Instead of thinking, “I want my reader to feel sad,” I needed to show how I felt the day I learned another girl thought of my boyfriend as hers. I sat in his car outside my school and told him I would not play second fiddle to anyone, and I cried, ...

The emphasis in on the character, his or her feelings, motivations, and interior life. A clear plot may exist but the interior life of the character is of as much importance as is the plot in importance.

prompts can free our creativity, giving us opportunities to think about different words and how to use them in fresh ways. Then we talked about How to use prompts.

Give the person a deadline for when you need the manuscript back – if you are giving them the manuscript to them and not reading it to them. Give them a reminder a day or two before your due date. You might say, “I have worked out for Wednesday to be my manuscript workday, so I would appreciate what you have been able to do for me before Wednesday.

Keep a journal for exploring how you feel about your writing, for writing exploratory short pieces, paragraphs, poetry, even as a portable tool to chase what comes to you when it comes to you. Then, if and when you want to, rewrite the entries in a much more polished book format,

The point is that this is your writing space, your office as an author, and you and your body know that when you go to this place, it means work.

By creating intention, you allow the reader a perspective that pulls them deeper into the story. There must be yearning and desire

Remember that people choose to look and act and do the things they do because it makes sense to them. You must know or find out why it makes sense to them.

But I learned this, you can learn what I paid significant amounts of money to learn, by going to writers' conferences, joining writing groups, taking classes at the library. and hanging out around this part of my blog.

Now, once you explore why you feeling that way, consider how you can use that scenario to inform your story.

For instance: Susan ran down the stairs, her heels slowing her only a little, but she knew she had to get there before he did. She stepped out onto the shiny rain-washed streets, the restaurant and bar windows flashing neon red and blue streaks lighting the way to her car.

Remember, your memoir should have a takeaway. It should have some bits that your reader could identify with.

Maybe the old man was crazy. Maybe he should call the police, or at least, check with the old guy’s wife, or maybe he should just go over there and see if he could help somehow.

“Li,” he said. “If you see a snake, just scream ‘Li’, and a Chadian will come and kill it.”

I can't tell you what a help it is to have a built-in editor who highlights spelling errors or punctuation errors and tells you how to fix them?

I’d never really seen someone steal before, and I wasn’t sure what to do. All I could think of was that poor old lady. That poor old lady.