In the fall of 2015, I joined the awesome team of operatives over at the Operation Awesome blog. We’re a group of writers, both published and unpublished, who share writing tips, host contests, and chat about books. I personally host the twice monthly #OAFlash Fiction Contest and the monthly #OABookClub. I also help out with the #PassOrPages contest, which helps bring feedback to querying writers directly from agents.

Here’s a list of my posts that aren’t linked to one of our regular events:

September 16, 2016 – My title says it all: “How to Infuse Tension into a Scene Without Vivisecting Your Plot.” I give some examples of microtension from mainstream movies & TV.
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Motivate yourself to do ANYTHING

June 17, 2016 – Wish your life was more like an RPG? GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE. It can be! Check out the app I discovered: “Motivate Yourself To Do Anything with Habitica.”
April 21, 2016 – I talk about how to portray silence in your writing without resorting to “And then there was silence.” With an example from Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, “Hush! What’s that sound? Nothing…” talks about how to use silence effectively.

How to Book Your Own Blog Tour

Week of Feb. 21, 2016 – “How To Book a Blog Tour” series:

  1. Planning Your Tour
  2. Finding Bloggers
  3. Keeping Yourself Organized
  4. Kicking Off the Tour
  5. Wrapping Up the Tour

Nov. 30, 2015 – Querying is difficult, but Operation Awesome strives to be a light in the darkness. As part of our series on querying, I wrote about “How Many Queries Should I Send?

How Many Queries Should I Send

Colorful Story

Sept. 11, 2015 – As I was struggling with revising my first chapters to do all those things a first chapter must do, I discovered a technique I shared on the blog: “Weaving a Colorful Tapestry of Page-Turning Story

Sept. 4, 2015 – My first official OA post, wherein I share how much I love villains, what my CPs have to say about my critique style, and a super-cute picture of my then-one-year-old daughter in her snuggly pajamas: “Introducing Samantha

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Guarding Angel Blog Tour July 2015 Banner

July 24, 2015 – Before I became an operative, I guest blogged about the way I make my characters three-dimensional: “Growing Your Character Relationships to Grow Your Characters

If you’re a writer in any stage of your career–or even just thinking about becoming one–we’d love to have you join our conversation. Stop by sometime!