visual Illusions: I t's the same word count. It's all the same font size and font. But the visual look to your book can make or break a book sale.  Si...

Taking my first step out into a new year of my writing journey, I am pledging to adhere to the following advice:

Think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
I found this 3"x 7" piece of paper while I was clearing out a box in December.I  don't know the author so I  can't credit he or she for this advice.  The quote is part of a bigger article on "Inner Peace." When I read this quote, the realization came to me that I wasn't approaching my fiction writing with spontaneity. I was trying to take the rigors, frameworks, and rules of writing to create my stories. 
My family and friends ask why I submit myself to the challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This quote elicits the joy and abandon I feel during November. I write spontaneously. My fingers fly across the keyboard. My characters write the story. 
Yes, there is a flexible outline. The characters are defined, but they are in charge of the story, not me. …